The plaintive song
The plaintive song is a fairy tale from Ludwig Bechstein's New German Fairy Tale Book from 1856. As a musical fairy tale , it takes up a well-known motif, the unmasking of a murderer by a bone flute that was carved from the bones of the murdered man and sings about the murder. The fairy tale “ the singing bone ” from the children's and household tales by the Brothers Grimm is thus similar . (KHM 28). Gustav Mahler wrote and composed a fairy tale cantata Das klagende Lied between 1878 and 1880 .
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After the death of a king, his wife brings up the children they left behind, a daughter and a son who is one year younger than him. One day the two children argue about who should be king. The queen, fearing the beginnings of domination, presents them with a scepter-shaped flower ending in a lily and prophesies that whoever finds the flower in the forest should become king. In fact, the girl finds the flower and lies down to sleep. Her power-hungry brother, who sees his only goal in becoming king, murders the sleeping woman and buries her in the forest. When he returns, he presents the flower and claims that his sister took a different route.
Several years have passed since then. The prince becomes king after coming of age, but his mother continues to mourn the lost daughter. A shepherd boy who tends his flock in the forest finds a white "dead leg" of the murdered princess while poking through the grass. He carves a flute out of it by punching a few holes in the bone. As soon as he puts the flute to his mouth, a plaintive song sounds with a child's voice:
- “ O shepherd my, oh shepherd my
- You flute on my dead leg ... "
In the song, the murdered woman accuses her brother and asks the shepherd boy to make the crime known by using the flute. Every time the shepherd puts the flute to his mouth, the same plaintive song sounds. The whole of nature, forest, meadows and animals mourn with them.
A knight errant hears the song in the forest, deeply moved, buys the flute from the boy, comes with it to the royal court and blows the song to the Queen Mother. She still mourns the lost daughter and believes that no suffering is greater than her suffering. She asks the knight to play the song for him. The song has changed.
- “ O knight my, o knight mine
- You flute on my dead leg ... "
The queen faints. The knight then tries to put down the flute, but is unable to because the song needs to be played to the end. After waking up from fainting, the king mother asks for the flute and the knight leaves it to her.
The young king is celebrating a festival to which he has invited numerous guests, singers and minstrels. The king's mother, who otherwise did not take part in a party because of her mourning, also comes in mourning robes. She puts the flute to her mouth and all the instruments fall silent. The song has changed again.
- “ Oh mother my, oh mother mine
- You flute on my dead leg ... "
The king's crown rolls to the ground, he writhes dying on the ground and screams that his mother should end the song. But the song continues to play. The guests, servants, and minstrels flee and the candles go out. At the end only the crying old queen is in the hall with her son. The son dies, she extinguishes the last candle and breaks the flute, “so that no one can hear the plaintive song again. “That ends the fairy tale.
Template of the fairy tale
In the foreword to the New German Fairy Tale Book, Bechstein wrote " The real element of the fairy tale is the wonderful " and redefined the term fairy tale by also emphasizing the ethical component. According to his own statements, when he included the fairy tale in his New German Fairy Tale Book, he referred to Th. Haupt's magazine for German antiquity , but also pointed to the relationship with the Grimm fairy tales The Singing Bone and Vom Machandelbaum . The actual model of the plaintive song was a dialect fairy tale from the collection of the Basel Germanist Wilhelm Wackernagel , legends and fairy tales from the Aaargau , which was printed in the magazine for German antiquity mentioned by Bechstein . Bechstein expanded the plot, introduced moralizing instructions and increased the plot to the final clap with the fleeing guests and the dying candles. With this fairy tale, Bechstein created a “truly gruesome, sublime tragic painting”.
Adaptations
Gustav Mahler wrote and composed a fairy tale cantata Das klagende Lied between 1878 and 1880 , taking over the title, the symbol of the flower, the festival and the fleeing guests from Bechstein. Otherwise Mahler followed the Grimm brothers.
literature
- Ludwig Bechstein: All fairy tales , p. 470, 487–493, as well as notes p. 844, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1983, licensed edition of the Winckler Verlag, Munich.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Foreword to Bechstein's New German Book of Fairy Tales from 1856, edition of the Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1983, p. 467.
- ^ Foreword to Bechstein's New German Book of Fairy Tales from 1856, edition of the Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1983, p. 468.
- ↑ Bechstein's references to the foreword to his New German Book of Fairy Tales from 1856, edition of the Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1983, p. 470.
- ↑ a b Comments by Walter Scherf on the edition of Bechstein's Complete Fairy Tales, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1983, p. 844.
- ^ Quotation from the comments by Walter Scherf, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1983, p. 844.