On January 28th, 2006, the Lehigh Saengerbund presented its first "Liederaband" or literally, "Evening of Song". We are delighted to report that this tradition continues as we have scheduled Liederabound at various times throughout the year.
Liederabend dates back to the 1800's when musicians and lovers of music would gather at someone's home, and one or more singers would sing the songs of composers. It was done usually in the drawing room or music room and was an intimate and casual affair, with 20 or 30 people present. (It was not unusual for the composers themselves to accompany at the harpsichord, clavichord and later the piano). This was done throughout Europe, and was a very popular form of entertainment. The piano was actually one of the reasons that these songs became popular, because it was an instrument that many people came to own and play, and composers wrote vast amounts of literature for voice and piano. The piano was an ideal accompaniment to the human voice.
In the field of classical music these songs are referred to today as "art songs", and the German art songs are called "Lieder". There are many great composers who wrote songs for this venue, including French and Italian composers. But the German art songs were a unique and enormously important contribution to classical music literature, first, because of the large volume of "Lieder" that they composed, but also because of the great brilliance with which they were composed. The composers were able to fuse so perfectly the text with the piano accompaniment, which often acted as an equal partner in the telling of the story and was able to heighten the drama. Often, composers set the poetry of Germany's greatest poets to music including Goethe, Heine, Eichendorff, etc. Among the greatest composers of German Art Songs are Telemann, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert (who composed over 600 songs in his short life span of 31 years and became one of musical history's most important art song composers), Brahms, Robert Schumann, Richard Strauss (who composed 150 art songs), Gustav Mahler, Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner and Hugo Wolf. But even the "lesser known" Lieder composers were exceptional at what they did, and they included Carl Loewe, Robert Franz, Peter Cornelius, Max Reger, Hans Pfitzner to name only a few. Even today, no classical singer's training or performances would be complete without German Lieder.