Lucy I Remember Your Name Analysis

This essay will focus on comparing “Die Lindenbaum”, the fifth Lied from the Song Cycle, Winterreise by Franz Schubert with “Lucy, I Remember Your Name” (2009) by John Cooper of the band Skillet (www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7sjrjiOYYQ). While there are several similarities between the two pieces, there are noticeable differences; such as, the time periods in which the two pieces were composed. “Die Lindenbaum” was written in 1828 during the Romantic period to be performed with a piano accompaniment, where as “Hey,Lucy, I Remember Your Name” was written in 2009 to be played by a rock band in the Post-Modern/21st Century time period. Schubert composed the music for “Die Lindenbaum” to accompany a set of poems written by Wilhelm Muller. “Lucy, I Remember Your Name” was written and composed by a band member. The use and complexity of the piano is much more pronounced in Schubert’s piece than in the song by Cooper which would be expected in that Cooper’s song was a song written for a rock band. “Hey, Lucy, I Remember Your Name” makes use of a chorus which is repeated three times through-out the song, where “Die Lindenbaum” does not use a chorus, but rather a piano introduction, A, A’, B form with a piano coda. “Hey Lucy, I Remember Your Name” …show more content…
In “Die Lindenbaum” the singer laments for what could have been, and remembers all that occurred under the Linden tree and finds solace, yet decides to leave it behind and move on. “Hey Lucy, I Remember Your Name” is about a loss, but a different type of loss than sung in “Die Lindenbaum”. According to what I have read, Cooper’s song is about a young couple who made the decision to have an abortion, and by naming the baby are coming to grips with their decision and attempting to gain closure. While one cannot absolutely know that there was any closure for those individuals portrayed in the songs, I choose to believe that they might be on their way to moving