Wärst du ein Bächlein - (2008) ![](images/01_Little_Green_Dot.gif)
Wilhelm Busch
for tenor and piano
Wärst du ein Bächlein, ich ein Bach,
So eilt ich dir geschwinde nach.
Und wenn ich dich gefunden hätt'
In deinem Blumenuferbett:
Wie wollt ich mich in dich ergießen
Und ganz mit dir zusammenfließen,
Du vielgeliebtes Mädchen du!
Dann strömten wir bei Nacht und Tage
Vereint in süßem Wellenschlage
Dem Meere zu.
[ 2 pages, circa 1' 00" ]
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If you were a brook and I a stream,
We would rush together.
And then we would be together
in the blossoming riverside:
How might I pour myself into you
such that we would flow completely together,
you well-beloved maiden, you!
Then would we beam by night and day,
married in sweetly gentle waves
unto the sea.
![](images/Waerst_du_range.gif)
The gentle rush of the right and left hands of the piano are blurred by the sostenuto pedal as the voice rides above it in a simple, two-strophe song form. The arpeggiated chords break the two-measure harmonic rhythm into a hemiola within the 3/4 time signature.
![](images/Waerst_du_1.gif)
The vocal line rises to the tonic on the word, "vereint," the verb meaning to unite or be combined, as it has several complementary meanings.
![](images/Waerst_du_2.gif)
The score for Wärst du ein Bächlein 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.
![](images/score.gif)
Wärst du ein Bächlein
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