Traum durch die Dämmerung
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"" ("Dream in the Twilight", literally "Dream through the twilight"), is both a German poem by
Otto Julius Bierbaum Otto Julius Bierbaum (28 June 1865 – 1 February 1910) was a German writer. Bierbaum was born in Grünberg, Silesia. After studying in Leipzig, he became a journalist and editor for the journals ''Die freie Bühne'', ''Pan'' and '' Die Insel'' ...
and a (art song) by Richard Strauss, his Op. 29/1. The opening line is "" ("Broad meadows in grey dusk"). It is the first of three songs by Strauss based on love poems by Bierbaum, composed and published in Munich in 1895, and dedicated to
Eugen Gura Eugen Gura (8 November 184226 August 1906) was a German operatic baritone. Life Gura was born in Nové Sedlo, Louny District, Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic). He was at first educated for the career of a painter at Vienna and Munich; ...
. The works were scored for medium voice and piano, and published by
Universal Edition Universal Edition (UE) is a classical music publishing firm. Founded in 1901 in Vienna, they originally intended to provide the core classical works and educational works to the Austrian market (which had until then been dominated by Leipzig-bas ...
as (''3 songs with piano accompaniment''), later with English versions and orchestral arrangements.


Poem

"" first appeared in Berlin in 1892 in a collection known as ("Experienced Poems") by Bierbaum that was published by ''Verlag von Wilhelm Issleib'' ("Wilhelm Issleib's Publishing House). Bierbaum dedicated the 217 page collection, with ''Traum durch die Dämmerung'' on page 130, to
Detlev von Liliencron Baron Detlev von Liliencron born Friedrich Adolf Axel Detlev Liliencron Britannic ...
as he expressed in the personal foreword. A second edition of the collection appeared one year later. In his anthology (Poetry of Art Nouveau) Jost Hermand noted that the title is paradigmatic for the literature of the . The
theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...
is a man going to meet a beloved woman, as in
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as t ...
's 1771 poem "" ( Welcome and Farewell). In Bierbaum's poem, he speaks in the first person. "" is in two stanzas, each comprising five lines. The first line, literally: "Wide meadows in twilight grey", was translated by Richard Stokes as "Broad meadows in grey dusk". The first line rhymes with lines 3 and 4, in both stanzas on "dark" vowels, and , with line 4 repeating line 1. Line 2 rhymes with line 5 on a light vowel, and . The term , a combination of (twilight) and (grey), repeated four times (in lines 1 and 4) contrasts with the final word (light). The third line of the poem describes the walk to meet the woman in first person, after detailing meadows, twilight, the sun and the stars: "" (Now I go to the most beautiful woman). The subject notes that he is not in a rush: "" (I do not go fast). She is not described, but their relationship imagined as a "" (soft, velvety band), drawing him to "" (the love land), reaching a state of "" (mild blue light).


Composition and publication

Strauss composed all three songs of Op. 29 on one day, 7 June 1895,notes by Roger Vignoles to the Hyperion recording, 2007
/ref> the year after he married Pauline de Ahna and settled in Munich, the town of his birth. Working as assistant conductor at the Munich court opera, he looked for a librettist for a possible opera project and contacted Bierbaum. While no opera came to pass, Strauss liked his poems and set several of them to music, among them the three songs of Op. 29 which he all wrote on 7 June. "" was followed by "" ("Longing Hearts" or "Beating Hearts") and "" (Nighttime Walk). Strauss reportedly completed "" in the only 20 minutes his wife gave him before an errand. He scored the three songs, which all contemplate walking, for medium voice and piano, and dedicated them to
Eugen Gura Eugen Gura (8 November 184226 August 1906) was a German operatic baritone. Life Gura was born in Nové Sedlo, Louny District, Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic). He was at first educated for the career of a painter at Vienna and Munich; ...
, a leading baritone of the court opera in Munich. The songs were first published in Munich by Joseph Aibl. They were then published by
Universal Edition Universal Edition (UE) is a classical music publishing firm. Founded in 1901 in Vienna, they originally intended to provide the core classical works and educational works to the Austrian market (which had until then been dominated by Leipzig-bas ...
. "" appeared also in English in a translation by John Bernhoff and Nelia Fabretto, in transpositions for low and high voice, and with an orchestral arrangement by Robert Heger. Strauss quoted the music, as several other early works, in the fifth section of his
tone poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ''T ...
''
Ein Heldenleben ''Ein Heldenleben'' (''A Hero's Life''), Op. 40, is a tone poem by Richard Strauss. The work was completed in 1898. It was his eighth work in the genre, and exceeded any of its predecessors in its orchestral demands. Generally agreed to be au ...
'' (''A Hero's Life''), Op. 40, completed in 1898, which is usually considered autobiographical in tone.


Music

A typical performance takes around three minutes. In the version for medium voice, the music of "" begins in
F-sharp major F-sharp major (or the key of F) is a major scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has six sharps. The F-sharp major scale is: : Its relative minor is D-sharp minor (or enharmonically ...
. It is in 2/4 time and marked "Sehr ruhig" (very calm). The two stanzas are through-composed, with two slight changes to the text: Strauss added the word "hin" to the third line and changed the order of the adjectives in the last line. The song is completed by a modified repeat of the last three lines, this time in Bierbaum's word order. The even time picks up the slow steps. The general marking for volume is pp (very soft), repeated several times, changed by a
crescendo In music, the dynamics of a piece is the variation in loudness between notes or phrases. Dynamics are indicated by specific musical notation, often in some detail. However, dynamics markings still require interpretation by the performer dependin ...
marking only twice, both times growing to pp again. The accompaniment follows a similar pattern almost throughout the song: in one measure, the bass in the pianists left hand moves in dotted eighth notes, while the right hand regularly alternates triplet sixteenths and eighths, resulting in a subtle shift of accents, which has been described as a "trance-like mood". The voice enters after two identical measures, also moving in dotted eighth notes. The first motif is a three note stepwise descent (A sharp, G sharp, F sharp). It is immediately repeated on the word "". The text is mostly rendered simply, with only one note on each syllable. When the view changes in line 3 from observation of nature to the destination, the key shifts abruptly to
B-flat major B-flat major is a major scale based on B, with pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative minor is G minor and its parallel minor is B-flat minor. The B-flat major scale is: : Many transposing ins ...
, and the word "schönsten" (most beautiful) is accented by a long high note. This climax of the first stanza is prepared by a crescendo, but again a sudden pianissimo. With the beginning of the second stanza, the key returns to F-sharp major, the melody is not identical but similar to the first stanza; the first motif appears one step higher, from B to G sharp, on "Dämmergrau", repeated on "Liebe Land". The line reaches a climax on "blaues" (blue). The text of the last three lines is repeated as a shortened version of a stanza, with the first motif in its second form this time on "gehe nicht schnell" and "eile nicht", with this emphasis on "not fast" marked "immer ruhiger (aber nicht schleppen)", which translates as "calmer and calmer (but no dragging)". The voice ends with a rising line, ending openly on C sharp, while the triplet movement stops, and the piano slowly repeats the final chord, marked ppp.


Versions by other composers

The poem "" inspired several other composers. Max Reger set the text to music as No. 3 of his '' Six Songs for Medium Voice'', Op. 35, in 1899. Wolfgang Jordan inserted a setting to conclude ''Träume. Acht Lieder für 1 Singstimme mit Pianoforte'' (Dreams. Eight songs for voice with piano), published in Berlin in 1899 by Deneke. "" was composed by Alfred von Sponer as the second of ''Drei Lieder für 1 mittlere Singstimme mit Pianofortebegleitung'' (Three songs for medium voice and piano accompaniment), Op. 12, published in Leipzig in 1899 by Rieter-Biedermann.
Vítězslav Novák Vítězslav Augustín Rudolf Novák (5 December 1870 – 18 July 1949) was a Czech composer and academic teacher at the Prague Conservatory. Stylistically, he was part of the neo-romantic tradition, and his music is considered an important ...
included a composition of the text in ''Erotikon'', Op. 46 No. 2, published in 1912.
Lutz Landwehr von Pragenau Lutz Landwehr von Pragenau (born 1963) is a German composer of classical music. He was born in Regensburg and studied composition with Wilhelm Killmayer at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, continued in a masterclass with Hans-Jü ...
set it for baritone and piano as Op. 1/2 in 1979.


References


External links

*
Traum durch die Dämmerung
text and translation at acad.depauw.edu

Deutsche Gedichte-Bibliothek
Traum durch die Dämmerung
zeno.org
Drei Lieder mit Klavierbegleitung, op. 29: Traum durch die Dämmerung, Ausgabe 1
{{DEFAULTSORT:Traum durch die Dammerung Songs by Richard Strauss 1895 songs Songs based on poems