The 13 months

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The 13 Months is a cycle of poems by Erich Kästner , published in 1955. It is Kästner's last volume of poetry.

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The collection consists of thirteen poems of varying length and varying meter . The first twelve deal with a month each in the order of the calendar. In many, the month sung about appears in personified form. In every poem, Kästner praises the beauty, but also the melancholy sides of the respective season. Often the theme of the inevitable passage of time is taken up. The poem January begins with the description of the year as a newborn child. The motif of the getting older of the year runs through the entire work until it is finally old in December and prepares to say goodbye.

The last poem, The Thirteenth Month, describes a fictional "leap month" made up of the best from all other months. In the end, Kästner comes to the conclusion that there cannot be such a month and concludes with the words:

“Time is ticking. The year turns in circles.
And only what has always been can become.
Patience my heart The journey goes in circles.
And January follows December. "

The 13 months is considered to be one of the most romantic and idyllic works by Erich Kästner, which is indicative of his late creative period. Kästner himself explains in the foreword that he is writing the poems as “a city dweller for city dwellers” who wants to reflect on the beauty of the cycle of seasons and nature.

Release history

Kästner originally wrote the first twelve of the poems on behalf of the Schweizer Illustrierte Zeitung , in which they appeared as a monthly series between December 30, 1952 and December 7, 1953. Kästner wrote the poem for the thirteenth month in 1954. Around the same time he wrote the foreword for the book edition. The book was published in 1955 by Atrium Verlag with illustrations by Richard Seewald . Numerous other editions appeared in the same publishing house with illustrations by Hans Traxler , Erhard Göttlicher and Walter Trier and in Deutsches Taschenbuch Verlag with drawings by Celestino Piatti .

Settings and films

Musical arrangements

  • The composer Edmund Nick , who was friends with Erich Kästner, set the poems to music for a chanson cycle in 1969 . In 2009 it was recorded for the first time on CD with Ulrich Schütte as bass baritone and Gerold Huber on piano. The recording was released on the duo-phon-records label . In May 2011 Ulrich Schütte and Gerold Huber performed this setting as part of a tour, including in Dresden and Berlin.
  • In 1970 Alfred Huth composed a choral work for speaker, mixed choir and piano based on the thirteen poems.
  • In 1980 Georg Goebel wrote the choral work The 13 Months for four-part mixed a cappella choir .
  • Manfred Schmitz set the 13 months to music for a song cycle that was sung by Gisela May and was released on record in 1983.
  • Rolf Zuckowski published a setting of the poem The Thirteenth Month in 1996 on his album Silent Nights - Helles Licht .
  • In 2002 Jerzy Husar performed his setting of the 13 months with students from his music seminar in the Wuppertal Opera House .
  • The composer Wolfgang-Andreas Schultz set the poems to music in the years 2009-2015 for a medium to high voice and piano accompaniment.
  • In 2016, Vladimir Romanov set the poem December for mixed choir, mezzo-soprano, violin and organ to music.

Movie

Audio books

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Remo Hug: Poems for Use. The poetry of Erich Kästner. Inspection, description, evaluation . Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 2006, ISBN 3-8260-3311-6 , p. 58.
  2. ↑ The 13 months in the Internet Movie Database (English)