Five songs after poems by Joseph von Eichendorff for medium voice and piano (op. 88b, 1987)
for my son Martin
I. Aus schweren Träumen, II Der wandernde Musikant, III Kurze Fahrt, IV Unfall, V Todeslust
The order of the songs given here was recommended by the composer for a cyclical performance.
Middle voice, piano
Duration: 13 minutes
Martin Hummel | Ernst Ueckermann
Title: 5 Lieder nach Texten von Jos. v. Eichendorff op. 88b - Length: 19 pages - Date: I. Aus schweren Träumen - / II. Wanderlied 28.12.87 / III. Kurze Fahrt 23.12.87 / IV. Accident 4.1.88 7 V. Todeslust 1.1.88 - Storage location:
Schott Music ED 20286 / ISMN: M-001-14991-4
Printing error in this edition:
Page 11 ("Accident"), 1st bar: left hand: treble clef instead of bass clef
p. 11 ("Unfall"), 3rd stave, last bar: left hand: treble clef instead of bass clef, right hand: chord on the crotchet: mf with accent
Page 17 ("Todeslust"), 4th stave, 1st bar: f mf instead of fp
From heavy dreams
From heavy dreams
I often woke up
and saw through fir tops
the moon drifting over the silent ground and sang
and fell asleep again. -
Yes, human voice, bright from a pious breast!
You are the most powerful, and you hit
the right keynote, which resounds confusedly
In all the thousand voices of nature! -
The wandering musician
Are you sometimes out of tune?
press yourself tenderly to my heart,
that it almost takes my breath away,
I stroke and pinch in sweet jest,
like a real love gate
I gently lean my cheek against you,
and you sing sweetly in my ear.
Well in the courtyard at the sound
Cat meows, dog howls and barks,
Neighbour scolds with a wild face -
but what do we care about the world,
sweet, sweet violin!
Short journey
Posthorn, how so bold and cheerful
You once dawned the morning,
before me it lay so springlike
that I silently pondered songs.
It's already dark in the forest,
How chilly it gets here in the evening,
Brother-in-law, toot your horn - how soon
We too will be in our night quarters!
Accident
I was once walking across the country at night,
I met a little fellow outside,
That has a nozzle in his hand
And aims at me with horror.
I run, as I am furious
at him with full speed,
the cheeky little fellow pushes off
and I fall on my nose.
But he laughs in my face,
that he shot me.
Cupido was the little wretch -
That made me very angry.
Lust for death
Before he sank into the blue flood,
the swan still dreams and sings deathly drunk;
the summer-weary earth in fading
Lets all its fire glow in the grapes;
the sun, spitting sparks, as it sinks,
once more gives the earth embers to drink,
until, star upon star, the drinkers embrace,
the marvellous night has risen.
Joseph von Eichendorff
The songs written for the 200th birthday of the poet J.v. Eichendorff (1988) represent an attempt to trace the "tone" of the poems in our time - not in strophic songs but in "song scenes", in small "dramas" in which the piano characterises in a differentiated way what the singing voice performs.
Bertold Hummel
"Aus schweren Träumen" (From Difficult Dreams) is appropriately placed at the beginning of the latest Hummel cycle (1988) on poems by Joseph von Eichendorff, as the poet also placed these verses at the beginning of his"Romances" as a motto. Composing Eichendorff after Robert Schumann was already a challenge for Hugo Wolf. In contrast to Schumann, he therefore emphasised Eichendorff's realistic and humorous side. Bertold Hummel also does this in the violin-infatuated"Der wandernde Musikant" and in"Unfall". In this song, the composer takes a much more grotesque approach to the unexpected encounter with Cupid and his projectile than Hugo Wolf with his leisurely setting. Frequent changes of metre contribute to this, as does the often rapid transition to extreme piano registers. However, it is not only the serious motto that strikes the "right keynote" for this cycle (in the last seven bars of"Aus schweren Träumen", the A is circled by the lines of the voice and the piano until it finally asserts itself as a sustained bass): in"Kurze Fahrt" and in the concluding"Todeslust", final feelings find their strong expression. The"right keynote" (D) of this last song - the basis for the evocation of the "marvellous night" - finally emerges from the depths and fades away in the bright middle register of a widely spaced D major sex chord. This too - as is usually the case in Hummel's songs - is an open ending, yet a pure triad.
Wolfgang Osthoff (in "Zu den Liedern Bertold Hummels", Tutzing 1998)