"" (I dreamed last night) is a
German folk song. It is a melancholic song that tells of a disturbing dream foreshadowing death – a
rosemary
''Salvia rosmarinus'' (), commonly known as rosemary, is a shrub with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers, native plant, native to the Mediterranean Region, Mediterranean region. Until 2017, it was kn ...
tree in the garden, falling leaves, and a jar broken to pieces and bleeding a red liquid. In Northern Germany, rosemary was planted in graveyards, and mourners at funerals would sometimes wear rosemary stalks.
History
It is unknown when the song was first popularized, but the melody was first written and published in 1777 by
Friedrich Nicolai
Christoph Friedrich Nicolai (18 March 1733 – 11 January 1811) was a German writer and bookseller.
Life
Nicolai was born in Berlin, where his father, Christoph Gottlieb Nicolai (d. 1752), was the founder of the bookseller ''Nicolaisch ...
in ''Eyn feyner kleyner Almanach'' with the text of "" (A hunter wanted to go hunting). Other versions using the same melody but different lyrics included "" (The leaves fall from the trees) by
Siegfried August Mahlmann in 1804/1805,
"" (Beautiful children love), and "" (In Koblenz on the bridge).
The best-known and most widely used lyrics to the melody were written by German preacher and collector of folk songs
August Zarnack
Joachim August Christian Zarnack (September 21, 1777 - June 11, 1827) was a German preacher, teacher, and collector of German folk music. He found, arranged, and published a number of collections of such music from his travels and research.
Biogr ...
.
[Schmitz-Gropengiesser, Frauk]
"Ich hab die Nacht geträumet"
/ref> Zarnack's version was originally published under the title "" (The heavy dream), and appeared in Zarnack's 1820 book which was a collection of German folk songs intended for primary schools. Zarnack's textbook sold well, and in the 1840s and onwards, "Ich hab die Nacht geträumet" was increasingly included in other music workbooks as well for schools and choirs.
Lyrics
Musical settings
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...
wrote a choral version of the song between 1859 and 1862. Max Reger
Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (19 March 187311 May 1916) was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher. He worked as a concert pianist, as a musical director at the Paulinerkirche, Leipzig, Leipzig University ...
published two versions for choir a cappella
''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...
, in 1898 a setting for men's chorus choral (TTBB) as No. 5 of WoO VI/6, and in 1899 a setting for mixed choir as No. 4 of WoO VI/11. In 2004, the German band Heimatærde released its first EP named after the song, including two versions of it. The 2016 video game ''Civilization VI
''Sid Meier's Civilization VI'' is a turn-based strategy 4X video game developed by Firaxis Games, published by 2K Games, and distributed by Take-Two Interactive. The mobile port was published by Aspyr Media. The latest entry into the ''Civiliz ...
'' uses four versions of the song as its theme for the German civilization.[''Civilization VI'']
Soundtrack
References
External links
ingeb.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ich hab die Nacht getraumet
Volkslied
18th-century songs