Hugo Wolf

This study examines five aspects of Wolf's compositions, each exemplifying a different synthesis of traditionalism and modernity and spanning his entire, tragically brief creative life, from his first efforts at the late Romantic Lied to his lapse into insanity in 1897.

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In the virtual cottage industry of recent works on fin-de-siecle Vienna, Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) has been somewhat neglected, perhaps because he was the master of a small genre - the late Romantic lied - and never truly made his mark in the larger forms that command greater public attention. But in the realm of song, he is among the greatest inheritors of Schubert and Schumann, one who was both a traditionalist and a modernist. This study examines five aspects of Wolf's compositional art, each exemplifying a different synthesis of traditionalism and modernity and spanning his entire, tragically brief creative life, from his first efforts to his lapse into insanity in 1897. Wolf's youthful imitations of Schumann (a common phenomenon at the time), his genius for comic songs of a kind unlike any of his predecessors, and his part in the ballad revival of the late 19th century are discussed. The author investigates the poetic texts as closely as the music and includes numerous previously unpublished sketches and fragments, examples from songs now long out-of-print and difficult to obtain, and citations from Wolf's vivid letters and other sources of the period.