Liza Lehmann

A soprano turned composer who made drawing-room song into a small drama for four singers

Who she was

Liza Lehmann (1862–1918) was born in London, the daughter of the portrait painter Rudolf Lehmann, in a musical household. She trained as a singer and made her debut in 1885. After marrying in 1894 she gradually stopped singing and turned to composition. In a Persian Garden made her famous in 1896, followed by many songs, children's songs and two operettas. In 1911 she became the first president of the Society of Women Musicians, and she died in 1918.

Her place

British middle-class drawing rooms held a piano, and choral societies needed music that could be sung and played without much trouble. Lehmann wrote for exactly that setting. Her cycles are usually for four solo voices and piano, with the singers taking roles in turn, like a small play without scenery. The genre sat between art song and drawing-room ballad, hugely popular then and later dismissed. Her tunes are memorable, but the piano is never idle; it describes and comments.

What to hear

Listen first for the piano imitating. In There's a bird beneath your window the piano draws birdsong with high ornaments and keeps talking when the voice stops; hear the relay. Then for character through colour. The Owl stays low, round, slow and slightly comic, and register plus legato do all the work. Next, the sharing of roles. In If I were a bird the voice and piano swap the lead, and the piece becomes a conversation. Finally, the scale of the children's pieces. Cobweb Castle uses very short phrases and a narrow range, yet every phrase has a shape.

Key works

Cycles, In a Persian Garden, The Daisy Chain, Nonsense Songs
Bird songs, The Owl, The Wren, The Woodpigeon
Children's songs, Cobweb Castle; operettas and single songs

Influence

Her cycles sold extremely well and were looked down on as drawing-room entertainment. But she made "several singers taking roles in a set of poems" a reliable form, and later British composers worked in her shadow. As first president of the Society of Women Musicians she gave women composers an organisation. Heard now, the ambition lies not in harmony but in arranging poem, role and piano into a small theatre.

Listen in the library

There’s a bird beneath your windowC10:44《你窗下有一只鸟》——钢琴用高音装饰模仿鸟鸣，听它怎样接住人声（C1）DetailsThe OwlC10:52《猫头鹰》——低音区圆润的连唱，听幽默怎样靠音色而不靠歌词（C1）DetailsIf I were a bird, I would sing all dayC11:35《假如我是一只鸟》——人声与钢琴互换角色，听谁在领、谁在跟（C1）DetailsCobweb CastleC115:11《蛛网城堡》——钢琴小曲，句子极短，听儿童曲怎样不靠简化而靠分寸（C1）Details

All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).

Sources

莱曼生平、伦敦的演唱与创作生涯，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 的 Lehmann, Liza 条目；本文为原创表述
英国客厅歌曲与二十世纪初女性音乐家组织，参通行英国音乐研究；实例说明为本站听辨提示

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.

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