Ich will schon entfliehen, ich flieg’ in den Wald,

Mag dennoch nicht deine, mag dennoch nicht dein,

Nicht eine Stunde sein.”

Ich hab’ wohl ein Flintchen, das trifft gar bald,

Ich schieß’ mir das Täubchen herunter im Wald;
Mein wirst du, o Liebchen, fürwahr du wirst mein,
Und wolltest du’s auch nicht sein.

“So werd’ ich ein Fischchen, ein goldener Fisch,

Ich will schon entspringen ins Wasser frisch;
Mag dennoch nicht deine, mag dennoch nicht dein,
Nicht eine Stunde sein.”

Ich hab’ wohl ein Netzchen, das fischt gar gut,

Ich fang’ mir den goldenen Fisch in der Flut;
Mein wirst du, o Liebchen, fürwahr du wirst mein,
Und wolltest du’s auch nicht sein.

“So werd’ ich ein Häschen voll Schnelligkeit,

Und lauf’ in die Felder, die Felder breit,
Mag dennoch nicht deine, mag dennoch nicht dein,
Nicht eine Stunde sein.”

Ich hab’ wohl ein Hüdchen, gar pfiffig und fein,

Das fängt mir das Häschen im Felde schon ein:
Mein wirst du, o Liebchen, fürwahr du wirst mein,
Und wolltest du’s auch nicht sein.

English Translation

A Section--E Major
0:00 [m. 1]--Stanza 1. The opening piano gesture lands first on E, then on B,
establishing
the keys of the men and women, respectively. The tenor quietly begins the two-
voice
fugue that will present the first stanza. It presents the main melody of this
fugue
(the subject) on the first two lines. The opening leap is the most characteristic
feature. The piano breaks a light octave doubling of the voice between the hands.

0:12 [m. 6]--The bass enters, imitating the tenor a fourth below on the main
subject
and the first two lines. The tenor continues with a counterpoint (countersubject)
on the third and fourth lines that skittishly moves downward, then skips up and
leaps
down two times as “fürwahr du wirst mein” is repeated. The fourth line is set to
an upward shooting gesture that reaches a full cadence. The piano adds chords to
the right hand while the left hand doubles the bass.
0:20 [m. 10]--Before the tenor reaches his cadence, the bass now imitates the third
and fourth lines on the “countersubject,” but drops down to a fifth below the
tenor.
The piano bass now strongly plays the original subject melody in octaves. The
tenor
rests for a bit after his cadence, then sings two interjections on “fürwahr du
wirst
mein.” He repeats the fourth line with its shooting gesture and cadence, adding
an extra repetition of “und wolltest” before. After the bass finishes the
countersubject,
he joins the tenor on “das auch nicht sein” in harmony, and both reach a cadence
together. A brief piano interlude imitates this cadence, adding extra syncopation
and a leaping, detached bass. It moves to B major.
B Section--B Major
0:35 [m. 17]--Stanza 2. The women enter together in harmony. On the second line,
they pass a decorative figure between each other. They grow in volume as they move
toward the third line, where they reach a forceful level. The last line is an
upward
shooting, harmonized triplet rhythm that reaches a cadence. The piano continues
the detached, leaping bass of the interlude, adding some gentle “sigh” figures at
first, then bringing the right hand into the detached, leaping rhythm.
0:50 [m. 24]--Stanza 3, lines 1-2. The tenor and bass quietly enter together in
the women’s key and with their music as they finish their cadence. They move away
from the key, however, and on the second line, they do not sing together. While
the decorative figure is passed between them as it was between the women, the tenor
leads the bass on the words, while the women sang them together. The tenor repeats
“herunter im Wald,” adding yet another “herunter.” The bass only repeats
“herunter,”
and only once. The harmony moves back to E Major and the music again swells in
volume.

A’ Section--E Major
1:00 [m. 29]--Stanza 3, lines 3-4. Before the tenor finishes the second line, the
bass begins the third on the original main fugue subject. The tenor follows in
canon
(exact imitation an octave higher) at the close distance of two beats. The piano
bass strongly doubles the vocal bass on the subject. While the bass finishes the
subject on the fourth line, repeating “und wolltest,” the tenor breaks the canon,
singing the fourth line to the shooting triplet rhythm sung by the women on similar
words at the end of stanza 2.
1:08 [m. 33]--The two male parts sing the subject and countersubject on music very
similar to that at 0:12 [m. 6], but they sing the same text together as the music
diminishes in volume. The tenor’s line is exactly the same as it was then, and
while
the bass’s is mostly the same, instead of finishing the subject, he joins the tenor
on the cadence as at the end of the first A section. Note that the text of these
lines is the same as the corresponding lines of stanza 1. The original piano
interlude
from the end of the first A section follows.
B Section--B Major
1:21 [m. 39]--Stanza 4. The women enter, and their setting of this stanza is
musically
identical to their setting of stanza 2.
1:35 [m. 46]--Stanza 5, lines 1-2. The tenor and bass sing these lines as they had
the first two lines of stanza 3, and the music is identical. The tenor repeats
“den
goldenen Fisch in der Flut,” (without any extra repetition since the repeated text
is longer than in stanza 3), and the bass only repeats “den goldenen.”
A” Section--E Major
1:46 [m. 51]--Stanza 5, lines 3-4 and stanza 6, lines 1-2. Here begins one of the
most delightful and intricate passages of counterpoint in all of Brahms’s works.
The tenor and bass sing lines 3 and 4 to the same canon passage they had at 1:00
[m. 29]. The piano accompaniment is mostly the same as at that point as well. It
is altered to accommodate the women, who unexpectedly enter with the next stanza
against the men. They sing against the men in a very loud and animated passage
using
many triplet rhythms. The first line is sung with the alto imitating the soprano
a bar later and a fifth lower. The imitation does not continue on the second line.
The soprano repeats the line (without “und”) so that the alto, who adds a third
“die Felder,” can catch up. The piano echoes the triplet rhythm in chords as all
four voices come together.
1:53 [m. 55]--Stanza 6, lines 3-4 and stanza 7, lines 1-2. The women sing their
lines to the music of the men’s main melody. Because they are also in the men’s
key, they are becoming subsumed in their world, and the men are winning the teasing
duel. They sing together on the third line of their stanza, but the alto breaks
away, repeating “mag dennoch nicht dein.” They are separated on the fourth line,
but the alto catches up under the soprano’s longer notes. Meanwhile, the men begin
the seventh stanza singing the same animated, triplet-rich music used by the women
at 1:46 [m. 51] with the same imitation, the tenor repeating the second line.
There
are slight differences to accommodate extra syllables, and the bass line changes
at the end to its original role at the cadence, the soprano singing the tenor’s
original
shooting triplet line.
2:01 [m. 59]--Stanza 7, line 3. The women drop out. The men lead out of the
previous
frenzy, quieting down as they begin the passage heard at 1:08 [m. 33]. This
suddenly
changes, as the previous upward shooting line on “fürwahr du wirst mein” stalls and
continues to move down. The voices, in harmony, repeat “fürwahr” three times on
sigh figures as the music gradually slows down. Under these repetitions, the piano
hints at its interlude heard at the end of stanzas 1 and 3.
2:11 [m. 62]--Stanza 7, line 4. The bass timidly rises on the fourth line and the
tenor follows, the bass holding a long note on “auch.” As the tenor similarly
begins
to hold, the women make a sudden, fast, loud, and impetuous entrance on their last
line from stanzas 2, 4, and 6, but ignorantly adding a word from the men (“auch”).
They shoot up in the harmonized triplets and reach a full cadence. Under this,
the men complete their own cadence, the basses repeating “und wolltest dus auch”
under the tenor’s long note before they both sing “nicht sein.” They come together
with the women, whose last word, “sein,” is the same.
2:19 [m. 65]--Piano postlude, using the upward shooting harmonized triplets and the
leaping, detached bass. It closes with three emphatic E-major chords.
2:28--END OF QUARTET [67 mm.]

3. Der Gang zum Liebchen (The Path to His Sweetheart). Text by Josef Wenzig,
after
a Bohemian (Czech) folk poem. Con moto e grazioso. Strophic form (ABAB) with
coda.
E-FLAT MAJOR, 3/4 time.
(The same text and title, with different music, is used for the solo song, Op. 48,
No. 1. The musical material is the same as the piano waltz, Op. 39, No. 5, which
is in E major, a half-step higher. The similar title Gang zur Liebsten is used for
the unrelated solo song, Op. 14, No. 6.)

German Text:
Es glänzt der Mond nieder,
Ich sollte doch wieder
Zu meinem Liebchen,
Wie mag es ihr geh’n?

Ach weh’, sie verzaget

Und klaget, und klaget,
Daß sie mich nimmer
Im Leben wird seh’n!

Es ging der Mond unter,

Ich eilte doch munter,
Und eilte daß keiner
Mein Liebchen entführt.

Ihr Täubchen, o girret,

Ihr Lüftchen, o schwirret,
Daß keiner mein Liebchen,
Mein Liebchen entführt!

English Translation

Strophe 1
0:00 [m. 1]--An expansive piano introduction presents the opening rhythm of the
main
melody (beginning with a long-short rhythm), harmonized in the top voices of the
both hands and marked dolce (sweetly). Under these are steadily rising lines in
two-note groups. After two sequences of the rhythm, there is a large leap and
descent.
The accompanying two-note groups descend two bars later. The music slows and
settles
over rich harmony with minor-key inflections.
0:21 [m. 9]--Stanza 1 (A). The voices present the waltz melody in very tender,
sonorous
block harmony. While the soprano sings the main melody, the rhythmic impetus
begins
with the middle parts. As in the piano waltz, the melody begins in an inner voice,
the soprano actually singing below the alto. The dotted rhythm, however, which is
in the melody in the waltz, is in the accompanying repeated notes, here sung by
alto
and tenor. The piano provides flowing, arching chord accompaniment. The stanza
ends with a motion to the related “dominant” key of B-flat.
0:35 [m. 17]--Stanza 2 (B). The strophe continues with the contrasting section.
The structure here of ABAB differs from the piano waltz’s AABB. A contrasting
phrase
moves to F minor, then back to E-flat. The dotted rhythm begins in the bass and
alto, but the soprano retains the melody. Accented, resolving “sigh” figures
abound.
The following phrase (lines 3-4) is nearly identical to the opening of stanza 1,
but the harmony is based on a new pedal B-flat which was not present before. The
initial dotted rhythm on this phrase in tenor and alto is disrupted by the single-
syllable
word “sie” in a line one syllable shorter.
0:49 [m. 25]--A six-bar extension to the phrase repeats the last two lines, and
then
the last line a third time. The first repetition cuts off “wird sehn” in the
soprano,
which extends the word “Leben.” The extension moves strongly to A-flat major and
a variation of the melody in that key leads to the highest soprano notes (on the
extended “Leben”). Then a descending line of chords moves back to E-flat and sets
the last line the third time. The melody does not reach a complete close at the
cadence, and the final E-flat harmony merges back into the introduction.
Strophe 2
1:02 [m. 1]--Piano introduction, as at the beginning, leading out of the first
strophe,
and marked as a repeat.
1:19 [m. 9]--Stanza 3 (A). Set to the same music as stanza 1. At the third line
(the second phrase of the stanza), the alto has an added dotted rhythm on a
repeated
note to accommodate an extra syllable.
1:34 [m. 17]--Stanza 4 (B). Set to the same music as stanza 2. The extra syllable
(“keiner”) means that the second phrase (lines 3-4) is set to the same declamation
in tenor and alto as the opening of the melody in stanza 1, which was not the case
in stanza 2.
1:47 [m. 25]--The six-bar extension repeats the last two lines, then the last line
a third time. The soprano cuts off “entführt” on the first repetition, extending
the important word “Liebchen” on the high notes. The ending of the passage is
different
from stanza 2. Instead of completing the line with “entführt,” the words “mein
Liebchen”
are repeated again and “entführt” spills over past the initial six-bar extension.
The harmony does not land on E-flat, as it had in stanza 2, and a sense of
anticipation
is created.
2:00 [m. 31]--At the point where the music had merged back to the introduction at
the end of the first strophe, the second syllable of “entführt” is extended over
three bars plus one beat on a long, expectant (“dominant”) chord that does not
resolve.
Under this, the piano plays a long, arching line harmonized between the hands.
This is an “extension” of the extension. After the voices drop out unresolved, the
piano does indeed merge back to the introduction, as it had in the first strophe.
It is merely delayed.
Coda
2:07 [m. 35]--The piano introduction begins again, but at its previous high point,
instead of moving back down, it extends even higher, beautifully changing the
harmony
and pitch level (higher) of the vocal lead-in.
2:24 [m. 43]--The music is now very calm and slows to the end. The voices enter
with “mein Liebchen” on a static chord on A-flat (the “subdominant”). The piano
continues to murmur and undulate under this. After another bar of piano
undulation,
the voices once again sing the key words “mein Liebchen” (the sixth statement of
these words from the last stanza), beginning on an A-flat minor chord and finally
resolving to an E-flat chord in a so-called “plagal” cadence (but without the
keynote
in the soprano). The piano undulates still more, and the voices finally sing
“entführt”
on a complete, full close, the sopranos striving up to the keynote as the piano
also
stops on the chord.
3:00--END OF QUARTET [51 mm.]
END OF SET

BRAHMS LISTENING GUIDES HOME

NINE SONGS (LIEDER UND GESÄNGE) TO TEXTS BY PLATEN AND DAUMER, OP. 32
Recording: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone; Daniel Barenboim, piano [DG 449 633-
2]