Brahms Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär

Music files

• (Posted 2011-12-02)  CPDL #25084: 
  
   
  
   

General Information

Title: Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär
Composer: Anonymous (Traditional)

Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Folksong

Language: German
Instruments: A cappella

First published:
Description: 

External websites:

Original text and translations

Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär
und auch zwei Flüglein hätt,
flög ich zu dir,
weil’s aber nicht kann sein,
bleib ich allhier.

Bin ich gleich weit von dir,
bin ich doch im Schlaf bei dir
und red mit dir.
Wenn ich erwachen tu,
bin ich allein.

Es vergeht kein Stund in der Nacht,
da nicht mein Herz erwacht
und an dich denkt,
dass du mir tausendmal
dein Herz geschenkt.

Johannes Brahms (7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna. 

Brahms has been considered, by his contemporaries and by later writers, as both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by many. 

Robert Schumann was a German composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. He had been assured by his teacher Friedrich Wieck that he could become the finest pianist in Europe, but a hand injury ended this dream. Schumann then focused his musical energies on composing.

Schumann's published compositions were written exclusively for the piano until 1840; he later composed works for piano and orchestra; many Lieder (songs for voice and piano); four symphonies; an opera; and other orchestral, choral, and chamber works. Works such as Kinderszenen, Album für die Jugend, Blumenstück, the Sonatas and Albumblätter are among his most famous. His writings about music appeared mostly in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Journal for Music), a Leipzig-based publication which he jointly founded.

In 1840, Schumann married Friedrich Wieck's daughter Clara, against the wishes of her father, following a long and acrimonious legal battle, which found in favor of Clara and Robert. Clara also composed music and had a considerable concert career as a pianist, the earnings from which formed a substantial part of her father's fortune.

Schumann suffered from a lifelong mental disorder, first manifesting itself in 1833 as a severe melancholic depressive episode, which recurred several times alternating with phases of ‘exaltation’ and increasingly also delusional ideas of being poisoned or threatened with metallic items. After a suicide attempt in 1854, Schumann was admitted to amental asylum, at his own request, in Endenich near Bonn. Diagnosed with "psychotic melancholia", Schumann died two years later in 1856 without having recovered from his mental illness.

Confirmed with Stimmen der Völker in Liedern. Gesammelt, geordnet, zum Theilübersezt durch Johann Gottfried von Herder, Tübingen, in der J. G. Cotta'schen Buchhandlung, 1807, page 482.

Modern spelling would change "zwey" to "zwei", "seyn" to "sein", "bey" to "bei", "thu" to "tu", etc.

Note: the first stanza is quoted by Treitschke in a text set by Beethoven, Ruf vom Berge, WoO. 147

Authorship:

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):