Good evening, good night

Lullaby by Johannes Brahms, sung by Ernestine Schumann-Heink (recording: 1915)

Good evening, good night is a poem of German folk poetry that has been known since the beginning of the 19th century. In the setting by Johannes Brahms under the title Lullaby (also known as Brahms' Lullaby in English-speaking countries ) it became one of the most famous lullabies .

The seal

text

Good evening, good night,
covered with roses,
studded with nails,
slip under the decks:
Tomorrow morning, if God willing,
you will be woken up again.

Good evening, good night,
guarded by angels, they 'll
show
you Christ Child's tree in a dream .
Now sleep blissfully and sweetly,
see paradise in your dream.

Text history

The first stanza in the form we know today appeared for the first time in 1808 under the title Gute Nacht, mein Kind! in the third volume of the collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn edited by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano .

Good night my child!

Good evening, good night, covered
with roses,
studded with nails,
slip 'under the deck',
tomorrow morning, if God willing,
you will be woken up again.

The High German text was written by Brentano; the direct template was a Low German text version that had appeared eight years earlier in Johann Friedrich Schützes Holsteinischer Idiotikon :

Godn evening , good night,
covered with roses,
besteeken with negelken,
krup ünner de Deeken,
tomorrow frö wills God, wöl wi us wedder spreeken.

Further versions, albeit recorded later, which were printed by Franz Magnus Böhme in 1897, speak in favor of the spread of the text, especially in the Low German region .

The motif goes back to the late Middle Ages. A good night wish that has been handed down in several variations in love letters since the 15th century is:

Got a good night
of roses a roof
of liligen a pet
of feyal a deck
of muschschat a door
of negellein a rigelien for

interpretation

Dried cloves, the "nailin"

In the context of the late medieval text version, the plant metaphor , which is no longer directly understandable today, is better understood: the roses are supposed to form a protective roof, and the nails - an outdated, regionally but still used name for cloves - are supposed to represent protection because they are Essential oils were used against pests and pathogens.

The desire for protection generally relates to a loved one. The Wunderhorn researcher Heinz Rölleke found that Arnim and Brentano had placed the song "incorrectly" in the children's songs appendix , "although, as the flower symbols show, it is actually a love song". "It only became a nursery rhyme when it was headed and combined with other nursery rhymes."

A passage in the text that is not immediately apparent to today's listeners is the phrase “Tomorrow morning, if God wills, you will be awakened again”. Quite a few listeners, especially children, have the association that, according to this text, waking up the following morning could depend on an arbitrary decision by God. In fact, this phrase simply expresses a humble attitude towards the fact that the future is in God's hands. It is formulated in the earlier widespread phrase sub conditione Jacobi : “God willing and we live” (according to Jak 4,15  LUT ; cf. also the Arabic In shā'a llāh ).

The added stanza

The second stanza comes from the philologist and folk song collector Georg Scherer (1824–1909), who included the song in his collection of old and new children's songs published in 1849 . This text addition gave the song a "distinctly Christmassy character". Scherer's version of the second stanza differs from the current version:

Good evening, good night,
guarded by angels!
In a dream they will show
you the Christmas
tree up in paradise -
sleep now blissfully and sweetly!

The lullaby by Johannes Brahms

Origin and biographical background

Johannes Brahms (around 1866)

Johannes Brahms composed his lullaby in Bonn in July 1868 and dedicated it to Bertha Faber, b. Porubszky, on the occasion of the birth of their second son, "always happy use". Brahms had met Bertha Porubszky , who came from Vienna , in 1859, when she had become a member of the women's choir he directed during a stay in Hamburg at the age of seventeen . On this occasion, she had sung Brahms several songs from her native Austria, including a Brahms is probably remained particularly in mind: the Landler 's is Anderscht from the 1844 published the second issue of the collection Mountain Bleamln the local poet Alexander Baumann .

Although some surviving letters between Brahms and Bertha Porubszky indicate a friendly relationship, the exact nature of the relationship can no longer be clarified in a documentary and led to some speculation. Franz Grasberger thinks, for example, that Bertha Porubszky raised her hopes, but Brahms shied away from all kinds of ties. In contrast, Hans Joachim Moser believes that Fräulein Bertha gave Brahms a basket with the very song mentioned, which is about trying to force love to lead to resistance. Be that as it may, Brahms and Bertha Porubszky did not get together as a couple, but they remained friendly.

In the accompanying letter of July 15, 1868 to the Faber couple, Brahms describes how he imagines the domestic situation of lullaby singing:

"Frau Bertha will soon see that I made the lullaby yesterday just for her little one; she will, like me, find it quite okay that while she is singing Hans in sleep, the man is singing to her and mumbling a love song. "

The relationship to the folk song template

The melody is probably a folk tune, because it was recorded in 1891 by the folk song collector Hans Neckheim (1844–1930) with minor changes and to a different text (you are going, you are not wearing a dirndle) .

In the piano accompaniment to his lullaby, Brahms quotes the Landler almost true to note at the beginning. From bar 11 it breaks away from the melody of the original, but retains the harmonic course. Above it is the melody voice that Brahms himself devised as a counterpoint .

Text basis and edition history

The lullaby appeared in print in 1868 as No. 4 of Brahms' collection Five Songs for One Voice, Op. 49. In the first edition it only included the first stanza. Brahms used the copy in the German Children's Book (1848), which was published by Karl Simrock , an uncle of Brahms' publisher, as a text template . Since the text was printed there without reference to the source, Brahms did not initially recognize that the poem was already contained in Des Knaben Wunderhorn , although this book was also in his possession. The first edition consequently appeared with the source reference “from Simrock's children's book” on the title page.

It was only later that Brahms was made aware of a second stanza by a friend, apparently the one composed by Georg Scherer, the source of which he did not at first know. In April 1870 he wrote to his publisher Fritz Simrock :

“I'm sorry that you have already edited the lullaby individually. A friend recently shared a second verse with me about this. Couldn't this be put under from time to time? "

However, since Scherer's text did not adapt well to the melody, the addition of the second stanza was initially delayed. Even Hermann Levi , whom Brahms wrote to ask for advice on this matter, was evidently unable to help. In a dedication sheet for Clara Schumann from September 12, 1872, the stanza text is only partially underlaid. It was not until the end of 1873 that Brahms found a solution to modify the stanza in the last two verses, with which he was satisfied. Expanded into a verse song in this way, the song appeared from 1874.

In 1892 Brahms asked Simrock to have the sources of the lyrics corrected:

“Could you have added small letters to our famous lullaby, after the first verse: From the Knaben Wunderhorn, and after the second: by Georg Scherer. It would be very nice if you could send such a copy to Prof. G. Sch. Munich, Barerstraße 49. "

- Letter to Fritz Simrock from July 26, 1892

The reason was that Georg Scherer had turned to Brahms and introduced himself to him as the actual author of the second stanza. Brahms was also likely to have learned on this occasion that the Wunderhorn is the source of the first stanza.

“Scherer wrote to me in great detail about the lullaby and that the second verse was first in his children's book and was from him. Your uncle probably copied it from it, too, but did not consider it important and necessary to name the author, and all the more so since the first verse does not mention a source. But I think it's decent if we give the poet the desired fun [...] "

- Letter to Fritz Simrock dated August 2, 1892

Musical analysis

The melody of the pianissimo song is kept simple as a folk song. Nevertheless, certain passages show that the work as an art song is actually intended to be performed by a trained voice, for example with the octave jump , which can also be interpreted as a “wake-up call”.

The song is characterized by the rhythmic contrast between the melody and the syncopated upper part of the piano accompaniment, in which some performers believe they recognize the gentle rocking of the cradle. Ultimately, however, it was the compositional method of artfully weaving the Ländlermelody into the accompaniment that led to this effect.

The foundation of the interwoven voices in the left hand of the piano accompaniment is a series of simply broken chords with the key E- flat repeated like an organ point , which gives the song a slightly psychedelic, hypnotic, sleepy mood.

reception

The song was first performed publicly on December 22nd, 1869 in Vienna by Marie Louise Dustmann-Meyer (vocals) and Clara Schumann (piano).

Without exception, the song is discussed positively in literature. Ludwig Misch calls it "the most beautiful of all lullabies". Several authors praise the masterful combination of art and folk song.

The pianist Elly Ney used to end her concerts with the lullaby , signaling to the audience that there would be no more encores.

Music box

There are no countless uses of the lullaby in music boxes , which probably helped countless toddlers around the world to have one of their first musical experiences.

The lullaby can now be found in the soundtracks of over 60 films.

Edits

The lullaby received innumerable vocal and instrumental arrangements. Versions for piano with two, four and six hands, two fantasies and a salon fantasy for piano, as well as arrangements for piano with violin, flute or cello, for harp, voice with zither accompaniment, male choir and for orchestra were published during Brahms's lifetime . This prompted Brahms to make the sarcastic remark to Simrock in 1877: “How about if you also made editions of the lullaby in minor for naughty or ailing children? That would be another possibility to increase the number of editions! ”- Brahms himself quotes a minor variant of the lullaby melody in the secondary theme of the first movement of his 2nd symphony .

The arrangement by the pianist and composer Percy Grainger for solo piano as part of the Free settings on favorite melodies from 1922 should be emphasized . Rudolf Mauersberger created a movement for mixed choir a cappella RMWV 399 and one for solo voice and choir RMWV 425.

Further settings

Georg Scherer published the song in 1849 with a melody version that he apparently composed himself. As far as is known, this is the earliest attempt at setting the poem to music. The print in Scherer's own collection of nursery rhymes, however, was the only publication of this melody, which fell far short of the distribution and popularity of Brahms' later version.

Carl Graf Nostitz published a setting of the first verse in 1886 as part of his Fifty Songs .

Charles Ives created his own setting of the lullaby in 1900, which, as with Brahms, comprises two stanzas.

literature

• Karen M. Bottge: Brahms's "Lullaby" and the Maternal Voice. In: 19th Century Music 28/3 (2005), pp. 185-213 ( JSTOR 10.1525 / ncm.2005.28.3.185 ).
• Max Friedlaender : Brahms' songs. Introduction to his chants for one and two voices. Simrock, Berlin and Leipzig 1922, pp. 61–64 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
• Wolfgang Sandberger (ed.), Brigitte Fassbaender (preface): Johannes Brahms. Lullaby op. 49 No. 4. Facsimile based on the autograph of the Glinka National Museum for Music Culture, Moscow (= masterpieces of music in facsimile; 30). Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2015, ISBN 978-3-89007-777-2 .

Web links

• Good night my child! from Des Knaben Wunderhorn in the Gutenberg-DE project .
• J. Brahms: 5 songs, Op. 49 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
• Sheet music in the public domain for Lullaby Op. 49.4 in the Choral Public Domain Library - ChoralWiki (English)
• Opus 49, five songs for a voice and piano at the Brahms Institute at the Lübeck University of Music
• Good evening, good night in the song project of SWR2 and Carus-Verlag
• Xaver Frühbeis: Secret message to Bertha Faber: "Good evening, good night". BR-Klassik Mittagsmusik extra from January 3, 2013, accessed on July 21, 2016 (with audio sample of the song by Alexander Baumann).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Achim von Arnim, Clemens Brentano (ed.): Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Old German songs . Volume 3. Mohr and Zimmer, Heidelberg 1808, Appendix: Children's songs, p. 68 ( digitized and full text in the German text archive ).
2. ↑ ^{a b} Theo Mang, Sunhilt Mang (ed.): Der Liederquell . Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 2007, ISBN 978-3-7959-0850-8 , pp. 141 f .
3. ↑ ^{a b} Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Edited by Heinz Rölleke. Volume 3. Reclam, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-15-030034-7 , p. 446.
4. ↑ Johann Friedrich Schütze: Holsteinisches Idiotikon. Villaume, Hamburg 1800, p. 14 ( digitized in the Google book search).
5. ^ Franz Magnus Böhme: German children's song and children's game. Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig 1897, p. 315 f. ( Text archive - Internet Archive ).
6. ↑ Jürgen Schulz-Grobert: "... with roses". Medieval love letter verses and the possibilities of their “romantic” updating. In: Ute Jung-Kaiser (Ed.): Intime text bodies. The love letter in the arts. Lang, Bern 2004, ISBN 3-03910-427-6 , pp. 33–48 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
7. ↑ Hermann Joseph Leyser: Monuments of the past. In: Anzeiger für Kunde des Deutschen Mittelalter Vol. 2 (1833), Sp. 67–74 ( digitized in the Google book search).
8. ↑ Ernst Meyer: The rhyming love letters of the German Middle Ages. Diss. Marburg 1899, p. 77 f. ( Text archive - Internet Archive ).
9. ^ Lutz Röhrich : Nursery rhyme and children's game - yesterday and today. In: ders .: Collected writings on folk song and ballad research. Waxmann, Münster 2002, ISBN 3-8309-6213-4 , pp. 287–332, here p. 290 ( limited preview in Google book search).
10. ↑ Nägelein . In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 13 : N, O, P, Q - (VII). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1889 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
11. ↑ Cloves . In: Merck's Warenlexikon . 3rd ed. 1884 ff., P. 157 f.
12. ↑ Miriam Wiegele: Cloves, healing spices. accessed June 21, 2013
13. ↑ Love spells and plague amulet. Association of the Spice Industry V., accessed June 21, 2013
14. ↑ Heinz Rölleke (Ed.): The folk song book . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1993, ISBN 3-462-02294-6 , pp.  139 .
15. ↑ Podcast article on Guten Abend, gut Nacht from SWR2 (MP3, 9.6 MB, 1:56)
16. ↑ Roman Fraiss: "So God Will". Sermon on the evening of the year 2009.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Parish Lenzing-Kammer. (PDF, 43 KB)  
17. ↑ Ernst Klusen writes in Deutsche Lieder , Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1980, ISBN 3-458-04855-2 , p. 822 without giving reasons: “2. Verse Author unknown, not G. Scherer ”. In contrast, Scherer identifies himself as a co-author in the table of contents of his nursery rhyme collection, see digitized version in the Google book search.
18. ↑ ^{a b c} Georg Scherer: Old and new children's songs, fables, sayings and riddles. Mayer, Leipzig 1849, p. 43 f. ( Digitized in the Google book search).
19. ↑ ^{a b} Opus 49, Five songs for a voice and piano at the Brahms Institute at the Lübeck University of Music
20. ↑ ^{a b c d} Margit L. McCorkle: Johannes Brahms. Thematic-bibliographical catalog of works. Henle, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-87328-041-8 , pp. 195-202.
21. ^ ^{A b} Max Kalbeck : Johannes Brahms. Biography in 4 volumes. 1904-1914. Facsimile reprint Schneider / Tutzing 1976 ( digitized at Zeno.org .)
22. ↑ ^{a b c} Eric Sams: The Songs of Johannes Brahms. Yale University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-300-07962-1 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
23. ↑ Otto-Hans Kahler: Brahms' Lullaby and the Gebirgs-Bleamln of Alexander Baumann. In: Brahms Studies 6 (1985), ISSN  0341-941X , ISBN 3-88979-012-7 , pp. 65-70.
24. ^ Franz Grasberger: Brahms: Lullaby. In: ders .: Treasures of Music. Volume 1: The Song. Schneider, Tutzing 1968, pp. 135–159.
25. ^ Hans Joachim Moser: The German song since Mozart. Volume 1. Atlantis 1937, p. 173.
26. ^ Marion Gerards: Frauenliebe, Männerleben: the music of Johannes Brahms and the gender discourse in the 19th century. Böhlau, Köln / Weimar 2010, ISBN 978-3-412-20496-9 , pp. 155–165 (also dissertation University of Oldenburg 2008; limited preview in Google book search).
27. ^ Walther Jaffé: Alexander Baumann (1814-1857). A contribution to the Viennese literary Vormärz and to the folk song in Austria (= research on recent literary history XLII). Duncker, Weimar 1913, p. 58 ( digital version (PDF) PDF, 25.31 MB).
28. ^ Hans Neckheim: 222 real Carinthian songs. Volume 1. Deutscher Volksgesang-Verein, Vienna undated [1891], p. 115 f.
29. ^ Siegmund Helms: The formation of melodies in the songs of Johannes Brahms and their relationship to folk songs and folk tunes. Dissertation Freie Universität Berlin 1967, pp. 67–70.
30. ^ Karl Simrock: The German children's book. Brönner, Frankfurt am Main 1848, p. 54 ( digitized in the Google book search).
31. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Johannes Behr: The lullaby of Brahms. A Wunderhorn setting? In: Antje Tumat (ed.): Von Volkston und Romantik. The boy's magic horn in music. Winter, Heidelberg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8253-5333-9 , pp. 115-123.
32. ↑ Max Kalbeck (Ed.): Johannes Brahms. Letter to PJ Simrock and Fritz Simrock. First volume. 1917. Reprint: Schneider, Tutzing 1974, ISBN 3-7952-0143-8 , p. 94 ( limited preview in the Google book search)
33. ↑ ^{a b} quoted from Behr 2008, p. 122.
34. ↑ ^{a b} Hans-Dieter Wagner: Johannes Brahms - the creation of songs: a guide to understanding and interpretation. Palatium, Mannheim 2001, ISBN 3-920671-41-4 , p. 75 f.
35. ^ Christian Martin Schmidt: Reclam's music guide Johannes Brahms. Reclam, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-15-010401-7 , pp. 267-269.
36. ↑ Peter Rummenhöller: "Song-like" in the work of Brahms. In: Peter Jost (ed.): Brahms as a song composer: Studies on the relationship between text and setting. Steiner, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-515-05766-8 , pp. 38–46, here p. 43 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
37. ↑ Ludwig Misch: Johannes Brahms. New edition. Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld 1922, p. 50.
38. ↑ Peter Jost: Songs and Chants. In: Wolfgang Sandberger (Ed.): Brahms Handbook. Metzler, Stuttgart / Bärenreiter, Kassel 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-02233-2 , here: p. 239 f.
39. ↑ Elly Ney: Memories and Reflections: My Life from Music. 2nd Edition. Pattloch, Aschaffenburg 1957, p. 103 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
40. ↑ Pro Classics CD-Newsletter 2003  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
41. ↑ Harry Joelson-Strohbach: Aimez-vous Brahms? - Brahms in the film. In: Wolfgang Sandberger (Ed.): Brahms Handbook. Metzler, Stuttgart / Bärenreiter, Kassel 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-02233-2 , pp. 582-590.
42. ^ Siegfried Kross: Johannes Brahms. An attempt at a critical documentary biography. Volume 2. Bouvier, Bonn 1997, ISBN 3-416-02699-3 , p. 551 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
43. ^ Reinhold Brinkmann: Johannes Brahms. The Second Symphony: Late Idyll (= Music Concepts Volume 70). Edition Text + Critique, 1990, ISBN 3-88377-377-8 , p. 53 ( limited preview in Google book search).
44. ↑ Percy Grainger: Cradle Song, arrangement for piano (after Brahms, Op. 49/4; FS 1) by Allmusic (English)
45. ↑ Good evening, good night at The LiederNet Archive
46. ↑ James B. Sinclair: A Descriptive Catalog of the Music of Charles Ives. Yale University Press, New Haven 1999, ISBN 0-300-07601-0 , pp. 548 f. ( limited preview in Google Book search).
47. ↑ Charles Ives: Wiegenlied, song for voice & piano, p. 395 (K. 6B36a) at Allmusic (English)