Like Melodies…
The 2020-2021 season was an interesting time of reflection and growth. Because my work in the United States was cancelled for the entire season, it made me more appreciative and grateful for my work in Germany. Coaching singers during the pandemic was a challenge but I was actually able to coach more singers from the comfort of my very cozy home via the magic of Zoom. I worked with singers throughout the United States, Germany and even in Turkey!
“Like Melodies", or “Wie Melodien” is a song by Brahms that I coached this semester to a singer who spent his entire senior year of college listening to me sing and wave my arms via online coaching. When he informed me of his plans to add this song to his senior recital, I recommended that he listen to the Brahms Sonata No. 2 in A major for Piano and Violin. He never mentioned the magic of this sonata to me so I’m not sure if he ever listened to my recommendation. Or maybe I am the only one who finds delight when a composer quotes himself in his music - there are quotes from 3 of his songs including “Wie Melodien.” Or maybe I’m the only one who loves that the simple melody that opens the song is subtly interwoven into one of magical moments of the violin sonata— and in the same key! Or maybe it’s because these two works feature the violin and the voice — two instruments that I so deeply treasure. Or perhaps there is something in the opening measures of the piano part in the sonata that is distinctly Brahms but has hints of Wagner, or even Schubert. Or maybe I find so much delight in the violin sonata — something in its lyrical simplicity that invites the listener into this intimate conversation between the violin and the piano. You listen. You decide.
Like Melodies
(Translation © Richard Stokes)
Thoughts, like melodies,
Steal softly through my mind,
Like spring flowers they blossom
And drift away like fragrance.
Yet when words come and capture them
And bring them before my eyes,
They turn pale like grey mist
And vanish like a breath.
Yet surely in rhyme
A fragrance lies hidden,
Summoned by moist eyes
From the silent seed.
Wie Melodien
(Klaus Groth)
Wie Melodien zieht es
Mir leise durch den Sinn,
Wie Frühlingsblumen blüht es
Und schwebt wie Duft dahin.
Doch kommt das Wort und faßt es
Und führt es vor das Aug’,
Wie Nebelgrau erblaßt es
Und schwindet wie ein Hauch.
Und dennoch ruht im Reime
Verborgen wohl ein Duft,
Den mild aus stillem Keime
Ein feuchtes Auge ruft.
And in my research in the past few weeks, I discovered other people who were also inspired by these works. This particular sonata might have been the inspiration for the fictional musical work titled the “Vinteuil Sonata” in Marcel Proust’s novel, “In Search of Lost Time.” Also, Brahms’s friend, Joseph Viktor Widmann was so taken with the violin sonata that it inspired him to write a poem. I found a translation of this poem in an online violin forum.
Thun Sonata by Johannes Brahms.
(Second Sonata [A major] for piano and violin, op. 100.)
[By Joseph Viktor Widmann]
[Quotes Measures 1-3 of 1st Mvmt.]
Where the Aare gently slips away from the lake
To the small town that it washes down,
And shadows from many a good tree,
I had burrowed deep into the tall grass
And slept and dreams on a bright summer day
As delicious as I hardly announce it like.
Three knights blew up, as small as only elves,
on fine tenters, but kings alike.
They said in three voices: “Will you help us to
look for a treasure, man, in this realm?
We too, like those once on Bethlem's corridor, are walking
on a heaven child's trail here.
“Who are you yourself?” I ask in the dream against it.
They said: “Knight from the golden Au, who is
there at the foot of the Niesen.
In our castles many a lovely woman
once sounded tender greetings from our string-playing,
Who reluctantly died when castle after castle fell into disrepair.
But now here at the lake a string
sound like we have never heard.
This is how David's play once sounded,
Refreshing Saul, when his mind disturbed him.
He drew to us, sad, sweet and strong,
And longed to hit us in the deepest marrow.
Help us then search there from these meadows,
From this green bank came the sound;
Let us see the new-born miracle,
worship Him according to the pious urge of the heart.
Where is the melodic heavenly child hiding?
Does it sleep under flowers? does it float in the evening wind? "
Then, when they were still asking,
a miraculous play came from the waves of the river.
And see! - A fairy fish,
drawn by dragonflies , came swimming upstream.
Slender, a blond
girl sat inside And sang happily to herself:
[Quotes Measures 146 into 150 of Mvmt 1]
“Hold is to sail on a clear, cool tide,
Since my life's deeper source
is also clear, Hold is to reveal sorrow as pleasure,
For both flow full and strong and bright.
Drive to, my ship, flow with good Courage
On a gentle tide in which the sky rests. "
So sang the fairy child and the
hearts of all swelled mightily, who overheard the singing.
The knights looked dumb and tears welled up
From a woe that is blissfully intoxicating.
Then, when the
little ship vanished from her sight, said the eldest, waving his hand:
"Farewell, you beautiful miracle there in the boat,
you wonderful, sweet melody!
We who guard the hoard of minstrel,
we greet you, you noble foreign Fei!
You have rededicated this land
to new glory with your song , glad to sing in the old days .
Now let us go to sleep again,
The harp's holy soul does not slumber.
And as the sun's rays in the evening blessing
there on the mountains glows with purple light,
But also illuminates the vast lands all around,
So this song swings around the whole world.
Yes, it may sound in front of a thousand ears,
In the prince's hall, in proud cities, a lot -
It remains our country, born here
On this clear river wave game. ”
So called the minstrel, glowing fiery.
My heart said: Yes! - That's when I woke up.