Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...
's ''Wiegenlied'' "Schlafe, schlafe, holder süßer Knabe",
D 498, Op. 98, No. 2, is a
lullaby
A lullaby (), or cradle song, is a soothing song or piece of music that is usually played for (or sung to) children (for adults see music and sleep). The purposes of lullabies vary. In some societies they are used to pass down cultural knowled ...
composed in November 1816. The song is also known as "Mille cherubini in coro" after an
Italian language
Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 85 m ...
arrangement for voice and orchestra by
Alois Melichar
Alois Melichar (18 April 1896, in Vienna – 9 April 1976, in Munich) was an Austrian composer, conductor, arranger, and music critic. He was a student of Joseph Marx at the Vienna Academy of Music, then of Franz Schreker at the Hochschule fü ...
.
Lyrics
The author of the lyrics is unknown; they are sometimes attributed to
Matthias Claudius
Matthias Claudius (15 August 1740 – 21 January 1815) was a German poet and journalist, otherwise known by the pen name of “Asmus”.
Life
Claudius was born at Reinfeld, Holstein, Reinfeld, near Lübeck, and studied at Jena. He spent the gre ...
, but the poem does not appear in Claudius' collected works.
Music
Related works
Alois Melichar arranged ''Wiegenlied'' along with incidental music from Schubert's opera ''
Rosamunde
''Rosamunde, Fürstin von Zypern'' (''Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus'') is a play by Helmina von Chézy, which is primarily remembered for the incidental music which Franz Schubert composed for it. Music and play premiered in Vienna's Theater an de ...
'' to form the song "Mille cherubini in coro" for the 1935 film ''
Vergiß mein nicht''. It was performed by the
tenor
A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...
Beniamino Gigli
Beniamino Gigli ( , ; 20 March 1890 – 30 November 1957) was an Italian opera singer (lyric tenor). He is widely regarded as one of the greatest tenors of his generation.
Early life
Gigli was born in Recanati, in the Marche, the son of a shoem ...
with the
Berlin State Opera Orchestra
The Staatskapelle Berlin () is a German orchestra and the resident orchestra of the Berlin State Opera, Unter den Linden. The orchestra is one of the oldest in the world. Until the fall of the German Empire in 1918 the orchestra's name was ''Kön ...
.
In more recent times the song was notably sung by tenor
Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti (, , ; 12 October 19356 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor who during the late part of his career crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most acclaimed tenors of all time. He made numerou ...
, usually in his Christmas concerts.
References
Further reading
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External links
;Scores
International Music Score Library ProjectIndiana University Sheet Music
;Recordings
Allmusic.com
1816 songs
Lieder composed by Franz Schubert
Lullabies
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