Robert Schumann, “Kennst du das Land?”

Musical Setting of “Mignon (Kennst du das Land?)” by Robert Schumann

by Helen Li | April 16, 2021

Mignon is a character in Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship (in German, Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre). She is a young (13-year old) acrobat, who is being forced to perform in a circus. Upon witnessing her being brutally beaten, Wilhelm buys her from the captor. Mignon soon forms a closed bonding with Wilhelm. Mignon’s true identity is disclosed as the story unfolds, she was kidnapped from her native Italy and brought to Germany by the boss of the circus, we also learned that she was born out of an incestuous relationship that her mother and father were bother and sister. Mignon’s life is a tragedy, and she eventually dies of a broken heart. With a cruel upbringing and the mystery in her identity, Mignon has a complex persona: she is sweet, innocent and desires to please others; at the same time, she is sensitive and fragile inside, and she longs to be loved. The unique nature in the character of Mignon inspired many composers to set music for her, such as Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann and Hugo Wolf. This article will mainly focus on Robert Schumann’s musical setting for “Kennst du das Land”.

“Kennst du das Land” is one of the poems written for Mignon by Goethe. It describes Mignon’s longing for her home country Italy and expresses her desire to find a father figure in the novel’s young protagonist Wilhelm. Mignon’s emotions to Wilhelm move between the love of a woman (Möcht’ ich mit dir, o mein Geliebter, ziehn./ I long to go with you, my love), the love for a saviorr (Möcht’ ich mit dir, o mein Beschützer, ziehn./ I long to go with you, my protector), and the love of a child for her father (Geht unser Weg! O Vater, laß uns ziehn!/ Our pathway lies! O father, let us go). Throughout the poem, Mignon’s emotional status is hanging between being hopeful (about finding her home) and feeling anxious.

In Schumann’s musical setting, the contradicting emotion of Mignon is reflected by the pairing of g minor and G major. The g minor represents discontent and unease while the G major reflects the true friendship and faithful love between Mignon and Wilhelm. It creates a sense of uncertainty about whether Mignon’s recollections are her real memories or just a wistful dream. For instance, Mignon sings a “Dahin” refrain at the end of each stanza in G major and with intervals of fourth, expressing her joy and hope that Wilhelm will help her to find her home. However, in each of its repetitions, it returns to g minor as Mignon turns back into her anxiety. Schumann employs irregular vocal rhythms in this piece, and it does not follow the prosody of the poem. The music is written in 3/8 time rather than in 4/4 time, although 4/4 time complies with the poetic rhythm most. Following a four-bar piano introduction, the vocal line naturally takes over the lead in beat 2 of measure four. The entrance of “Kennst du es wohl?” in each stanza interrupts the four-bar phrasing of the fourth verse. It creates an unexpected urgency that jumping into the next verse without any breathing. And it mirrors Mignon’s anxiety and desire to immediately find out if Wilhelm knows about her homeland that she is singing about.

In terms of the piano accompaniment, Schumann’s setting treats piano as an equal role with the voice. There are three four-bar piano prelude before each stanza, the first one acts as an introduction, the second time and the third time are used as the transition and echoes the mood of the voice. When it comes the second half of the third verse of each stanza (measure 6 of each phrase), the accompaniment changes to driving sixteenth-note triplets chords in order to portray Mignon’s urgency in convincing Wilhelm to help her find her home. The use of richer harmonies and harmonic chromaticism in the repeated “Dahin” refrain of each phrase reinforce the conflicts and suffering inside of Mignon.

The rhymes in the poem are treated differently in the musical setting, the first two verses are treated consistently—blühn vs glühn, -dach and -mach, -steg and -weg. They are all sustained for a value of eighth note. However, in the first time of the “Dahin” refrain, -hin holds for a dotted quarter note while ziehn holds for a quarter note. This portrays Mignon’s urgency and anxiety in her singing and her longing for her home.

Besides Schumann, there are many other composers had set music for “Kennst du das Land”, including Franz Schubert and Hugo Wolf. Schubert’s setting can be considered as a contrasting example to that of Schumann. Unlike Schumann, He complies with Goethe’s text almost strictly by writing a 4/4 time three-verse strophic form in A major, modulating into the slightly gloomy key of a minor in the third verse. He does make some interesting changes to the text through adding nine additional “Dahin” refrains to create a melodic B section in each phrase. The piano accompaniment in Schubert’s setting plays a much less important role: there is no piano introduction and with only very limited interludes. It starts by doubling the voice, and then changing into a pattern of sixteenth note triplets. In the final verse, it plays three octaves to emphasize the intensity and strength in Mignon’s words. Schubert’s setting portrays an innocent, joyful Mignon, who has not encountered the dark side of humanity, yet it probably lacks the reflection of complexity in Mignon’s persona.