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Drei alte Tanten - (2013)
Wilhelm Busch
for mezzo soprano and piano
Die erste alte Tante sprach:
»Wir müssen nun auch dran denken,
Was wir zu ihrem Namenstag
Dem guten Sophiechen schenken.«
Drauf sprach die zweite Tante kühn:
»Ich schlage vor, wir entscheiden
Uns für ein Kleid in Erbsengrün,
Das mag Sophiechen nicht leiden.«
Der dritten Tante war das recht:
»Ja«, sprach sie, »mit gelben Ranken!
Ich weiß, sie ärgert sich nicht schlecht
Und muß sich auch noch bedanken.3 Pages, circa 2' 00"
Wilhelm Busch
The first old auntie thusly spoke:
"For Sophie's Saints Day, to see her miffed,
What might we chose as our little joke?
What would be the optimum gift?"
The second old auntie, clever and keen,
"I think we have enough wherewithal
To give her a dress of putrid pea green
That would please her not at all."
The third old auntie upped the ante a bit:
"With yellow frou-frou of a outmoded style.
I know she'll be so very annoyed with it,
But she'll have to say thanks and smile."
rhymed paraphrase of the composer
Copyright 2013 © Gary Bachlund All international rights reserved.
The text is from Busch's collection, Kritik des Herzens. For other settings of Busch's texts, click here.
Bright parallelism in broadly spaced triads follow the melodic contours, ignoring functional harmonic relationships. The chord forms are mostly major. The first strophe has single chords accompanying, while the second adds the "duple" and the third triplets.
The score for Drei alte Tanten 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.
