The old bad songs
"The old, bad songs" is a poem by Heinrich Heine that deals with the need to bury old evils and sufferings. Heine uses various literary images to describe the destruction of the old pain. The text concludes the section Lyric Intermezzo in Heine's collection of poems, Book of Songs . This came out in 1827, but was created between 1816 and 1826.
Setting by Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann set Heine's poem to music as the last song in his song cycle ' Dichterliebe ' (Op. 48). This cycle of 16 songs after Heine was written in 1840 at a time when Schumann was composing many songs. Schumann, who himself long wanted to be a writer, was an advocate of the creative exchange of different art forms. As a great admirer of Heine, he set many of his lyrical works to music. The romantic Schumann was primarily concerned with the fusion and unification of poetry and musical expression. Schumann's setting of “Die alten, böse Lieder” has a resolute, inherently heightened character. Schumann takes painful love very deeply and seriously, without any bitterness. This is the ingenious reinterpretation of Heine's bitter conclusion!
Later reception
Fatih Akın the song filmed as a German contribution to the consisting of 25 short films EU compilation film European visions of Lars von Trier . Contributors are, for example, FM Einheit and Idil Üner . In this context, film and song imply a call to the EU to “see the art and culture of the various countries as a tool for reconciliation”.
Georg Kreisler named his memory book, published by Ueberreuter in 1989 , after the Heine song, which the chansonnier, who is known for his satirical and malicious songs, is primarily to be understood as an homage .
In Berlin living American musician Daniel Kahn published in 2012 with his band The Painted Bird , the album Bad Old Songs with songs in English , Yiddish and German language. The penultimate song is Die alten, wicked Lieder in the original German text by Heine. The title of the album obviously refers to this song, but also alludes to Good Old Bad Old Days (Daniel Kahn) and Die Alten Lieder ( Franz Josef Degenhardt , Yiddish and English by Daniel Kahn). The album was included in the quarterly best list 1-2013 of the German Record Critics .
Web links
- Text in the version slightly changed by Schumann
- Recording of the Schumann song with Peter W. Shea (tenor) and Gregory Hayes (piano) (MP3; 11.6 MB)
Individual evidence
- ^ Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird: Discography. Oriente Musik, Berlin, accessed on July 9, 2015 (see also the booklet on “Bad Old Songs” (PDF; size: 1.1 MiB), song No. 9, p. 12 ).
- ↑ Best list 1-2013. German Record Critics' Prize V., February 15, 2013, accessed July 9, 2015 .