The grenadiers
The Grenadiers is a romance by Heinrich Heine . It first appeared in book form in 1822 in the volume Poems . These were later included in the Book of Songs , which was first published in 1827, as Junge Leiden 1817-1821 .
content
The poem is about two French grenadiers who were captured during Napoleon's Russian campaign . When they are released and move back to France via Germany , they learn that their emperor has been captured. One soldier then wants to go back to his family. The other would like to be buried in France after his death in order to be resurrected when the emperor calls him to the next bataille. With a slightly ironic undertone and drastic metaphors ("cannon roar", the emperor riding over the graves of his soldiers), Heine characterizes the demonic fascination that emanated from their general for the Grande Armée . Although the horrors of war become clear, the culmination point is that the fallen soldiers will rise again and again to “protect the emperor, the emperor”. Ultimately, it is Napoleon's apotheosis .
Emergence
The exact time the poem was written is not known. Most likely it was created in 1820, at least not before 1819. Heine himself later named 1816 as the year of origin. In the opinion of some researchers, he predated the poem “so that his right to be the initiator of the Napoleon legend would not be challenged by Béranger or the Austrian poet Freiherr von Zedlitz ”.
Settings
The text inspired numerous composers of the 19th century. The most famous setting of the ballad under the title The Two Grenadiers (op. 49 No. 1, 1840) comes from Robert Schumann . He sets the first stanzas of the poem to music in the form of a funeral march in harsh G minor, in which triplets that look like drum rolls are used illustratively. In the final part, which is turned towards the major, he uses the Marseillaise to underline the image of the military leader and emperor, which is also musically rising to demonic size. This is followed by a "radically slowed down, [...] final passage that has become brittle due to tones and intermediate dominants", with which the song fades away. As a young man, Schumann shared Heine's enthusiasm for Napoleon: “Who will one day at least get our European Augean stable from the obscure clergy and priest? Purify the papacy? The greatest man of all centuries, the splendid Napoleon started it - but he couldn't finish it, ”he wrote in a letter in 1828. The common admiration for Napoleon was also the subject of Schumann's only encounter with Heine in Munich in 1828.
Half a year before Schumann in Paris, Richard Wagner set the French translation of F.-A. Loeve-Veimar as Les deux grenadiers (WWV 60) and also resorted to the Marseillaise. When Wagner found out that Schumann had also set the poem to music, he wrote to him:
“I hear that you composed the Heineschen Grenadiers and that at the end the 'Marseillaise' appears in it. I also composed it last winter, and finally added the 'Marseillaise'. That means something! I immediately composed my grenadiers on a French translation, which I had made here and which Heine was satisfied with. It was sung here and there and earned me the Legion of Honor and 20,000 for annual pension, which I draw directly from Louis Philippe's private coffers. "
Julius Freudenthal , Carl Gollmick (op. 60, duet), Leopold Lenz , László Makray , Carl Gottlieb Reissiger and Hieronymus Truhn made further compositions based on Heine's text .
text
The grenadiers.
Two grenadiers went to France, they
were captured in Russia.
And when they came to the German quarters,
they hung their heads.
Then they both heard the sad tale:
That France was lost,
defeated and smashed the brave army, -
and the emperor, the emperor captured.
The grenadiers cried together
for the poor news.
One said: How painful it is for me,
How my old wound burns!
The other said: The song is over,
I too would like to die with you,
But I have wife and child at home who
perish without me.
What do I care woman, what do I care child?
I have far better desires;
Let them go begging when they are hungry -
My Emperor, my Emperor captured!
Grant me, brother, a request:
If I die now,
Take my corpse with you to France,
Bury me in France's earth.
You should put the cross of
honor on the red ribbon
on my heart;
Put the
rifle in my hand
and strap me around my sword.
So I will lie and listen quietly
like a sentry in the grave,
Until one day I hear cannon
roar And neighing horses trotting.
Then my emperor will ride over my grave,
Much swords clink and flash;
Then I get out of the grave armed -
to protect the emperor, the emperor.
literature
- Egon Voss: “That means something!” Les deux grenadiers and The two grenadiers. In: Udo Bermbach , Hans Rudolf Vaget (Hrsg.): Baptized on music. Festschrift for Dieter Borchmeyer. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2006, ISBN 3-8260-3398-1 , pp. 315-340 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
- Ingo Müller: Mask play and soul language. On the aesthetics of Heinrich Heine's book of songs and Robert Schumann's Heine settings (= Rombach Wissenschaft), 2 volumes, Baden-Baden 2020. Volume 1: Heinrich Heine's poetry aesthetics and Robert Schumann's song aesthetics , ISBN 978-3-96821-006-3 . Volume 2: Heinrich Heine's book of songs and Robert Schumann's Heine settings , Baden-Baden 2020, ISBN 978-3-96821-009-4 , pp. 506-534.
- Susan Youens: Freedom of Masks and Schumann's Napoleon Ballad. In: The Journal of Musicology Vol. 22, No. 1 (Winter 2005), pp. 5–46 ( JSTOR 10.1525 / jm.2005.22.1.5 )
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Barbara Beßlich : The German Napoleon Myth. Literature and memory 1800–1945. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2007, ISBN 978-3-534-20025-2 , p. 131 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
- ↑ Düsseldorf Heine edition, volume 1, 2. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1975, ISBN 3-455-03001-7 , p. 697 ff. ( Online ).
- ^ Letter to Saint-Ren Taillandier, November 3, 1851, as well as the preface to Poëmes et légends , 1855, quoted from Düsseldorf Heine edition, volume 1,2. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1975, ISBN 3-455-03001-7 , p. 697 ff. ( Online ).
- ↑ Fritz Mende (Ed.): Heine Secular Edition Volume 13: Poëmes et légends - Commentary. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin (GDR) 1985, p. 160 ( limited preview in Google book search).
- ^ Günther Spies: Reclam's music guide Robert Schumann. Reclam, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-15-010435-1 , p. 161 f.
- ^ Hermann Loos: Robert Schumann. Interpretations of his works. Volume 1. Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2005, ISBN 3-89007-447-2 , p. 296 f.
- ↑ Christine Tewinkel: Songs . In: Ulrich Tadday (ed.): Schumann manual . Bärenreiter, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-7618-2034-8 , p. 435.
- ↑ Karin Sousa (ed.): "Strike only one world string": Letters 1828–1855. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-458-17317-X , p. 12 ( limited preview in the Google book search)
- ↑ A "poet's love" for eternity. Kölner Stadtanzeiger, July 24, 2006, online at Schumann-Portal.de
- ↑ quoted from: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau: Robert Schumann. The vocal work. dtv / Bärenreiter, Munich / Kassel 1985, ISBN 3-423-10423-6 , p. 106.
- ↑ The Grenadiers at The LiederNet Archive