Ich Hab' Im Traum …

Wilhelm Killmayer’s compositions span a wide range of instrumentations, voicings, genres, and styles. While some academic research on Killmayer’s works is available, many of his compositions have yet to be the subjects of serious academic inquiry. His song settings of poetry by Heinrich Heine are such works. Over the course of his life, Killmayer composed musical settings of thirty-eight of Heine’s poems, and thirty-five were published together in 1998 as the Heine-Lieder. The collection is divided into four themed sections that vary in style. This research document draws from existing information about Killmayer and Heine and presents a musico-poetic analysis of the first section of the Heine-Lieder. This first section is titled Ich hab’ im Traum … and comprises seven songs united by the theme of dreams. The study includes brief biographical sketches of both Wilhelm Killmayer and Heinrich Heine, a survey of Killmayer’s compositions for solo voice and piano, and a stylistic overview of Killmayer’s compositions. Each of the seven songs are discussed, with examples from the scores provided as illustration. A special focus of the musical analysis seeks to understand Killmayer’s understanding and interpretation of Heine’s characteristic quality of irony. The research concludes by discussing whether the seven songs constitute a song cycle and what this implies for the other three sections and the Heine-Lieder as a whole.