Mignon's song "Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn" from Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, is one of my favourite song-texts. Here are the words in the original:
Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn,
Im dunkeln Laub die Gold-Orangen glühn,
Ein sanfter Wind vom blauen Himmel weht,
Die Myrte still und hoch der Lorbeer steht,
Kennst du es wohl? Dahin! Dahin
Möcht ich mit dir, o mein Geliebter, ziehn.
Kennst du das Haus? Auf Säulen ruht sein Dach,
Es glänzt der Saal, es schimmert das Gemach,
Und Marmorbilder stehn und sehn mich an:
Was hat man dir, du armes Kind, getan?
Kennst du es wohl? Dahin! Dahin
Möcht ich mit dir, o mein Beschützer, ziehn.
Kennst du den Berg und seinen Wolkensteg?
Das Maultier sucht im Nebel seinen Weg,
In Höhlen wohnt der Drachen alte Brut,
Es stürzt der Fels und über ihn die Flut;
Kennst du ihn wohl? Dahin! Dahin
Geht unser Weg! O Vater, laß uns ziehn!
English translation here (hope it's acceptable to link to this site).
This simple and powerful song, in the book sung by the young Mignon to Wilhelm (twice), has been set to music by more than 60 composers. The best-known versions are those by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt and Wolf (plus perhaps Tchaikovsky's setting of the Russian version of the song by Tyutchev). Goethe, interestingly, hated the Beethoven setting, exclaiming "Mignon would never have sung a song like that!" Perhaps he would have disliked the later settings even more, especially the Hugo Wolf setting, which I find the most expressive of all even though it has moved far from the simplicity of Mignon's lyric. There is an interesting article about the song by Amanda Glauert of the Royal College of Music on the Music Performance Research website, considering some of the settings.
Sometimes I think poets get a bit of a raw deal from composers who set their poems in that the musical setting comes to overshadow the poem, even in the works of famous writers. It's hard to think of Erlkönig stripped of Schubert's music, or Im Wunderschönen Monat Mai as a mere poem. But with Kennst du das Land, I think the poet has the last laugh. No mere musical setting is in the end satisfactory, it returns one to the music of the lyrics themselves, remaining ever fresh for later generations of composers.
Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn,
Im dunkeln Laub die Gold-Orangen glühn,
Ein sanfter Wind vom blauen Himmel weht,
Die Myrte still und hoch der Lorbeer steht,
Kennst du es wohl? Dahin! Dahin
Möcht ich mit dir, o mein Geliebter, ziehn.
Kennst du das Haus? Auf Säulen ruht sein Dach,
Es glänzt der Saal, es schimmert das Gemach,
Und Marmorbilder stehn und sehn mich an:
Was hat man dir, du armes Kind, getan?
Kennst du es wohl? Dahin! Dahin
Möcht ich mit dir, o mein Beschützer, ziehn.
Kennst du den Berg und seinen Wolkensteg?
Das Maultier sucht im Nebel seinen Weg,
In Höhlen wohnt der Drachen alte Brut,
Es stürzt der Fels und über ihn die Flut;
Kennst du ihn wohl? Dahin! Dahin
Geht unser Weg! O Vater, laß uns ziehn!
English translation here (hope it's acceptable to link to this site).
This simple and powerful song, in the book sung by the young Mignon to Wilhelm (twice), has been set to music by more than 60 composers. The best-known versions are those by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt and Wolf (plus perhaps Tchaikovsky's setting of the Russian version of the song by Tyutchev). Goethe, interestingly, hated the Beethoven setting, exclaiming "Mignon would never have sung a song like that!" Perhaps he would have disliked the later settings even more, especially the Hugo Wolf setting, which I find the most expressive of all even though it has moved far from the simplicity of Mignon's lyric. There is an interesting article about the song by Amanda Glauert of the Royal College of Music on the Music Performance Research website, considering some of the settings.
Sometimes I think poets get a bit of a raw deal from composers who set their poems in that the musical setting comes to overshadow the poem, even in the works of famous writers. It's hard to think of Erlkönig stripped of Schubert's music, or Im Wunderschönen Monat Mai as a mere poem. But with Kennst du das Land, I think the poet has the last laugh. No mere musical setting is in the end satisfactory, it returns one to the music of the lyrics themselves, remaining ever fresh for later generations of composers.
Comment