Herbsttag (Rainer Maria Rilke) for medium voice and piano (op. 71c, 1980)
Wolfgang Osthoff on his 60th birthday
Medium voice, piano
Duration: 3 minutes
Martin Hummel | Thomas Hitzlberger
Title: Autumn Day (R. M. Rilke) - Length: 4 pages - Date: 25 Oct 80 - Location:
Free sheet music download
Herbsttag
Herr: Es ist Zeit. Der Sommer war sehr groß.
Leg deinen Schatten auf die Sonnenuhren,
und auf den Fluren laß die Winde los.
Befiehl den letzten Früchten voll zu sein;
gieb ihnen noch zwei südlichere Tage,
dränge sie zur Vollendung hin und jage
die letzte Süße in den schweren Wein.
Wer jetzt kein Haus hat, baut sich keines mehr.
Wer jetzt allein ist, wird es lange bleiben,
wird wachen, lesen, lange Briefe schreiben
und wird in den Alleen hin und her
unruhig wandern, wenn die Blätter treiben.
Rainer Maria Rilke
Autumn day
Lord: It's time. The summer was very great.
Put your shadow on the sundials,
and let the winds loose in the meadows.
Command the last fruits to be full;
Give them two more southern days,
urge them to perfection and chase
the last sweetness into the heavy wine.
He who has no house now will not build one.
He who is alone now will remain so for a long time,
will watch, read, write long letters
and will wander to and fro in the avenues
restlessly when the leaves drift.
Rainer Maria Rilke
Written in 1987 for the 60th birthday of a musicologist friend, Herbsttag (Autumn Day ) on a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke lends a further characteristic character to the theme that has been so central to Hummel since the Storm songs. Its ambivalence(Befiehl den letzten Früchten voll zu sein) is reflected musically in the transversal intervals and the associated oscillation between major and minor. This also brings into play the mild thirds and sixths that are rather rare in Hummel's music. The composer succeeds in summarising Rilke's growing verses (3, 4 and 5 verses) in their formal and thematic dynamics under a large musical arc. The inner climax is the end of the second verse, i.e. the only verse that Hummel repeats: Die letzte Süße in den schweren Wein. In its broadly sweeping sequencing (melodically derived from the phrase "südlichere Tage" heard shortly before), this is one of those passages where the melodic qualities of Hummel's songs manifest themselves particularly impressively.
Wolfgang Osthoff (in "Zu den Liedern Bertold Hummels" Tutzing, 1998)