Introduction

The following section contains analyses and translations of the poem texts of all the Lieder I played in the project’s three major concerts. (Analyses and translations of the fifteen poems from “Das Buch der hängenden Gärten” can be found here.)

Although these poems are only indirectly related to Opus 15, as they either were written by Stefan George, set by Arnold Schönberg or set to music in 1908 or 1909, and thus are not part of the core of my project, I include them here. I also provide an audio example of each song, either from the related project concert or from one of the lecture recitals I gave. I wrote all analyses before knowing the music apart from Schönberg’s Opus 2 and Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder, which I was familiar with before. I started on the translations after I began to practice the Lieder and worked on them until each concert. I believe the juxtaposition of my early thoughts on the poetry, the later translations and the music examples can provide insights into some aspects of the artistic process that shaped my understanding of Opus 15. Despite not being artistic research themselves, the analyses were necessary as a starting point for developing reliable and valid performances1 of these Lieder. I also think they are too valuable for other performers not to include here. Although each performer has to gain his or her own understanding of the material, my analyses and translations might be able to bridge the language gap for non-native speakers and provide the basis for a deeper understanding of the Lied texts.

For each poem, I give the original text. Changes found in the score are marked  with the exception of the capitalisation of words at the beginning of verses, Stefan George’s use of small initial letters for nouns and his use of “ss” instead of “ß”. I provide translations into English and Norwegian and refer to alternative translations where I know about them.

For a better understanding of the sound of the poetry, I transcribed their pronunciation in the international phonetic alphabet (IPA) and analysed rhymes and metre.

The IPA transcriptions were mostly taken from Kleiner et al. (2015), but I adapted them as sung language differs from spoken language, most notably in words that are usually pronounced with syllabic consonants.2 However, as phonetics in singing depend on the context and musical parameters like pitch or the length of a note, the transcription can only be an approximation. Pronunciation in singing involves interpretation and is often also a question of taste.3 As in Kleiner et al. (2015), I transcribed the letter “r” as either [ɐ] or [ɐ̯] when it is pronounced vocalically and as [r] when it is pronounced consonantally. I recommend non-native singers to use Ophaug’s model4 when deciding on the pronunciation of /r/ in German classical singing. The symbol [ʔ] has been used to indicate a glottal stop. Glottal stops are only marked within words, not at vocalic initial sounds. I transcribed the words of the poems as they would be pronounced today without considering possible variations that would allow words to rhyme.5

In the case of ambiguities in metre, either question marks indicate uncertain stresses or alternative readings are provided.

 1.

“Aus den knospen quellen sachte” is the second poem in Stefan George’s cycle Sänge eines fahrenden Spielmanns (Strains of a Wandering Gleeman) from Die Bücher der Hirten- und Preisgedichte, der Sagen und Sänge und der hängenden Gärten (The Books of Eclogues and Eulogies, of Legends and Lays, and of the Hanging Gardens).12 According to Robert Vilain, the cycle “lyrically develop[s] the theme of love from the first part of the Buch der Sagen und Sänge, but with the emphasis on loss, on the unattainability of the object of desire.”13

The poem consists of nine trochaic verses. Its visual form and rhyme scheme divide it into two uneven parts. The first triplet describes how drops of dew well out of buds because sunlight shone on them. Due to many consonant combinations ([kn], [sp], [kv], [χt], [tr], [pf]) the first verses flow slowly, resulting in a calm and peaceful atmosphere. In contrast to the surrounding verses of eight syllables, the second verse consists of only five syllables. The shortness emphasises the image of the drops whose shape is visualised through the letter O: “Tropfen voll”. The third verse conveys a lighter atmosphere through the personification of the (sun) light which “lachte” (laughed or smiled) upon the buds. The positivity of the verse is emphasised by the alliterations “Da das” and “licht […] lachte”, which give an element of playfulness to the image. The sunlight, the dew and the buds hint at both the time of day (morning) and the time of year (early spring).

The second part of the poem starts with the speaker’s question “Und wenn meine tränen fliessen?” (And if my tears are falling?). Now, the drops from the previous verses are compared to tears. Unlike the dewdrops, which well up gently (“quellen”), the tears flow or pour more heavily (“fliessen”). Thus, they convey a strong feeling of sadness, which is enhanced by the contrast between “lachte” (laughed) in the third verse and “tränen” (tears) in the fourth verse. As it consists only of a subordinate clause, the speaker’s question is incomplete and thus underlines the feeling of hopelessness that comes across in the second part of the poem. As stated in the two following verses the speaker is now aware of what he or she did not know before. The last triplet expresses the speaker’s growing despair and specifies that spring has given him or her hope, perhaps after the loss of love, but when spring is over, this hope will be gone as well. The speaker did not sense it the day before, but now it is clear that he or she cannot be happy again. The last verse, “Neue sonne, junges jahr” is emphasised in several ways. It addresses the sun and the year directly and consists only of these two nouns with preceding adjectives. The alliteration “junges jahr” lays further emphasis on the end of the poem. Thus, it seems as if the speaker almost begs them to stay, so he or she will not lose this ultimate comfort.

 2.

In George’s cycle Sänge eines fahrenden Spielmanns,17 “Aus den knospen quellen sachte” is followed by “Dass ich deine Unschuld rühre”. Ansorge chose to set the cycle’s following, fourth poem “Heisst es viel dich bitten”18 as the second lied in Opus 14. It elaborates on the speaker’s longing for an unattainable love.

The poem consists of three stanzas. The identical rhymes “still” and “mag” appear in the second and fourth verse of every stanza, whereas the first and third verse of each stanza rhyme with each other. This rhyme scheme and the regular metre give the poem a simple, songlike quality. Each stanza ends with a question mark, although grammatically the first two stanzas form one long question and the last stanza another shorter question.

In the first two stanzas, the speaker asks another person if he has to beg a lot if he wants to kneel in front of her and brush her hand with a kiss. From this question and the title of the cycle, one can deduce that a medieval minstrel is singing to or courting a lady. Therefore, although the gender of neither person is specified, presumably the speaker is male, and the addressee is female. The first stanza begins with the tentative phrase “Heisst es viel dich bitten”. Instead of asking directly, the minstrel inquires if he would have to plead a lot to get his wish fulfilled. He appears very humble, phrasing the question in an impersonal way19 and expressing the small wish to kneel only silently in front of the other. Any interaction of a more direct and personal kind seems unthinkable. The speaker’s long suffering mentioned in the third verse implies that the woman did either not previously grant his wish or that it happened a long time ago and that her disregard since then has caused his pain. The iambic metre contrasts the surrounding trochaic verses, thus putting further emphasis on the speaker’s remark on suffering away from the other.

The adverbs „still“ (quietly) in the second verse and „Leise” (gently) in the sixth verse and the accumulation of similar modifiers in the eighth verse underline how modest the minstrel’s wish is. He does not want to disturb the other. His consideration and humility also put pressure on the other as it would be unreasonable or cruel not to grant such a small favour. This pressure is intensified in the last stanza. For the first time in the poem, the other person is characterised through the speaker’s question. The woman’s dismissive attitude is described as “gestreng” (stern) and “still” (quiet, silent) in the tenth verse. She only endures the speaker’s presence and appears very passive and impersonal as she does so without “disturbing” (stören) him. The personification of “Wink”, which can mean nod, hint, sign or beckon, in the twelfth verse further underlines the distance between the two people. It is not she who tolerates the speaker’s presence; it is only her “Wink”. This image is emphasised by the sudden iambic metre, which contrasts the previous trochees. The repeated words “still” and “mag” have different connotations when they appear for the final time in the tenth and twelfth verse. Previously, “still” (quiet, silent) was associated with humility and the wish not to disturb the other. In the last stanza, it appears to be more defensive and distanced. In the two first stanzas, “mag” can be read as “want to” or “would like to”. It expresses a wish rather than a possibility. In the last stanza, however, it can best be translated with “may” instead. The word conveys more uncertainty, again underlining the uneven relationship between the speaker and the addressee. Although the speaker seems to wish little in the beginning, the question of the third stanza conveys a longing for more than silent tolerance. Throughout the poem, the speaker’s growing unhappiness is mirrored in the darkening vowels of the rhyme words “bitten”/”gelitten”, “ergreifen”/”streifen” and “erhören”/stören”. The repetitiveness of the rhyme words “still” and “mag” throughout the poem underlines the single-mindedness of the speaker’s longing.  

3.

Like the previous two poems, also the third text set by Ansorge is part of George’s Sänge eines fahrenden Spielmanns. It is the sixth poem of this cycle and is preceded by “So ich traurig bin” which Anton Webern set to music in his Opus 4.

The poem consists of three stanzas containing four verses each. All verses are trochaic and end in unstressed syllables. The regular rhythm gives the text a songlike quality. As indicated by the cycle’s title, the poem is one of several songs of a vagrant minstrel. However, this poem is not about courting a woman. It is a “poem of renunciation”.28 The speaker prefers to leave the other person “rather than to trouble her even with the mere telling of ‘Menschen müh und weh’”.29 Kosler (2007) points out that George might have recognised himself in the minstrel’s position as an outsider who displays the truth of the world in a pleasing way but does not participate in the life he conveys. As someone who knows he is the opposite of the innocence to which he is attracted.30 Kosler states further that the poem bears witness to the three primary motives that shall characterise George’s later poetry: austerity, farewell and loneliness.31

The imperative “Sieh mein kind ich gehe” (Look, my child, I go) opens the poem and is repeated once in the second (v. 6) and again in the third stanza (v. 12). Schäfer (2005) observes that the verse has different connotations each time: first announcement, then detachment and in the end farewell.32 There are no hints as to who the addressee is apart from the way the speaker talks to her or him. As the speaker is a minstrel, one might assume he sings to a woman, but the poem itself gives no indication of the other’s gender or actual age. The person is addressed as “Kind” (child), perhaps to convey her relative youth or innocence.

The first stanza explains that her innocence and inexperience with the world cause the speaker’s departure. The stanza implies the woman would get to know grief and hardship if he did not leave. The speaker seems to be afraid of inadvertently hurting her and of the woman losing her innocence because of the presence of his world-weariness in her life. Addressing her somewhat patronisingly as “mein kind” and forbidding her to know,33 he takes a higher, lecturing position.

The language and the metre are simple. All words in the first stanza consist of either one or two syllables. Alliterations in the second to fourth verse34 add an artistic quality to the minstrel’s song. The fourth verse seems slightly archaic and is, therefore, harder to understand. The word “müh” could be read as an adjective.35 It might be related to the noun “Mühe” meaning “trouble” or “toil”, or it might allude to the adjective “müd” or “müde” meaning “tired”. In this case, the second and fourth verse could be translated as “For you must not know […] tired/troubled and sore people.” As George used only small letters in his poems apart from the start of each verse, it is also possible to read “Müh” and “Wehe” as nouns. In that case, however, the genitive is not constructed properly. To be understood as a genitive and translated as “people’s toil and woe”, the phrase should be “Der Menschen Müh und Wehe”.

In the second stanza, the speaker states he is afraid for the other and does not want the fragrance on her cheek to disappear. The scent on the cheek appears intangible and fleeting and could easily be blown away. It is the only image in the whole poem and symbolises the woman’s youthful innocence.

The third stanza conveys what the speaker thinks might happen in the future if he did not leave. He would lecture the other and hurt them. Braungart points out that the lecturing seems both destructive and unavoidable. The relationship between child and speaker would have to head for this lecturing. In the speaker’s mind, the child could only become aware of herself through destructive lecturing.36 The speaker would not be able to bear this and decides therefore to leave the other.

The poem mirrors the speaker’s departure in several ways. According to Schäfer, the rhyme scheme changes from enclosed rhyme (abba), which might illustrate an embrace of the child, to alternate rhyme (caca) symbolising a state of change, to rhyming couplets (ddaa) which convey the separation of the speaker and the other.37 He points further out that the reversed positions of “gehe” and “wehe” in the last stanza intensify the image of separation as the last phrase “Sieh mein kind ich gehe” is the final verse with nothing to follow.38 The increasing distance to the child is also conveyed through the use of different conjunctional clauses. The causal clause39 in the first stanza gets weaker in the second stanza40 and even weaker, merely additive41 in the third stanza.42

Farewell and separation are conveyed in several ways, yet the language remains straightforward and easy-going. As Kosler points out, renunciation is expressed without pain and lament or the heroic gestures that were typical of George’s later work. It is accepted without being trivialised.43

4.

“Meine weissen ara haben safrangelbe kronen”