An das Herz - (2017)    

Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz

for medium voice and piano

 

Kleines Ding, um uns zu quälen,
Hier in diese Brust gelegt,
Wüßte mancher was er trägt,
Würde wünschen, tätst ihm fehlen.

Deine Schläge, wie so selten,
Mischt sich Lust in sie hinein
Und wie sind sie schnell, mit Pein
Jede Lust ihm zu vergelten!

Dennoch, weder Lust noch Qualen
Wär' weit schrecklicher als das.
Lieber schmelzt mein Herz zu Glas!
Meines Schicksals heiße Strahlen,

Lieben, hassen, streben, zittern,
Hoffen, zagen bis ins Mark.

5 pages, circa 2' 30"

 

To the heart

Little thing, ensnared by torment,
Here in my breast must much bear,
Would that such as makes life bent,
Would by wishing be lessened there.

Heartbeats, all too often bare,
Beat themselves with joys intense,
and all too swiftly pains must tear
away for beatings' recompense.

For this joys and passions crass
tell the whole that one must bear;
Better melts my heart to glass,
than fate stream out in its glare

Love and hate, urge and tremor,
Hope and hesitation there.
 

rhymed paraphrase by the composer

 

 

A rush of arpeggios shifting between duple and triple accents accompanies a text declaimed in like manner rhythmically. There are additional lines which some variants and the original show, though I chose this version to set such as to truncate form with text for a variant in music to the more standard strophic form.

 

 

 

The score for An das Herz is available as a free PDF download, though any major commercial performance or recording of the work is prohibited without prior arrangement with the composer. Click on the graphic below for this piano-vocal score.

 

An das Herz