Herbsttag (Rainer Maria Rilke) for Medium Voice and Piano, op. 71c (1980)
First
performance: March 17, 1987 / Würzburg / Toscanasaal der Residenz
Martin
Hummel / Thomas Hitzlberger
Duration: 3 Minutes
Publisher: free download:
 | | |
| for medium voice (original) | for high voice | for low voice |
Autumn Day on a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, composed for the 60th birthday of a musicologist friend, sets another characteristic accent in what has been, since the Storm-Lieder, such a central theme for Hummel. Its ambivalence (Befiehl den letzten Früchten voll zu sein)(Command that the last fruits be full) is reflected musically in the use of false relations and the corresponding changes between major and minor. In this, however, mild thirds and sixths, unusual for Hummel, become part of the process. The composer is successful in including the dynamics of form and content in Rilkes stanzas ("growing" in the lines 3, 4 and 5) under one musical bow. The inner climax is the end of the second stanza, i.e. the only line which Hummel repeats: Die letzte Süße in den schweren Wein (The last sweetness in the heavy wine.) In the broad periodicity of its sequences (derived melodically from the phrase more südlichere Tage (southern days) heard just before), this is one of the moments in which melodic qualities in Hummel's songs become impressively manifest.
Wolfgang Osthoff (in "Zu den Liedern Bertold Hummels", Tutzing, 1998)
Herbsttag
Herr: es ist Zeit.
Der Sommer war sehr groß.
Leg deinen Schatten auf die Sonnenuhren,
und
auf den Fluren laß die Winde los.
Befiel
den letzten Früchten voll zu sein;
gib ihnen noch zwei südlichere
Tage,
dränge sie zur Vollendung hin und jage
die letzte Süße
in den schweren Wein.
Wer
jetzt kein Haus hat, baut sich keines mehr.
Wer jetzt allein ist, wird es
lange bleiben,
wird wachen, lesen, lange Briefe schreiben
und wird in
den Alleen hin und her
unruhig wandern, wenn die Blätter treiben.
Rainer Maria Rilke
This translation is by M. D. Herter Norton 1938:
Autumn Day
Lord, it
is time. The summer was very big.
Lay thy shadow on the sundials,
and on
the meadows let the winds go loose.
Command
the last fruits that they shall be full;
give them another two more southerly
days,
urge them on to fulfillment and drive
the last sweetness into heavy
wine.
Who has
no house now, will build him one no more.
Who is alone now, long will so remain,
will
wake, read, write long letters
and will in the avenues to and fro
restlessly
wander, when the leaves are blowing.