I went through a grass-green forest

I went through a grass-green forest is a well-known German folk song .

content

In the first stanza it is described that the lyrical self walks through a grass-green forest and hears the birds that, from its point of view, sing so young and so old. In the 2nd stanza it means about the nightingale that only she should sing and asks himself who wants to disturb her. The flowers and all the birds listen to it after the echo. In the final third stanza it is explained that the lyrical self must now wander uphill and downhill and only hear the nightingale sing in the distance.

The song exists in both the past and present tense ("I 'm walking through a grass-green forest").

history

The first stanza of the song has already come down to us in a song book from the Lower Rhine region from 1574. This text version was recorded under the title Waldvögelein with further stanzas in Des Knaben Wunderhorn in 1808 and set to music by Gustav Mahler under the title I went through a green forest with pleasure .

Hermann Kletke composed a version in 1841 with two new stanzas he wrote, which was more widely used than the original folk song version.

reception

In 1899 Max Reger created a choral setting for this song for male choirs.

text

1st verse
I was walking through a grass-green forest,
there I heard the little birds singing,
they sang so young, they sang so old,
the little birds in the forest,
I love to hear them sing.

2nd verse
Voice on, agree, Frau Nachtigall,
sing to me about my darling!
Sing it to me so nicely, sing it to me so nicely:
Tonight, I want to be with her,
hold her in my arms.

3rd stanza
The day passed, night fell,
the boy came gone,
he knocked so softly on his ring:
Open up, open up, dearest child!
I've been standing for a long time.

4th stanza
You didn't stand that long,
I haven't slept yet;
I always thought in my mind:
where is my very dearest darling?
where have you stayed for so long

5th verse
Where I've stayed so long, I
can tell you, darling:
probably with the beer, probably with the wine,
wherever the beautiful girls are;
I'm happy to be there anytime.

6th verse
You maids should be careful and do
n't trust a bachelor!
They promise you a lot and don't keep it,
they just lead you all behind the light
and always pretend.

Version by Hermann Kletke (1841):

I'm walking through a grass-green forest,
I hear the birds singing.
They sang so young, they sang so old,
The little birds in the forest,
I love to hear them sing.

Oh just sing, sing, Frau Nachtigall,
who wants to disturb you, singer.
How blissful it sounds in the echo,
The little flowers are listening, the birds are all
and want to hear the nightingale.

Now I have to wander uphill, downhill,
the nightingale sings in the distance.
I feel so good, so lightly on the staff,
And as I step up, down,
the nightingale sings in the distance.

melody

The melody widespread today was recorded in Hessen-Darmstadt .

literature

• Theo Mang, Sunhilt Mang (ed.): The song source . Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 2007, ISBN 978-3-7959-0850-8 , pp. 205-206 .
• Heinz Rölleke (Ed.): The folk song book . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1993, ISBN 3-462-02294-6 , pp. 142 .

Web links

• I went through a grass-green forest in the song project of Carus-Verlag and SWR2.
• I walked through a grass-green forest - melody and notes.

Footnotes

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ludwig Erk (Hrsg.): Deutscher Liederhort: Selection of the excellent German folk songs from the past and present with their peculiar melodies . Enslin, Berlin 1856, p. 247 ( digitized in the Google book search).
2. ↑ Des Knaben Wunderhorn: Waldvögelein at Zeno.org .
3. ↑ Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Mahler, Gustav) : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
4. ↑ August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben , Karl Hermann Prahl: Our folk songs . 4th edition Engelmann, Leipzig 1900, p. 131 ( digitized version ).
5. ↑ Max Reger: I went through a grass-green forest . In: Nine selected folk songs .
6. ↑ I'm going through a grass-green forest at volksliederarchiv.de.