in 1859, Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) founded the “Hamburg Women’s Choir” in Hamburg at the age of 26. He had met the singers at a wedding when he accompanied them on the organ. He suggested that the ladies rehearse their own compositions with him. They agreed enthusiastically. According to Brahms, this was the beginning of the best time of his life.
Brahms: “The best time of my life”
The choir rehearsals were lively and cheerful – sometimes even in the open air. During excursions, Brahms was “soulful to the point of exuberance”, wrote the music critic Max Kalbeck. He even conducted the choir from the branches of a tree. Brahms wrote the “Four Songs for Women’s Choir” for this cheerful group of female singers in 1860:
Songs full of melancholy, lamentation – and subtle humour
First of all: there are actually five songs. This is due to different counting methods, as some performances combine shorter pieces.
The songs initially seem melancholy, full of melancholy and lamentation. They deal with loss, spurned love, mourning and death. Brahms uses a trick here: his settings lend the songs lightness and an ironic undertone – both in the text and in the setting.
The songs show Brahms’ joy in choral music
Brahms’ “Four Songs for Women’s Choir” combine folklore, humour and romanticism and show not only his joy in making music with the choir, but also his art of providing difficult themes with musical lightness. The collaboration with the “Hamburger Frauenchor” lasted until 1861.
First song: A full harp sounds
A full harp sounds,
That love and longing swell
It penetrates to the heart, deep and anxious
And makes the eye well up.
O run, tears, only down,
O beat heart, with trembling!
Love and happiness sank into the grave,
Life is lost.
The text comes from the youth poem collection “Dunkles Laub” by the Bremen teacher Friedrich Ruperti (1805-1867). It is full of melancholy about spurned love. However, in a later poem, “Studentenabschied”, he bids farewell to these gloomy thoughts. It says that one should not grieve over lost fidelity, but should go out into the world fresh and carefree.
Second song: Song by Shakespeare
Come away, come away, death,
And in sad cypress let me be laid.
Fly away, fly away, breath;
I am slain by a fair cruel maid.
My shroud of white, stuck all with yew,
O, prepare it!
My part of death, no one so true
Did share it.
Not a flower, not a flower sweet,
On my black coffin let there be strown.
Not a friend, not a friend greet
My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown.
A thousand thousand sighs to save,
Lay me, O, where
Sad true lover never find my grave,
To weep there!
This seemingly simple song comes from the mouth of the cheeky and wise fool in Shakespeare’s (1564-1616) comedy “What You Will”, translated by August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767-1845). Orsino, in love with the dismissive Olivia, listens to the fool together with his servant, who is in fact the young Viola – and loves Orsino himself. The audience is aware of this secret, which lends the scene its mischievous magic.
Third song: The Gardener
Wherever I go and look,
In field and forest and valley,
Many beautiful tall women,
I greet you a thousand times.
In my garden I find
Many flowers beautiful and fine.
I wind many wreaths from them,
And a thousand thoughts I bind
And greetings with them.
I must not hand her one,
She is too high and beautiful,
They must all fade,
Only love without equal
Remains firm in my heart.
I seem to be in good spirits
And I’ll go up and down,
And if the heart bursts,
I dig away and sing
And soon dig my grave.
These verses are from Joseph von Eichendorff’s (1788-1857) novella “From the Life of a Good-for-Nothing”. It describes the escape of a miller’s son from his working life. The verses depict him as a clumsy gardener’s assistant who pursues his love for the beautiful lady of the castle. A circle of noblemen laugh at him because of the love he sings about – and Brahms’ cheerful setting reinforces the irony.
Fourth song: Song from Fingal
Weep on the rocks, the roaring winds
weep, O girl of Inistore!
Bend your beautiful head over the waves,
lovelier thou than the spirit of the mountains,
when at noon in a sunbeam
over the silence of Morven.
He has fallen, your youth lies prostrate,
pale he sank beneath Cuthulin’s sword.
Courage will never again tempt your favourite,
to shed the blood of kings.
Trenar, the lovely Trenar died
O girl of Inistore!
His grey hounds howl at home,
they see his ghost passing by.
His bow hangs unstrung in the hall,
nothing stirs on the deer’s pasture.
Weep on the rocks, the roaring winds
weep, O girl of Inistore!
These words come from the fictional Ossianic epics by the Scottish poet James Macpherson (1736-1796). Although long since exposed as an invention in the 19th century, they enjoyed great enthusiasm and were celebrated as a Celtic national epic. In the song, the death of the young hero Trenar from Morven is set to music in a sombre manner – unlike the other songs. This creates a sense of horror and a smile at the same time.
Ellen’s Second Song,
Hunters, rest from the hunt!
Hunter, rest from the hunt!
Soft slumber shall cover thee,
Do not dream when the sun awakes,
That hunting horns awaken thee.
Sleep! The stag rests in the cave,
With thee the hounds are awake,
Sleep, let it not torment thy soul,
That your noble steed has succumbed.
Huntsman, rest from the chase!
Soft slumber shall cover thee;
When the young day awakes,
No hunter’s horn shall wake thee.
The story comes from Walter Scott’s (1771-1832) epic “Lady of the Lake”. Ellen sings at her family’s evening meal for an exhausted stranger, who later turns out to be the King of Scotland. He is plagued in restless dreams by Ellen and her resemblance to his enemy. Brahms used instruments and a female choir for this song to illustrate the mood of the hunt and the Last Supper.
