Six Songs for high voice

Full title Six Songs for high voice and piano / Sechs Lieder für hohe Singstimme und Klavier
Date composed 1907
Details 1. Schlummerlied (based on Meleager of Gadara)
2. Epistel (Des Knaben Wunderhorn)
3. Traumleben (Otto Erich Hartleben)
4. Troubadour (Walter Calé)
5. Lenz (Nikolaus Lenau)
6. Wanderlied (Georg Busse-Palma)

Composed in 1907, according to composer's holograph works list of 1938, where the work is still titled Sieben Lieder für hohe Singstimme und Klavier (see below).

Three of this six-song collection (nos. 1, 2, and 6) were first performed by Weigl and Elsa Pazeller on 8 February 1910, along with three other Weigl songs—Dank (text by Emanuel von Bodman), which seems no longer to be extant; Verliebt (text by Annette von Droste-Hülshoff), which became no. 1 of the Three Songs op. 12; and Lied des Schiffermädels (Otto Julius Bierbaum), which became no. 3 of the Three Songs op. 12—under the collective title Sechs Gesaenge. On the occasion of that 1910 concert the order of songs as indicated on the printed program was Dank, Epistel, Verliebt Schlummerlied, Lied des Schiffermädels, and Wanderlied. We can only guess at the properties that may originally have motivated Weigl to choose Dank as the opening song of six, but his subsequent elevation of Schlummerlied to that position, as well as his retaining Epistel and Wanderlied as nos. 2 and 6, respectively, offer promising material for speculating on the larger question as to the musical, textural, and expressive aspects Weigl may generally have considered in shaping the arc of a multi-song set or cycle.
Manuscript sources NYPL JPB 99-7 no. 35, partially holograph score (18 pages), with song titles in another hand; the number “7” on title page is crossed out and corrected to read “6 Lieder”; inside the manuscript what originally was the fifth song, Frühlingsgedränge (text by Nikolaus Lenau), has been crossed out but is completely legible.
Publication details Not published in composer's lifetime.
Availabiity Photocopy of holograph available from KWF.
Recordings  
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Six Songs for voice and piano: no. 1, Schlummerlied
George Shirley and David Garvey

Performances (click icon to expand or collapse list)
8 February 1910*** Vienna, Großer Ehrbarsaal, Verein für Kunst und Kultur, Kammermusik- und Liederabend moderner Komponisten: Elsa Pazeller, soprano; Karl Weigl, piano (nos. 1, 2, and 6)***. Also on the program: Weigl’s Dank and Three Songs op. 12 nos. 1 and 3, as well as Conrad Ansorge, Cello Sonata op. 24; Franz Schreker, Five Songs for low voice; Bruno Walter, Six Eichendorff Songs; and Anton Webern, Stefan George Songs and Five Movements for string quartet op. 5.