FOUR DUETS FOR ALTO AND BARITONE, OP. 28
Recording: Brigitte Fassbaender, alto; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone; Karl Engel, piano [DG 449 641-2]
Published 1864.  Dedicated to Mrs. Amalie Joachim.

Brahms turned to a new voice combination for his second set of vocal duets, which represent a significant advance upon Op. 20.  All four are full-fledged male/female dialogues.  Even the third duet, which could easily function as a solo song, assigns the two stanzas to clearly differentiated characters.  Three of the four use texts by great German romantic poets, while the second duet uses a folk text.  The first poem’s obscure meaning is greatly clarified by Brahms’s setting.  The haunting image of the nun remembering her knight who did not return from the crusade is amplified by the perfectly matched music.  Brahms’s restrained use of the piano in this piece is unusual.  The second duet is the only “wooing” dialogue before the much later Op. 75, No. 3, although many solo songs are implied dialogues of a similar nature.  The second of the Op. 31 quartets, which are almost exactly contemporary to this set, has a similar subject of wooing and resistance, but there Brahms simply has two voices sing each character.  The third duet quite masterfully combines the two singers’ individual strophes together in a third one, with the baritone’s protestations of constancy seeming to win out.  The last duet is a quintessential dialogue.  It is exciting and delightful throughout.  Rarely did he compress so much material into so little time as he did into this piece’s 80 seconds.  Interestingly, the baritone has the last word in all but the first duet (where he is only a tragic memory).  Even in the second, where they end together, it is quite clear that the character sung by the alto will give in and let him inside.  In the last duet, however, despite his final protest, it seems that the hunter’s beloved may well lock him out all night!  In the later duets, Op. 61 and Op. 66, Brahms returned to the soprano/alto pairing of Op. 20 and largely abandoned dialogues.  He would bring them back with a vengeance, however, in the four mixed-voice settings of his final set, Op. 75, which has interesting parallels to this early group.

Note: Links to English translations of the texts are from Emily Ezust’s site at http://www.lieder.net.  For the most part, the translations are line-by-line, except where the difference between German and English syntax requires slight alterations to the contents of certain lines.  The German texts (included here) are also visible in the translation links.

IMSLP WORK PAGE
ONLINE SCORE FROM IMSLP (First Edition from Brahms-Institut Lübeck)  NOTE: The score of the first edition differs from the later 1927 Complete Edition (Breitkopf & Härtel Sämtliche Werke) in two places.  In No. 2, mm. 33-34, the alto moves up in the Complete Edition (as had the baritone in the corresponding passage in stanza 1) instead of down.  In No. 3, the Complete Edition replaces mm. 37-39, all 3/4 bars in the first edition, with one 4/4 bar and one 6/4 bar, reducing the number of measures in the entire duet by one.  Thus, the piano postlude begins at m. 39 in the Complete Edition.  The last beat of m. 37 is stretched into two, incorporating the previous alto accompaniment pattern for those two beats, to create a 4/4 bar.  The baritone comes in on the last beat, against one alto note (G-sharp) instead of two shorter alto notes (A and G-sharp), as seen in the first edition.  Measures 38-39 are essentially unchanged, but they are notated as one 6/4 bar instead of two 3/4 bars.  This recording uses the version from the first edition (which is also seen in the Peters edition of these duets) in both of the relevant passages.
ONLINE SCORE FROM IMSLP (From Breitkopf & Härtel Sämtliche Werke)


1. Die Nonne und der Ritter (The Nun and the Knight).  Text by Josef Karl Benedikt von Eichendorff.  Andante.  Varied double strophic form.  G MINOR, 3/4 time.

German Text:
Da die Welt zur Ruh’ gegangen,
Wacht mit Sternen mein Verlangen,
In der Kühle muß ich lauschen,
Wie die Wellen unten rauschen!

“Fernher mich die Wellen tragen,
Die ans Land so traurig schlagen,
Unter deines Fensters Gitter,
Fraue, kennst du noch den Ritter?”

Ist’s doch, als ob seltsam’ Stimmen
Durch die lauen Lüfte schwimmen;
Wieder hat’s der Wind genommen, -
Ach, mein Herz ist so beklommen!

“Drüben liegt dein Schloß verfallen,
Klagend in den öden Hallen,
Aus dem Grund der Wald mich grüßte,
’s war, als ob ich sterben müßte.”

Alte Klänge blühend schreiten;
Wie aus lang versunknen Zeiten
Will mich Wehmut noch bescheinen,
Und ich möcht’ von Herzen weinen.

“Überm Walde blitzt’s von weitem,
Wo um Christi Grab sie streiten;
Dorthin will mein Schiff ich wenden,
Da wird alles, alles enden!”

Geht ein Schiff, ein Mann stand drinnen,
Falsche Nacht, verwirrst die Sinne!
Welt Ade! Gott woll’ bewahren,
Die noch irr im Dunkeln fahren!

English Translation

0:00 [m. 1]--Stanza 1.  After a piano bass octave, the alto’s first verse is presented in G minor.  It is extremely quiet and hushed.  The rhythm is constant (long-short in triple meter), as is the sparse accompaniment.  In the first line, the bass octave is held, with one right-hand chord per bar.  The vocal line arches gently up and back.  The second vocal line winds downward. while the piano bass octaves move for the first time.  The piano harmonies are very austere and veer toward C minor.
0:22 [m. 10]--The third line introduces even more colorful harmonies suggesting D minor, then major. The vocal line arches like line 1.  The piano diverges from its octaves, but the low bass note is again held.  In the last line, the voice descends to the last word, stretching it out to three bars and creating a six-bar phrase.  This extension is slightly syncopated.  The piano bass again moves to octaves, and the highly chromatic line settles on a G-major chord.
0:43 [m. 20]--A piano interlude takes the music back through G minor, arriving at its “relative” major key of B-flat.  This occurs in two rising statements (still in the long-short rhythm) over held bass octaves.
0:57 [m. 27]--Stanza 2.  A low bass B-flat signals the baritone’s first response.  His major key and more minimal chromatic harmony contrast his verse from hers.  The first line arches up and back, as had the alto’s first line.  The second line steadily descends.  The long-short rhythm persists.  The accompaniment is now slightly more active, with the left hand joining the long-short rhythm in broken fourths and fifths in the first line, broken octaves in the second line.
1:15 [m. 36]--The third line also arches, but begins to mildly build.  The harmony briefly moves to E-flat major.  The last line begins with a mild high point, as the baritone descends from a higher pitch and moves back to the key of G minor.  The left hand motion is changed to broken sixths and tenths under this last line instead of octaves.  The baritone’s last word (his identity, “Ritter”) is a downward-leaping octave, punctuated by an accented note in the piano.
1:29 [m. 44]--This piano interlude begins with the upbeat of the accented note under the second syllable of “Ritter.”  It introduces a second voice in the right hand.  The two voices do not move together, so there is now right hand motion on every beat.  There is some syncopation in the lower voice, and the top one mostly sticks to the long-short rhythm, but twice plays short-long groups.  In the last two bars, the top voice slows down and the lower voice becomes more active.  The left hand holds an octave D throughout the interlude.
1:45 [m. 53]--Stanza 3.  The introductory bar continues the motion of the interlude with a two-note upbeat.  These two-note upbeats continue after the alto enters.  Her vocal line is as in stanza 1, as are the harmonies.  The slightly more active accompaniment has the two-note upbeats flowing into the next bar, then repeating the pattern a bar later.  The left hand has single bass notes, but they only move in the second and fourth lines, being held through the first and third.
2:24 [m. 72]--This third piano interlude, like the first, moves to B-flat major.  It introduces a more flowing line in broken chords.  There are two phrases of generally ascending broken chords, each introduced by the familiar two-note upbeat.  The bass line is as in the first interlude.
2:37 [m. 79]--Stanza 4, lines 1-3.  For the first three lines, the baritone’s vocal part in this stanza is the same as in stanza 2.  The accompaniment is even more active than in stanza 3, with the flowing broken chords continuing through the first two phrases after the two-note upbeat.  In the third line, the left hand begins to play faster broken chords.  There, the volume starts to build, but now it begins a more extended crescendo.
3:02 [m. 92]--Stanza 4, line 4 and Stanza 5, line 1.  In a highly dramatic stroke, the alto enters with stanza 5 over the baritone’s last line.  This overlapping text reveals a crucial point of the poem: that it is not a dialogue, but that the knight’s words are distant memories.  The key moves to an almost otherworldly A-flat major as the volume swells.  At “blühend” in the alto and “sterben” in the baritone, there is a sharp dissonance between the voices (m. 94).  The piano now has full rising arpeggios split between the hands.
3:09 [m. 96]--Stanza 5, lines 2-4.  The alto’s continuation is dynamic in comparison to what has gone before.  The second line moves from A-flat toward E-flat major as the piano bass finally moves from what had been eight bars of a “dominant” pedal point on the note E-flat.  The third line suddenly quiets down again, and the long-short rhythm is strikingly abandoned for two “sighing” phrases that are separated by a rest.  The last line, after a two-note upbeat, is lengthened to eight bars by placing single syllables under each “long-short” pair.  The harmony here drifts to F minor and C major.  The piano arpeggios continue with some dovetailing and internal voicing.
3:36 [m. 111]--Stanza 6, lines 1-3.  The music is here marked animato, and a large buildup begins.  The piano begins the agitation with low octave tremolos and isolated trumpet-like calls.  The baritone sings his opening phrase three times, each a step higher.  The first two of these are both sung to the first line.  The third is sung to the second line.  The third line introduces a new, narrowly leaping vocal phrase.  The dynamic harmony of the passage reaches a tentative A minor.
3:59 [m. 128]--Stanza 6, line 4 and Stanza 7, lines 1-2.  At the high point, the baritone sings the last line of the stanza to nearly the same music as the last line from his original strophe in stanza 2.  Against this, the alto again makes a dramatic entrance with the just-introduced narrowly leaping vocal phrase.  To this, she sings the first line of stanza 7, in imitation of the baritone.  She follows with further imitation (a ninth higher) on the second line while the baritone repeats the third line of stanza 6 to a new, more active phrase (including two statements of the word “dorthin”).  The harmony veers again toward C.
4:10 [m. 136]--The baritone begins anew as the alto drops out.  He repeats the last line of stanza 6 with expanded leaps.  The alto enters two bars later with a repetition of stanza 7, line 2.  She is in closer near-imitation with the baritone, ending up an octave, rather than a seventh above him.  The baritone has now sung his last, and from “wirst die Sinne,” the alto is alone.  Under the long-held first syllable of “Sinne,” the piano accompaniment settles and slows, quieting to an unstable arrival on A major.
4:29 [m. 147]--Stanza 7, lines 3-4.The alto sings the last two lines to the same music used for the last two lines of stanzas 1 and 3.  The accompaniment is a series of rising arpeggios with low bass notes and octaves.  These continue after the music settles on another G-major chord at the vocal cadence.  They become split between the hands and lead to an extremely gentle closing in major instead of minor, suggesting the nun’s transfigured penance.
5:14--END OF DUET [161 mm.]


2. Vor der Tür (At the Door).  Old German folk text, possibly from Hoffmann von Fallersleben’s collection.  Vivace.  Five-part through-composed form.  B MAJOR, 3/4 time.

German Text:
Tritt auf den Riegel von der Tür,
Wie gern käm ich herein,
Um dich zu küssen.
“Ich laß dich nicht herein.
Schleich immer heim ganz sacht
Auf deinen Füssen.”

Wohl kann ich schleichen sacht
Wie Mondenschein,
Steh nur auf, laß mich ein:
Das will ich von dir haben.
O Mägdlein, dein’n Knaben
Laß ein!

English Translation
 
0:00 [m. 1]--Part 1.  The piano bass establishes its skittish, almost giggling sotto voce pattern.  The baritone presents his suit with a hesitant beginning on an upbeat, repeating the words “Tritt auf.”  The entire first line (with both statements of “tritt auf”) is repeated, establishing the halting, lilting melody and doubled by the piano right hand in chords.  The piano bass alternates between high and low octaves.
0:11 [m. 11]--The second line is smoother, more expressive and ardent, reaching the high pitch on a repetition of “wie gern herein.”  Those words are repeated a second time on a descent, leading to the third line.  It introduces expressive chromatic pitches in both piano and voice, lengthening the word “küssen.”  The repetition of that line and a piano punctuation swell and recede quickly, questioning and unresolved.  The piano plays full chords and octaves throughout the passage, abandoning the “giggling” bass.
0:26 [m. 25]--Part 2.  The last three lines of the first stanza are the only words the alto will sing in the duet.  She presents the first of these to the same melody the baritone had used, but in the minor key (B minor).  She prefaces the line with a hesitant “ich laß dich nicht.”  The notes used for the opening of the baritone’s line repetition are omitted.  She then picks up the melody again with a full (and straight) repetition of her own line.  The piano accompaniment is now secretive, passing winding four-note groups between the hands.
0:33 [m. 33]--The alto’s second line departs from the baritone’s melody, turning it in the opposite direction, but maintaining the switch to a smoother expression.  The accompaniment changes, with the right hand playing wide high-low oscillations.  The left hand support includes some octave doubling.  With some hesitancy, the words “ganz sacht” are repeated.  The third line (the last of the stanza) again changes direction.  It is briefer than the baritone’s corresponding passage.  The repetition of “deinen Füßen” arrives on F-sharp.  The ensuing piano bridge re-establishes the skittish left hand under right hand arpeggios.
0:45 [m. 45]--Part 3.  The F-sharp cadence and the bridge have avoided committing to major or minor.  The arrival back on B major is thus quite smooth.  The baritone sings the first two lines of the second stanza to nearly the same melody used in his opening entreaty.  A repetition of the two lines adds some new leaps to the melody.  Against this, the alto again presents her first line (the fourth of stanza 1).  She sings in exact imitation (canon) two bars behind the baritone an octave higher, stating the line twice, both times with the anticipatory “ich laß dich nicht.”  The piano now passes the “skittish” figures between the hands.
0:55 [m. 55]--The alto now leads the canon with her second line (stanza 1, line 5).  It begins as had the baritone melody from 0:11 [m. 11].  She diverges after two bars to reach her highest pitch (as does the baritone).  The baritone’s imitation sets the third line of the second stanza.  The alto repeats her line three times with two extra statements of “ganz sacht.”  The baritone’s line is also given three times, but the second repetition omits “nur” and adds “und.”  It is preceded by an extra “steh auf.”  His third repetition also omits “mich,” again reiterating “steh auf.”  The canon is brought a bar closer together after the alto’s first reiteration of “ganz sacht,” which the baritone does not imitate.  His imitation is also no longer exact.  In the third statements of both singers’ lines, upward leaps take over.  The alto has one “extra” leap.  These leaps swell in volume.  The piano accompaniment passes four-note rising arpeggios between the hands.
1:10 [m. 69]--Part 4.  The previous passage had set up an expected motion to E major.  Instead, the climax of the buildup resolves with a “deceptive” motion to C major.  Here, the baritone presents the last three lines of the poem.  Brahms marks the passage con anima.  His largely descending melody, beginning from his highest pitch, is presented ardently, with a strong piano accompaniment containing chords in the right hand and descending arpeggios in the left, all with much motion from upbeats.  He repeats “o Mägdlein.” 
1:18 [m. 77]--Over the words “dein’n Knaben laß ein,” which  repeat the previous music exactly, the alto enters weakly with her first line.  Two extra halting reiterations of “dich nicht” seem to indicate further erosion of her resolve.  The baritone repeats “dein’n Knaben” three more times, the last time adding again the final “laß ein!”  This last repetition diverges from the previous phrase.  The alto completes her line, and the music arrives on the expectant “dominant” chord of B major.  This is the climax of the duet, and Brahms marks it animato.  A bridge brings back the “giggling” left hand figures, and the music quickly subsides.
1:29 [m. 89]--Part 5.  The last part again begins in canon, now at a distance of one bar.  The vocal line of the baritone reaches higher much earlier than before.  He uses the first line of the first stanza and the third line of the second.  “Tritt auf” is stated twice, then the rest of the line is also stated twice.  The alto uses all of her text except “auf deinen Füßen,” words not heard since their first presentation.  The first line has the usual anticipatory “ich laß dich nicht.”  It is repeated.  The second line has the customary repetition of “ganz sacht.”  The alto’s pitch falls dramatically after the first “ich laß dich nicht,” and her imitations become more weak, introducing narrow winding motion under the colorful word “schleich.”
1:39 [m. 99]--After another buildup, the baritone sings the music and the text of Part 4, and the piano accompaniment follows suit.  He is now in the key originally expected at that point, E major.  This arrives with the alto’s previous “sacht.”  He again reiterates “o Mägdlein,” moving back to the home key of B.  The alto’s responses continue.  She reiterates “ich laß dich nicht herein” for what is now the eighth (!) time, proving that her rejection is quite ineffectual.  The last three words are echoed on the familiar rapidly falling figure.  Her second line falls even more in pitch over the baritone’s rising “ dein’n Knaben laß ein,” showing the characters coming closer, literally and figuratively.
1:46 [m. 107]--The final passage returns to the smoother motion heard at 0:55 [m. 55].  The piano plays the four-note arpeggios passed between the hands, also as heard at 0:55.  The alto only sings her first line, the baritone only the third line of stanza 2.  The alto leads on the rising arpeggios.  The baritone imitations reach a half-step higher than she does.  The text repetition becomes more fragmented.
1:53 [m. 114]--As the alto turns to longer notes lasting a full bar for a last futile statement of “ich laß dich nicht ein,” the baritone actually matches her pitch rather than reaching higher.  He continues to sing one more arching arpeggio under her longer notes, and they come together on the same word, “ein!”  They hold this pitch (on a harmonious tenth) as the piano arpeggios become more joyous.  These arpeggios reach even higher after the voices drop out before three bright final chords end this wonderful, seductive dialogue.
2:08--END OF DUET [124 mm.]



3. Es rauschet das Wasser (The Water Rushes).  Text by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  In sanfter Bewegung (In gentle motion).  Three part form, with two contrasting strophes combined in the third part.  F MAJOR, 4/4 time with six 6/4 bars and seven 3/4 bars.

German Text:
Es rauschet das Wasser und bleibet nicht steh’n;
Gar lustig die Sterne am Himmel hingeh’n;
Gar lustig die Wolken am Himmel hinzieh’n
So rauschet die Liebe und fähret dahin.

Es rauschen die Wasser, die Wolken zergeh’n;
Doch bleiben die Sterne, sie wandeln und gehn.
So auch mit der Liebe, der treuen, geschicht,
Sie wegt sich, sie regt sich und ändert sich nicht.

English Translation

0:00 [m. 1]--The piano introduction is richly harmonized, with evocative rolled chords.  It begins with an upbeat and gives a first presentation of the melody that will be presented by the alto.  Mild syncopation is introduced as it builds and reaches upward.
0:14 [m. 4]--The introduction now takes up the melody that will be sung by the baritone, including the distinctive turn figure.  The harmonies are somewhat smoother, abandoning the rolled chords and introducing a descending middle voice that includes some chromatic notes.
0:22 [m. 6]--Stanza 1.  It is completely presented by the alto, who in Goethe’s characterization is skeptical of the constancy of love.  The first three lines are sung in regular two-bar phrases.  The accompaniment is quite simple, the left hand playing on the beats and the right hand after them in detached harmonies.  The third line introduces a prominent chromatic note (F-sharp) on the second syllable of “lustig.”
0:43 [m. 12]--For the last line, the alto lengthens the phrase to three bars with an elongation of “fähret.”  The colorful F-sharp remains prominent.  The line is then repeated in nearly the same rhythm, again in three bars.  This time, the notes from “die Liebe” are shifted upward and effect a brief motion to and cadence in a poignant A minor.  The piano echoes this cadence.  The accompaniment becomes slightly less detached and regular here.  The basic outline remains, but right hand chords are held longer and neither hand sticks to the previous rhythmic pattern.
1:06 [m. 18]--Stanza 2.  The baritone takes this stanza, and argues that love is constant and unchanging.  His melody is similar to that of the alto in the first line (as the text is also similar), but he embellishes it with the turn figure heard in the introduction.  The accompaniment is now much smother, with active inner voices.  It contains elements of the previous alto melody.  The second line introduces the first two 6/4 bars.  These metrical extensions give emphasis to the constancy of the stars.  The word “bleiben” (“remain”) is noticeably lengthened.  The left hand begins to play solid bass octaves here.  A small climax is created.
1:27 [m. 22]--The third line is again in the old meter and resembles the alto’s third line in both melody and rhythm, including an introduction of the “colorful” F-sharp in the piano.  The fourth line brings back the 6/4 meter for two more bars.  Although the F-sharp and other chromatic elements are retained from the corresponding alto line, the baritone’s line is not repeated, and it remains in F major for a full cadence.
1:49 [m. 26]--Combination of stanzas 1 and 2.  The alto still sings stanza 1 and the baritone sings stanza 2, but they now alternate and overlap melodies and words.  The accompaniment used for the alto, with the detached hand alternation, returns.  The alto begins with her first line.  It is broken up by the baritone after the first bar.  He sings his first line in its entirety, including the turn figure.  The alto only completes her line as she comes in against the second bar of the baritone phrase.
2:00 [m. 29]--The baritone now sings his original second line, and his accompaniment returns, along with the 6/4 bars and the small climax.  Since his music is now dominant, the alto must alter her second line.  It is now stretched out to match the 6/4 bars, and it reaches much higher.  Her last syllable soars upward.
2:13 [m. 31]--The baritone’s accompaniment is retained for the third line, again in the 4/4 meter.  His vocal line is only altered by the addition of yet another turn figure at the end.  The alto sings her third line against him, but this time it is much closer to her original melody.  The only major difference is the introduction of a lilting triplet-rhythm figure at the very beginning.
2:21 [m. 33]--For the last line, 3/4 instead of 6/4 and 4/4 bars are used.  This is to accommodate text repetition from both singers.  The baritone begins as he had before, but suddenly he repeats “sie wegt sich, sie regt sich” on new pitches to accommodate the alto’s motion to A minor.  This she does on music that is very similar to her initial three-bar last line.  Instead of repeating the entire line, she, like the baritone, only repeats the first half, “so rauschet die Liebe.”  Neither have sung the second halves of their lines yet.
2:33 [m. 37]--The alto finally breaks from the baritone.  She sings the last half of her line in a single 3/4 bar and ends with an A-minor cadence, as she had before.  The baritone, however, overlaps her cadence and sings his last words in two final 3/4 bars.  He begins by somewhat imitating the alto, but then moves to his initial melody and shifts the music quickly back to the home key of  F major for a very warm and beautiful cadence.  He tellingly reiterates the words “und ändert” (“and changes”) before the final “sich nicht!” (“itself NOT!”).
2:46 [m. 40]--With the baritone’s final cadence, the piano introduction returns in full.  The original five 4/4 bars are followed by two new ones that bring the piece to a transfigured and luminous, yet somehow still questioning close with a “prayerful” plagal cadence.
3:27--END OF DUET [46 mm.]


4. Der Jäger und sein Liebchen (The Hunter and his Love).  Text by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben.  Allegro.  Varied strophic form.  F MAJOR, 2/4 time.

German Text:
Ist nicht der Himmel so blau?
Steh am Fenster und schau!
Erst in der Nacht,
Spät in der Nacht
Komm’ ich heim von der Jagd.

“Anders hab’ ich gedacht,
Tanzen will ich die Nacht!
Bleib vor der Tür,
Spät vor der Tür
Willst du nicht tanzen mit mir!”

Mädchen, der Himmel ist blau,
Bleib am Fenster und schau.
Bis in der Nacht,
Spät in der Nacht,
Heim ich kehr’ von der Jagd.

“Ist auch der Himmel so blau,
Steh’ ich doch nimmer und schau’
Ob in der Nacht,
Spät in der Nacht
Heim du kehrst von der Jagd.”

English Translation

0:00 [m. 1]--The extremely brief and loud introduction is simply a cadence figure with the right hand moving up in chords and the left hand moving down in single notes.  The left hand plays on the beats and half-beats, the right hand after them, a pattern that will continue with the vocal entry.
0:04 [m. 3]--Stanza 1.  The baritone breathlessly presents his verse protesting that he will come late from the hunt.  The first two lines are set to the same three-bar phrase that arches up and down.  The short third and fourth lines use two-bar phrases, the first descending from a high note and the second again arching.  The rhythm pattern from the introduction continues in the piano, but the left hand is now harmonized with two notes, and roughly doubles the voice.  The right hand now plays only octaves after the left hand notes.
0:12 [m. 13]--The last line of the verse is a large arching five-bar phrase.  The line is stated twice, once ascending and once descending.  Under the ascending line, the piano left hand stops doubling the voice and moves parallel to the right hand octaves in sixths.  As the voice descends the piano left hand imitates the arching phrase, playing the ascending portion.  The right hand here abandons the octaves and gradually plays its two-note harmonies at smaller distances.  The volume suddenly increases dramatically.
0:15 [m. 17]--As the voice finishes with a cadence, the left hand of the piano continues its imitation, moving from the ascent to the descent.  At this point, the right hand begins yet another imitation, playing the ascent.  When both hands finish their motion, they continue moving in the same directions, apart from each other.  The left hand plays the entire descent again an octave lower, and the right hand the entire ascent an octave higher.  This gives the verse an emphatic full close.
0:19 [m. 21]--The two introductory bars are now played in the higher, related key of B-flat major.
0:21 [m. 23]--Stanza 2.  The alto now presents her rejecting response in B-flat.  The accompaniment is similar, but much lighter.  The right hand now plays on the beats, resting on the half-beats, but playing after both.  This results in a dance-like motion, with quickly slurred downward leaps on the main beats.  Like the baritone, the alto also sings her first two lines to identical three-bar phrases, with the piano left hand roughly doubling her vocal line.  The phrase arches, but is narrower in range than was the baritone’s.
0:25 [m. 29]--The short third and fourth lines are now identical four-note descents.  Somewhat unexpectedly, the baritone enters, dovetailing with his previous third and fourth lines.  He imitates her at a seventh (not quite an octave) below, creating mild dissonance and suggesting the related G-minor key.
0:29 [m. 33]--The accompaniment from stanza 1 returns, abandoning the quick downward leaps.  The fifth line for the alto is in D minor.  It essentially turns the baritone’s previous line upside down, descending before it ascends.  She does this faster, however, turning before finishing the line.  She then repeats the whole line, shooting powerfully upward toward a cadence in D minor and creating a five-bar phrase.  Under her repetition, the baritone enters with the fifth line of stanza 1, imitating her first arching statement exactly.  The piano left hand doubles him in octaves.
0:32 [m. 37]--As both voices reach the D-minor cadence, the piano begins three successive rising statements of the two introductory bars, moving up by fifths to G major, C major, and finally the home key of F major.  The last of these is played with widely distant hands, the right hand an octave higher than at the beginning.
0:37 [m. 43]--Stanzas 3 and 4.  The verses are sung by the two voices simultaneously, the baritone on stanza 3 and the alto on stanza 4.  She actually begins with the repeated three-bar phrase heard by the baritone in stanza 1, and the text is indeed similar.  The first statement omits the opening leap.  The baritone comes in a bar behind her with new, but related three-measure phrases (also with similar text).  Their lines thus dovetail with each other.  The accompaniment is as in stanza 1.
0:42 [m. 49]--The third and fourth lines are also sung by the alto to the same lines the baritone had in stanza 1.  He now imitates her exactly at a distance of an octave plus a fourth lower.  The accompaniment diverges from stanza 1, both hands becoming more wide-ranging, though the right hand still plays in octaves.  The quasi-doubling of the alto’s vocal line in the left hand is abandoned.  The harmony of the accompaniment moves to the “dominant” key of C.
0:45 [m. 53]--The voices now have a long developmental passage that interrupts the basic verse.  They both sing to their respective last lines, alternating with each other on rising half-lines with similar texts.  Under them, two versions of the introductory bars slide upward first to D-flat, then to D.
0:49 [m. 57]--The previous passage having increased in volume, the voices now return to their respective second lines.  They begin together, but the baritone’s first notes are lengthened so that the voices end up in alternation again.  The alto inserts a new variant of the first words, replacing “nimmer” (“never”) with “nicht” (“not”).  Her second alternation restores the original word.  The baritone repeats “und schau,” but the alto does not.  Her statement of those words is isolated.  The whole passage moves to G major, beginning with another variant of the introduction in the piano.  After this, the accompaniment becomes more static, both hands hovering around the same range for four bars.
0:54 [m. 63]--In a very exciting passage, both voices become hushed again.  They sing on their short third and fourth lines, followed by the last lines.  The baritone sings longer notes in four rising, building waves.  The alto responds with shorter notes.  These are harmonically very active, moving through E-flat major, F major, and G minor before arriving again at home in F.  Against the baritone’s third and fourth “waves,” the alto actually comes together with him on the words “von der Jagd,” the only time in the duet that this happens.  Before the arrival on F major, both voices sing the shorter notes together in pleasing harmony.
1:01 [m. 71]--The voices now become hushed again and reverse roles, the alto taking the four rising, building “waves” in long notes and the baritone providing the short responses.  The alto’s first three “waves” move through G-flat major, A-flat major, and B-flat minor.
1:06 [m. 77]--At the arrival on B-flat minor, the music diverges from the previous passage, and the alto holds a note over a bar line.  The baritone enters not with his last line, but with his third (shorter) line against the alto’s final line.  They avoid the previous “coming together.”  The alto then returns to her short lines.  The baritone ends up singing the third line twice (where he also holds a note over a bar).  Both repeat the word “spät” in their successive fourth lines.  Under all this, a four-chord progression (B-flat minor, G-flat major, C major, and F major) is heard three times in succession.
1:11 [m. 83]--Finally, the five-bar arching phrase that closed stanza 1 returns.  It almost sneaks in, as the baritone has already sung the first word of his last line (“heim”) while the alto finished her last alternation.  The alto sings the original baritone version heard at 0:12 [m. 13].  Under her ascent, the baritone sings an “anticipation” of the descent on his last line.  When she then descends with the repetition, the piano left hand imitates with the ascent, as it had before, but now it is joined by the baritone, who returns briefly to his third line (“bis in der Nacht”) as he turns around.
1:14 [m. 87]--The alto reaches her final cadence.  As at 0:15 [m. 17], the piano left hand continues its imitation with the descent.  This time, however, it is doubled by the baritone, who returns to his final line.  Note that here he changes the word “kehr’” (“return”) to “komm” (“come”).  He had also done this as early as right before 1:01 [m. 71], when the voices briefly came together.  As in the previous passage, the piano right hand plays the ascent against this.  After the baritone concludes, the piano’s hands diverge apart as they had before, the right hand ascending another octave and the left hand descending another octave, ending the duet with the same emphatic full close.
1:26--END OF DUET [91 mm.] (runoff after 1:19)
END OF SET



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