It is already getting dark in the heather

I hear a sickle rustling. Ludwig Christian Erk : Deutscher Liederhort , Berlin 1856. All 7 stanzas known today are listed here - the last two in the small print notes.

I hear a sickle rustling. Franz Magnus Böhme : Old German song book , Leipzig 1877

It's already getting dark in the heather is a German love song , the text of which in its current form was created from several songs in the 19th century at the latest. Of these, two previous songs have been recorded since the 16th century. The melody we know today appeared in 1911 with the text we know today in a collection of East Prussian spinning room songs and in 1913 in the Zupfgeigenhansl of the Wandering Bird Movement . In this version the song became one of the most famous folk songs in the German-speaking world.

history

A love song with the title I hear 'a sickle rushing , the first stanza of which largely resembles the second stanza of Es dunkelt already in der Heide , was published in Frankfurt am Main in 1535 in the Grassliedlin song collection . Probably in Nuremberg in 1536 the Bergkreyen appeared with the love song Wundergarten der Liebe , in which a stanza ( in my Bulen garden ) is almost identical to the last two stanzas of the now known Es dunkelt in der Heide . Both songs were evidently widespread and were sung again and again with different wandering stanzas, i.e. stanzas that appeared one time in one and then again in another, rhythmically identical song. Both songs were also included in Des Knaben Wunderhorn ( Volume II, 1808, p. 50 and Volume I, 1806, p. 213 ), Ludwig Uhland's collection of folk songs (Cotta, 1844, p. 78 and 74) and in the first edition by Ludwig Christian Erks German song library from 1856 (No. 143, p. 313  f. ). There the first 5 stanzas that are widespread today are already summarized under the title I hear 'a sickle rushing , whereby the first stanza begins with It darkens in the forest . Erk then cites the very similar stanzas known today as a variant under stanzas 6th and 7th ("In mein Feinliebchens Garten ..."). He gives two melodies recorded in Brandenburg, one of which is similar to the melody known today. The numerous indications of origin - Potsdam, Gramzow, Wriezen, Silesia, Upper Hesse, Franconia, Saxony, Samland (East Prussia) and Karden (Moselle) - speak for a very wide distribution of the song. A melody version very similar to the one known today, which was awarded in Pomerania in 1860, appears in the expanded edition of the German song library by Erk and Böhme (1893). Eduard Roese recorded a variant of this melody in Lengen ( Preußisch Eylau district , East Prussia ) and published it in 1911. This version was included in the 10th edition of the song book Der Zupfgeigenhansl der Wandervogelbewegung in 1913 , and was thus widely used.

In the 20th century, the song was often sung and also recorded on sound carriers, for example by the opera singer Hermann Prey or by the folk duo Zupfgeigenhansel (albums Volkslieder 2 and Liebeslieder ).

Content of the lyrics

The text of the song speaks intensely in pictures from nature with its times of day and seasons as well as from the activities of agriculture and expresses the feelings of separation of those involved. The “heath” as a place of wilderness can also be seen as a place of free love, while “Korn” as well as “Klee” contain an erotic symbolism. In older versions of the song, the muscatels sung about are sweet (like love), while the brown nails ( cloves ) are “rass” - hot, bitter (like the pain of separation). Cutting with the sword or sickle can be understood as the destruction of love, as separation (parting) of the lovers, about whom the song is about. Another image for the breakup is the snow that makes the bride's transition across the bridge impossible. On the one hand, the water stands for love, on the other hand, when it flows, for its transience. Eduard Roese is convinced that the version recorded by him in East Prussia is the original. Roese contrasts the text passage in the version he found “she would have lost her love” with the version in Erk and Böhme “she would have lost her honor”. The girl's real grief, as expressed in the steady rustling of the sickle and the monotonous noise of the falling grain, is for lost love and not for lost honor. The interpretation of who is the girl's "lost love" - ​​a stranger or the singing lover (the lyrical self ) - makes the interpretation of the song difficult. Often the song is understood in such a way that the singing consoles the one abandoned by another lover in order to win her as his dear love. Roese sees in the “lost love”, however, the singers themselves, which is made clear by the passage in the song “I heard m a fine love complain” (and not “a fine love”). He comforted her with the fact that there was still time until the upcoming farewell to wind a wreath together “as a sign of faithful remembrance”. Florian Russi understands the phrase "her love lost" to mean that the girl's love has expired, which the young man tries to balance with his own strong love, but in the end gives up. On the one hand, the wreath stands for the virginal blossom, but it was also a sign of acceptance when it was handed over.

Text and melody

A version of the song known today reads:

1. It's already getting dark in the heather let's go home We cut the grain with our shining sword.	2. I heard the sickle rustle probably rushing through the grain. I hear my dear love complain she would have lost her love.
3. Have you lost your love so i still have mine This is how we both want each other we wind a wreath.	4th A wreath of roses a bouquet of clover. To Frankfurt on the bridge there is deep snow.
5. The snow that has melted the water runs away. Are you getting out of my sight don't get out of my mind	6th In my father's garden there are two little trees. One carries muscatels the other brown nails.
7th Muscat, they are sweet Brown nails are beautiful. We both, we gotta divorce yes divorce, it hurts.

The most famous melody today is:

Texts of the previous songs

The text of the song I hear a sickling rustling from the Grassliedlin (No. 15) from 1535 reads:

I hear a sickling rustling,
Wols rushing through the grain,
I hear a fine Magt complaining that
you have lost your love.

(Explanation: hort = heard)

The sixth and seventh stanzas of the song Wundergarten der Liebe from 1536 read:

In my Bulen garden there are two little trees. That one that gets well muscats, the other one.

The Muscat that is sweet, the neglein tears. I give them to my bull that you do not forget mine.

(Explanation: Muscats = nutmegs; Negelein = cloves ; reß = spicy, bitter)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rochus von Liliencron (ed.): German life in folk song around 1530 (= Deutsche National-Litteratur. Volume 13). W. Spemann, Berlin a. Stuttgart o. J. [1885], pp. 404-408 ( digitized in the Google book search).
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Gertraud Meinel: Plant metaphors in folksong. In: Yearbook for Folk Song Research. 27 (1982), pp. 162-174, here pp. 167 f., P. 171.
3. ^ Ludwig Christian Erk : Deutscher Liederhort. Selection of the excellent German folk songs from the past and present with their peculiar melodies. Published by Ludwig Erk. Th. Chr. Fr. Enslin, Berlin 1856, p. 313 f.
4. ^ Ludwig Christian Erk , Franz Magnus Böhme : Deutscher Liederhort. Selection of the more excellent German folk songs by word and style from the past and present. Second volume. Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig 1893, p. 475, third melody.
5. ^ ^{A b} Eduard Roese: Lebende Spinnstubenlieder. Recorded and explained verbatim from the vernacular in rural East Prussia. Deutsche Landbuchhandlung, Berlin 1911, pp. 195–202, here p. 196 f.
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Hans Breuer (ed.): Der Zupfgeigenhansl . 10th edition. Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig 1913, p. 111 (reprinted by B. Schott's Sons, Mainz 1981, ISBN 3-7957-4002-9 ).
7. ↑ It is already getting dark in the heather . Schwäbisches Kulturarchiv, Schwaben-Kultur.de, accessed on April 12, 2019.
8. ↑ It's already dark in the heather , sung by Hermann Prey , on Youtube, accessed on April 12, 2019.
9. ↑ ^{a b c} It's already getting dark in the heather , sung by Zupfgeigenhansel , on Youtube, accessed on April 12, 2019.
10. ↑ ^{a b} Kathinka Kothe, Karlsruhe and Karl-Heinz Frank: German song: It's already dark in the heather. Song of the Month, November 2016 - Issue No. 29, pp. 4-11. The Sounding Bridge - Working Group Projects.
11. ↑ Florian Russi : It's already getting dark in the heather. Deutschland-Lese.de, Bertuch Verlag Weimar. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
12. ^ Bernhard Joseph Docen : Miscellanees for the history of teutschen literature: containing newly discovered monuments of language, poetry and philosophy of our ancestors. Volume 1. EA Fleischmann, Munich 1809, p. 262 ( digitized in the Google book search).
13. ↑ Achim von Arnim, Clemens Brentano: Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Revised by Anton Birlinger and Wilhelm Crecelius . Second volume. Heinrich Killinger, Wiesbaden and Leipzig 1876, p. 103 ( digitized in the Google book search).