Good moon, you walk so quietly

Good moon, you walk so quietly with Max Friedlaender : German song treasure. The most beautiful songs from the old Ludwig Erks collection. Leipzig around 1920 sound file ^{? / i}

Good moon, you go so quietly is the title of a German-language folk song that is distributed in various versions and almost innumerable adaptations.

About history

In the original version, the piece was an anonymous, popular love song with seven stanzas, which has been handed down in several song pamphlets from around 1800 . The time of origin is assumed towards the end of the 18th century. The singer longs for a glorified lover whom he cannot seek out because he is already “bound”, that is, engaged or married. Even this version of the text was often varied.

The schoolmaster and poet Karl Enslin created a three-verse version in 1851 with a Christian-edifying tendency that leaves out the love conflict. This version prevailed for a long time in the history of the song's impact. For example, Engelbert Humperdinck set Enslin's text to music in an arrangement for voice and piano in 1909. Even today, Enslin's text is preferably printed in children's song books. In the 4th edition of Hoffmann von Fallersleben's reference work, our folk songs, Karl Hermann Prahl denies the authorship of the lyrics. But he overlooked the fact that Enslin is not the author of the original version, but of the three-verse devotional song.

The melody is dated around 1800. It was printed for the first time by Ludwig Erk in 1838 with the note “known throughout Germany”. Occasionally the melody is attributed to Anton Neyer (an otherwise apparently completely unknown composer). The melody possibly takes up older models such as poor and small is my hut by Ernst Wilhelm Wolf and the farewell song I think of you by JA Wenk. Apart from that, the melody remained a popular organ organ piece to this day . For the song researcher Max Friedlaender , the melody is "rightly considered a type of sentimental Biedermaier wise men". More detailed information on the story can be found in the song dictionary .

melody

Melody version of the art song by Engelbert Humperdinck with the love song text:

Well-known artists

After the lecture by famous choirs such as the Vienna Boys' Choir , the version by Heintje from 1967 should be in many ears. It is, so to speak, even shorter, more alloyed, more harmless than the famous version of the Comedian Harmonists , which also comes up with a mixture of the original song of forbidden love and the edifying version of Karl Enslin. The stars of the late 1920s leave it at three stanzas (like Enslin), but combine the comforting with Weltschmerz. Similar to Nana Mouskouri : The child taught at bedtime may at least be sad, even if it remains open for what reason they mourn. The Belgian singer Louis Neefs sang Margrietje in 1972 to the melody of Guter Mond, you go so quietly .

text

Song leaflet (1808)

Good moon, you walk so quietly
In the evening clouds, you
are so calm, and I feel
that I am without rest!
My looks sadly follow
your mild, cheerful path;
Oh how hard is the fate
That I cannot follow you!

  Good moon, I will complain to
you , What hurts my anxious heart,
And in all my plagues
the sad soul thinks.
Good moon, you should know,
Because you are so secretive,
Why my tears flow,
And my heart is so sad.

  There in that little valley,
where there are many young trees,
And not far from the waterfall
you will see a hut.
Walk through valleys, fields and meadows,
look gently through the window;
So you see Elisen,
Queen of all girls. | [fol 1v]

  Not in gold, and not in silk
Will you see this girl,
Only in a white dress
does she always go about.
Not of nobility, not of class,
What else is so highly revered;
Not in a religious bond
does this girl have her worth.

 Only her charm, her good heart make
her lovable with me,
gentle in earnest, and happy in jest,
every feature is good about her;
The gestures are expressive
. Their look is beautiful and cheerful.
In short, to be loved by her is
the greatest happiness for me.

  Moon, you friend of chaste instincts,
sneak into her little hut,
tell her: that I love her
and she is mine all alone,
my pleasure, my joy,
my pleasure, my everything;
That I like to suffer for her
when she kisses me now and then.

  That I am already bound,
and unfortunately too! too quickly
My sweet hours of freedom
have faded away from me;
But that I can
live in the world without sin : -
Go and tell the beautiful child
whether she likes this love?

Karl Enslin (1851)

Good moon, you walk so quietly
through the evening clouds;
Your Creator's wise will
meant to draw you on that path.
Shine kindly to every weary person
in the quiet little room!
And your shimmer pour peace
into the oppressed heart!

Good moon, you walk quietly
on the blue canopy ,
Where God has placed you
as a lamp at his price .
Look down at us confidently
Through the night on earth!
As a loyal guardian of mankind,
you show God's love!

Good moon, so gentle and mild
you
shine in the sea of stars, Wall in the field of light, noble
and solemn. Comforter of
men, messenger of God,
enthroned on clouds of peace: You lead us
to the most beautiful dawn
, O good moon!

reception

In 1895, the folk song researcher Franz Magnus Böhme did not have a good hair with the song:

“This song with its extremely boring love affair was sung until around 1850, but usually only the first verse and finally just for fun. It can be found in full in all pocket song books to this day. If it is also here, forgive the reader (probably nobody will sing it again!): It should only serve as evidence of the unpoetic food with which the German was otherwise satisfied. "

In spite of this damning verdict, there is a lot of evidence for the song from the beginning of the 20th century in the German Folk Song Archive, as well as prints in song books of the youth movement .

Parodies

The romantic song has often been parodied . So the Berlin humorist Adolf Glaßbrenner took Guter Mond, you go so quietly in 1845 from a pre- March viewpoint; similarly in 1920 (while the German Revolution was again a long time coming) Kurt Tucholsky under the title To the German Moon . Tucholsky's attack was set to music by Hanns Eisler , among others , who leaned heavily on folk songs.

Trivia

• A crime novel by Kay Borowsky from 1984 alludes to the catchy tune in the title: Good moon, you walk so quietly .
• At the opening of the Kiel Canal in 1895 a naval reception band played the hymns of the nations of the ships passing through. On a Turkish ship the notes were missing, so the band played the folk song alluding to the crescent flag.

See also

• Evening song

Web links

Commons : Good moon, you walk so quietly  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Tobias Widmaier: Good moon, you walk so quietly (2010). In: Popular and Traditional Songs. Historical-critical song lexicon of the German Folk Song Archive
• Jutta Assel, Georg Jäger : Folk song motifs on postcards - "Good moon, you walk so quietly" . goethezeitportal.de, April 2016
• Good moon, you walk so quietly in the song project by Carus-Verlag and SWR2
• Xaver Frühbeis: In the beginning there was love suffering. "Good moon, you walk so quietly". BR-Klassik, extra midday music, December 25, 2015

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Tobias Widmaier: Guter Mond, you go so quietly (2010). In: Popular and Traditional Songs. Historical-critical song lexicon of the German Folk Song Archive
2. ^ ^{A b} Karl Enslin: Spring of Life. Poems for the youth. Second improved and increased edition, Leipzig 1851, p. 197 f. ( Transcription and scan of the original print )
3. ^ Text and lecture by Konstantin Wolff in the song project of Carus-Verlag and SWR2, accessed on November 25, 2012
4. ↑ z. B. Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann : The book of children's songs (= series music. 8370). New edition. Schott, Mainz 2010, ISBN 978-3-254-08370-8 , p. 46; Hermann Drews: What children like to sing. Südwest, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-517-07833-6 , p. 106 f.
5. ↑ Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Karl Hermann Prahl: Our folk songs. 4th edition. Engelmann, Leipzig 1900, p. 111 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
6. ↑ Ludwig Erk , Wilhelm Irmer (Hrsg.): The German folk songs with their ways of singing. Second issue. Plahn, Berlin 1838, p. 26 f. ( Edition in the song lexicon of the German Folk Song Archive ).
7. ↑ ^{a b} Theo Mang, Sunhilt Mang (ed.): Der Liederquell . Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 2007, ISBN 978-3-7959-0850-8 , pp. 142-144 .
8. ^ German digital library
9. ↑ from: Christian Jakob Wagenseil : Honesty and Love. A rural spectacle with singing, in one elevator. The music is from Kapellmeister Wolf zu Weimar. Ettinger, Gotha 1779, p. 11 f. ( Digitized in the Google book search).
10. ^ Max Friedlaender: The German song in the 18th century. Sources and Studies. Volume 2. Cotta, Stuttgart / Berlin 1902, pp. 451–453 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
11. ↑ 1961 under the title To the moon
12. ↑ Version by Heintje , accessed on April 17, 2011
13. ^ Text and lecture , both websites accessed on April 17, 2011
14. ↑ So on Mouskouri's record Kinderlieder from 1979, see text here , accessed on April 17, 2011
15. ↑ muziekarchief.be
16. ↑ Four (No. 13) New Songs. Ratibor 1808 , edition in the song lexicon of the German Folk Song Archive, accessed on January 31, 2018
17. ^ Franz Magnus Böhme: Popular songs of the Germans in the 18th and 19th centuries. Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig 1895, p. 351 f. ( Text archive - Internet Archive ).
18. ^ Adolf Glaßbrenner, Parodie des Vormärz 1845 , edition in the song lexicon of the German Folk Song Archive, accessed on April 17, 2011
19. ^ Parodie Kurt Tucholsky 1920 , edition in the song lexicon of the German Folk Song Archive, accessed on April 17, 2011
20. ↑ Cem Özdemir . In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , 1996, pp. 253 ( online ).
21. ↑ Christa Schaffmann: Marine band played "Guter Mond" . In: Berliner Zeitung , August 10, 2011 ( online , accessed October 7, 2011)