Mainacht

ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Johannes Brahms was born in 1833 in Hamburg, Germany, the son of a double bass player. Brahms showed early promise on the piano and helped supplement the rather meager family income by playing the piano in bordellos and theaters, as well as by teaching.

Brahms was famously brusque and prickly on the surface, although friends knew he was really very sensitive and vulnerable. He remained a bachelor throughout his life, although he had a lasting love and friendship with Clara Schumann. It was often Clara to whom the tremendously self-critical Brahms first sent his works.

In 1862, he settled in Vienna and began to concentrate fully on composing. With works such as the German Requiem, Brahms eventually established a strong reputation and came to be regarded in his own lifetime as a great composer. He ruthlessly destroyed any manuscripts he considered unworthy and left behind very few sketches. His music shows great warmth and is full of the romantic spirit, always wrapped in rigorous intellect. While completing the Four Serious Songs (Vier ernste Ges¨nge), Brahms developed cancer and died on April 3, 1897.

ABOUT THE POET
Ludwig Heinrich Christoph Hölty was a German poet, born December 21, 1748, in the village of Mariensee in Hanover, where his father was a pastor. In 1769, he went to study theology at Göttingen, where he became one of the founders of the famous society of young poets known as the Göttinger Dichterbund. Sadly, he died of tuberculosis on September 1, 1776, at Hanover. Though somewhat melancholy, Hölty's poetry exhibits an inherent love and respect for nature and its innocence.

Die Mainacht

Wann der silberne Mond durch die Gesträuche blinkt
Und sein schlummerndes Licht über den Rasen streut,
Und die Nachtigall flötet,
Wandl' ich traurig vom Busch zu Busch.
überhüllet vom Laub girret ein Taubenpaar
Sein Entzücken mir vor; aber ich wende mich,
Suche dunklere Schatten,
Und die einsame Träne rinnt.
Wann, o lächelndes Bild, welches wie Morgenrot
Durch die Seele mir strahlt, find ich auf Erden dich?
Und die einsame Träne bebt mir heisser die Wang herab!

The May Night

When the silver moon through the shrubs beams,
And its slumbering light on the grass,
And the nightingale flutes [sings]
Wander I sadly from bush to bush.
Shrouded by foliage, coos a pair of doves
To me their ecstasy; but I turn away,
Seeking darker shadows.
And a single tear flows [down my cheek].
When, o smiling image, that like as dawn.
Through my soul radiates, find I you on the earth?
And the single tear trembling hot down my cheek.

ABOUT THE ARRANGER
Please refer to the “composer” tab at the top of this page or go to www.zrstroope.com
for a complete biography and list of works.