Six songs after poems by Hermann Hesse (op. 71a, 1978)
for medium voice and piano
for Herbert Roth
1. In the fog, 2. Journeyman's Lodging, 3. Blue butterfly, 4. Night feeling, 5. Somewhere, 6. Sometimes
Medium voice, piano
Duration: 20 minutes
Herbert Roth | Arno Leicht
Title: 6 Lieder after texts by Hermann Hesse set to music by Bertold Hummel op. 71 - Length: 22 pages - Date: November 1978 - Location:
Schott Music ED 20287 / ISMN: M-001-14992-1
First edition: J. Schuberth Co., Hamburg 1983
Im Nebel (November 1905)
Seltsam, im Nebel zu wandern!
Einsam ist jeder Busch und Stein,
Kein Baum sieht den anderen,
Jeder ist allein.
Voll von Freuden war mir die Welt,
Als noch mein Leben Licht war,
Nun, da der Nebel fällt,
Ist keiner mehr sichtbar.
Wahrlich, keiner ist weise,
Der nicht das Dunkle kennt,
Das unentrinnbar und leise.
Von allen ihn trennt.
Seltsam, im Nebel zu wandern!
Leben ist Einsam sein.
Kein Mensch kennt den anderen,
Jeder ist allein.
In the fog (November 1905)
Strange to walk in the fog!
Every bush and stone is lonely,
No tree sees the other,
Everyone is alone.
The world was full of joys for me,
When my life was still light,
Now that the mist is falling,
No one is visible any more.
Truly, no one is wise,
Who does not know the dark,
That is inescapable and silent.
Separates him from all.
Strange to wander in the fog!
Life is loneliness.
No one knows the other,
Everyone is alone.
Handwerksburschenpenne (1902)
Das Geld ist aus, die Flasche leer,
Und einer nach dem andern
Legt sich zu Boden müde sehr
Und ruht vom langen Wandern.
Der eine träumt noch vom Gendarm,
Dem er mit Not entronnen,
Dem andern ist, er liege warm
Im Felde an der Sonnen.
Der dritte Kunde schaut ins Licht
Als ob er Geister sehe,
Er stützt den Kopf und schlummert nicht
Und hat ein heimlich Wehe.
Das Licht verlischt und alles ruht,
Nur noch die Scheiben funkeln,
Da nimmt er leise Stock und Hut
Und wandert fort im Dunkeln.
Journeyman's Lodging (1902)
The money is out, the bottle is empty,
And one after the other
Lies down on the ground very tired
And rests from long wandering.
One still dreams of the gendarme,
From whom he escaped with difficulty,
The other feels warm
In the field by the sun.
The third customer looks into the light
As if he sees ghosts,
He supports his head and does not slumber
And has a secret woe.
The light goes out and everything rests,
Only the window panes sparkle,
Then he quietly takes his stick and hat
And wanders away in the dark.
Blauer Schmetterling (Dezember 1927)
Flügelt ein kleiner blauer
Falter vom Wind geweht,
Ein perlmutterner Schauer,
Glitzert, flimmert, vergeht.
So mit Augenblicksblinken,
So im Vorüberwehn
Sah ich das Glück mir winken,
Glitzern, flimmern, vergehn.
Blue Butterfly (December 1927)
Wings a small blue butterfly
blown by the wind,
A mother-of-pearl shower,
Glitters, flickers, fades away.
With the blink of an eye,
So in the passing
I saw happiness beckoning to me,
Glittering, flickering, fading away.
Nachtgefühl (Dezember 1914)
Tief mit blauer Nachtgewalt
Die mein Herz erhellt,
Bricht aus jähem Wolkenspalt
Mond und Sternenwelt.
Seele flammt aus ihrer Gruft
Lodernd aufgeschürt,
Da im bleichen Sternenduft
Nacht die Harfe rührt.
Sorge flieht und Not wird klein,
Seit der Ruf geschah.
Mag ich morgen nimmer sein,
Heute bin ich da!
Night Feeling (December 1914)
Deep with blue night force
That lights up my heart,
Breaks out of a yawning gap in the clouds
Moon and starry world.
Soul flames from its tomb
Blazingly stoked up,
As in the pale scent of stars
Night stirs the harp.
Worry flees and distress grows small,
Since the call came.
May I never be tomorrow,
I am here today!
Irgendwo (4. Juni 1925)
Durch des Lebens Wüste irr ich glühend
Und erstöhne unter meiner Last,
Aber irgendwo, vergessen fast,
Weiß ich schattige Gärten, kühl und blühend.
Aber irgendwo in Traumesferne
Weiß ich warten eine Ruhestatt,
Wo die Seele wieder Heimat hat,
Weiß ich Schlummer warten, Nacht und Sterne.
Somewhere (4 June 1925)
Through life's desert I wander glowing
And blanch under my burden,
But somewhere, almost forgotten,
I know shady gardens, cool and blooming.
But somewhere far away in dreams
I know a resting place is waiting,
Where the soul has a home again,
I know slumber is waiting, night and stars.
Manchmal (September 1904)
Manchmal, wenn ein Vogel ruft
Oder ein Wind geht in den Zweigen
Oder ein Hund bellt im fernsten Gehöft,
Dann muss ich lange lauschen und schweigen.
Meine Seele flieht zurück,
bis wo vor tausend vergessenen Jahren
Der Vogel und der wehende Wind
mir ähnlich und meine Brüder waren.
Meine Seele wird Baum
Und ein Tier und ein Wolkenweben.
Verwandelt und fremd kehrt sie zurück
Und fragt mich. Wie soll ich Antwort geben?
Hermann Hesse (© Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt)
Sometimes (September 1904)
Sometimes, when a bird calls
Or a breeze blows in the branches
Or a dog barks in the farthest homestead,
Then I must listen for a long time and be silent.
My soul flees back,
To where a thousand forgotten years ago
The bird and the blowing wind
Were like me and my brothers.
My soul becomes a tree
And an animal and a weaving cloud.
Transformed and strange, it returns
And asks me. How shall I answer?
Hermann Hesse
The basis of the first Lied Im Nebel (In the fog) is a short series of notes which has already been heard in the opening bars of the piano, moving simultaneously from a high note towards the bass and from a low note towards the treble, so that the resulting chords hover and swim like banks of mist.
In the Handwerksburschenpenne (Journeyman's Lodging), one thinks one is hearing a marching song, but the music repeatedly breaks out of the stiff rhythm, the "secret pain" that tortures one of the three journeymen is present in almost every bar of the music.
The third song, Blauer Schmetterling (Blue Butterfly) is as if painted with a few daubs of colour. The captivating harmonies of the piano resolve twice into a high note which is left to fade almost to silence. Above these, the voice glides and hovers, almost more reciting than singing.
Nachtgefühl (Night feeling)is the central piece in the group of songs, not only in terms of the point in time, but also because here the voice and the piano accompaniment provide a climax in intensive expression and an orchestral, almost operatic concentration of sound.
The song Irgendwo (Somewhere) forms a single large musical arch going from powerful agitation to motionless quiet. In the final bars, at the words "Nacht und Sterne" ("Night and Stars"), a chord in the piano containing simultaneously all 12 notes of our musical system is heard. Thus are the perfection and completeness of the starry heavens symbolically represented.
The poem Manchmal (Sometimes), the basis of the last song, speaks of the experience that man can become one with nature if he immerses himself in it, and that he can thereby be changed. This is a thought that runs through the poetry of Hermann Hesse like a solemn fundamental harmony. Often, there are hints, as in this poem, of the mythology of the transmigration of souls. Through its music, the song makes the call of the birds as well as the blowing of the wind perceptible. With an unresolved chord, the work closes, like a question for which no answer has been found.
Arno Leicht
On the Hesse songs by Bertold Hummel
Siddhartha and Steppenwolf, Hermann Hesse's two uncompromising truth-seekers, determined the compass of my incipient adulthood. My father, always worried about the correctness of my forthcoming life decisions, seized the opportunity for a spiritual connection with his wayward son when I asked him to set poems by the poet I had discovered to music. The existential questions of loneliness, happiness, death and rebirth were also my questions about life. In the foggy month of November (1978), he composed the first song, which was followed by the other five at short intervals. We played them together again and again at home until they took their final form.
24 years later - my father had written three more cycles for me in the meantime (based on Joseph Eichendorff, Vincent van Gogh and Arno Holz) - I again presented him with a selection of poems by Hesse to set to music, which I thought of as a counterpart to the countless rather profound Hesse settings. Enthusiastic about the bizarre texts, he set to work with great motivation. As the composition process progressed, the increasingly clearer bad news of medical findings became more and more frequent. Nevertheless, he worked on the many details of the score with unusual perseverance and satisfaction, making final corrections on 21 July. He parodied the stylistic devices of dodecaphony, jazz and 19th century music with which he was well acquainted, as well as his own unmistakably personal tonal language in the spirit of the poetic model.
It was unforeseeable that these cheerful, almost comedic songs would come at the end of his extensive oeuvre, but this was in keeping with his serene wisdom in old age. As a rule, he always agreed with the order of the songs that I suggested, but this time it was important to him that the poem Belehrung (Instruction) be placed at the end: More or less, my dear boy, all human words are ultimately a hoax ...
My father died on 9 August 2002 - the 40th anniversary of the poet's death.
Martin Hummel (in: Programme booklet "Liedforum 15. & 16. 2025", Würzburg University of Music, 2025)