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From: Jeffrey Snider
To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
Subject: RE: Brahms "Four Serious Songs"
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

------Original Message------
From: BAlley-at-mcp.edu
To: vocalist
Sent: January 7, 2000 3:05:03 PM GMT
Subject: RE: Brahms "Four Serious Songs"


Jeff,
Thank you for your helpful information on the "Vier Ernste Gesaenge."

I have one last question. In the second song, "contralto edition", there is
one place where there are optional notes. I assume Brahms originally wanted
the higher notes?

I am unaware of any "optional notes" in song II, so I am guessing that they
are editorial. There ARE optional notes in song IV (at the very end on
"Glaube, Hoffnung") and I believe Brahms wrote thme the same size,
indicating that neither was the "preferred." (In the same way Handel notated
some lower/higher alternatives in Messiah.)

BTW, I am of the opinion that they should be sung only by lower male voice,
and in the original keys. They ARE available in higher keys, and are even
sung by sopranos and tenors from time to time. One of our DMA students, a
mezzo, did them last year, and I just couldn't get used to it! She told me
that they "didn't fit right" in her voice, and she will probably not program
them again!

Jeffrey Snider, DMA
Chair, Division of Vocal Studies
College of Music
University of North Texas
Denton, TX USA
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