Composers › Johannes Brahms › Programme note
Two Songs, Op.91
Gerald Larner wrote 2 versions of differing length — choose one below.
Gestillte Sehnsucht
Geistliches Wiegenlied
The first of Brahms’s two songs with viola, Geistliches Wiegenlied, was presented to Joseph and Amalie Joachim on the birth of their first child in 1864 and for twenty years it was known only to friends of the family. Gestillte Sehnsucht was written in 1884 as a companion piece to it in the hope that the Joachims, who had separated by this time, might get together to perform the two songs in public and possibly even effect some kind of reconciliation. In fact, although Amalie did sing them, it was never with Joseph as violist.
The scoring for viola is probably even more effective in Gestillte Sehnsucht than it is in Geistliches Wiegenlied. As well as introducing the most significant melodic image, which is always associated in the vocal part with the calming influence of the whispering of the wind and the birds, the viola sustains an eloquently lyrical commentary, its characteristically supple phrasing crossing the bar line at times, its colouring intensified in the minor-key middle section by double-stopped harmonies. In Geistliches Wiegenlied the function of the viola is to play the part of Joseph by presenting an old German carol, “Joseph, lieber Joseph mein” as a kind of ritornello. In alternation with the carol on viola, and in counterpoint with a viola obbligato partly based on it, the voice has a quite different song to sing - a setting of Emanuel Geibel’s German translation of a cradlesong by Lope de Vega. The combination is irresistible.
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Op.091/s”
Gestillte Sehnsucht
Geistliches Wiegenlied
Brahms’s Two Songs, Op.91, were not intended in the first place as a demonstration of how to write for the viola. Geistliches Wiegenlied (“Sacred Cradlesong”) was presented to Joseph and Amalie Joachim on the birth of their first child in 1864 and for twenty years it was known only to friends of the family. Gestillte Sehnsucht (“Stilled Longing”) was written in 1884 as a companion piece to Geistliches Wiegenlied in the hope that the Joachims, who had separated by this time, might get together to perform the two songs in public and possibly even effect some kind of reconciliation. In fact, although Amalie did sing them, it was never with Joseph as violist.
From the technical point of view, on the other hand, it is interesting that, although Joseph Joachim was associated more with the violin than with the viola, it was the latter instrument Brahms considered more appropriate to the intimate expression of Geistliches Wiegenlied. It was not just a matter of choosing the appropriate instrumental colour to blend with the alto voice; it was clearly also a matter of drawing on the quality of inward fervour which is so natural to the viola. With that quality in mind Brahms chose Friedrich Rückert’s no less intimate Gestillte Sehnsucht as the text most likely to be illuminated by the same combination of alto voice, viola and piano.
The scoring for viola is probably even more effective in Gestillte Sehnsucht than it is in Geistliches Wiegenlied. As well as introducing the most significant melodic image, which is always associated in the vocal part with the calming influence of the “whispering of the wind and the birds,” the viola sustains an eloquently lyrical commentary, its characteristically supple phrasing crossing the bar line at times, its colouring intensified in the minor-key middle section by double-stopped harmonies. In Geistliches Wiegenlied the function of the viola is to play the part of Joseph by presenting an old German carol, “Joseph darling, Joseph mine, help me rock my child so fine” as a kind of ritornello. In alternation with the carol on viola, and in counterpoint with a viola obbligato partly based on it, the alto voice has a quite different song to sing - a setting of Emanuel Geibel’s German translation of a cradlesong by Lope de Vega. The combination is enchanting.
Gerald Larner©
Gestillte Sehnsucht
(Friedrich Rückert)
In gold’nen Abenschein getauchet,
wie feierlich die Wälder steh’n!
In leise Stimmen der Vöglein hauchet
des Abendwindes leises Weh’n.
Was lispeln die Winde, die Vögelein?
Sie lispeln die Welt in Schlummer ein.
Ihr Wünsche, die ihr stets euch reget
im Herzen sonder Rast und Ruh’!
Du Sehnen, das die Brust beweget,
wann ruhest du, wann schlummerst du?
Beim Lispeln der Winde, der Vögelein,
ihr sehnenden Wünsche, wann schlaft ihr ein?
Ach, wenn nicht mehr in gold’ne Fernen
mein Geist auf Traugefieder eilt,
nicht mehr an ewig fernen Stränden
mit sehnendem Blick mein Auge weilt,
dann lispeln die Winde, die Vögelein
mit meinem Sehnen mein Leben ein.
Stilled longing
(English by Gerald Larner)
Plunged in the golden evening glow
how splendid stand the woods!
The soft blowing of the evening wind
breathes into the voices of the birds.
What do they whisper, the winds and birds?
They are whispering the world to sleep.
You desires, who are constantly stirring
in my breast without pause or rest!
You longing, who move my heart,
when will you rest, when will you slumber?
In the whispering of the winds and the birds
you longing desires, when will you sleep?
O, when my spirit no longer flies
on dream wings to golden far-away places,
when my eyes no longer longingly rest
on eternally distant shores,
then the winds and the birds will whisper
my life with my longing to its end.
Geistliches Wiegenlied
(Emanuel Geibel after Lope de Vega)
Die ihr schwebet
um diese Palmen
in Nacht und Wind,
ihr heil’gen Engel,
stillet die Wipfel!
Es schlummert mein Kind.
Ihr Palmen von Bethlehem
in Windesbrausen,
wie mögt ihr heute
so zorning sausen!
O rauscht nicht also,
schweiget, neiget
euch leis’ und lind,
stillet die Wipfel!
Es schlummert mein Kind.
Sacred Cradlesong
(English by Gerald Larner)
You who hover
around these palms
in the night and the wind,
you holy angels,
Silence the tree tops!
My child is asleep.
You palms of Bethlehem
in the roaring wind,
how can you rustle
so angrily today!
Don’t make such a noise!
Quietly bow down
softly and gently,
silence the tree tops!
My child is asleep.
Der Himmelsknabe
duldet Beschwerde;
ach, wie so müd er ward
vom Leid der Erde.
Ach, nun im Schlaf, ihm,
leise gesänftigt,
die Qual zerinnt,
stillet die Wipfel!
Es schlummert mein Kind.
Grimmige Kälte
sauset hernieder,
womit nur deck’ich
des Kindleins Glieder!
O all ihr Engel,
die ihr geflüglet
wandelt im Wind,
stillet die Wipfel!
Es schlummert mein Kind.
The heavenly child
is suffering grievously;
O, how tired the pain
of the world has made him.
O, now he’s asleep,
gently soothed,
the pain drains away,
silence the tree tops!
My child is asleep.
Grim cold
blow down here
so that I might cover
the limbs of my child!
O, all you angels
who on your wings
fly in the wind,
silence the tree tops!
My child is asleep.
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Op.091/”