Denn es gehet dem Menschen (Ecclesiastes 3 : 19-22)
Vier ernste Gesange - Four Serious Songs
by Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) devoted much of his compositional career to Lieder. He had a great distaste for empty display, and in his songs, as in all his works, he avoided emotional indulgence. Brahms sought out texts that create an evocative atmosphere. Although he was attracted to poetry about love and nature, he was also drawn to the subject of death, particularly in his later years.
Vier ernste Gesänge ("Four serious songs") were composed in 1896, just a year before Brahms's death. It was also the last music that he published, and in it one senses a work of conscious farewell. It was also composed the same year that his great love, Clara Schumann, died. Brahms's response to mortality seems to be one of resignation, but also of courage, and this set of songs is imbued with compassion, wisdom and a deep concern for humanity. Brahms chose biblical texts for this set of songs, with the first three describing different aspects of death. The piano prelude in "Ich wandte mich" moves down in octaves, a common Brahms motif for death, but the song ends on a reconciling and accepting major tonality at the last phrase. In "O Tod, o Tod, wie bitter" the bitterness of death for some is contrasted with its comfort for others. The last song, "Wenn ich mit Menschen", takes as its text Saint Paul's stirring sermon on charity (1 Corinthians 13: 1-13) and ends the set on a note of exaltation.
lyrics
5. FOR THAT WHICH BEFALLETH THE SONS
OF MEN BEFALLETH BEASTS
For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts,
As the one dieth, so dieth the other;
Yea they have all one breath,
So that a man hath no preeminence above a beast,
For all is vanity.
All go unto one place,
All are of the dust
And all turn to dust again.
Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward,
And the spirit of the beast
That goeth downward to the earth?
Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better
Than that a man should rejoice in his own works,
For that is his portion.
For who shall bring him to see
What shall be after him?
Ludwig Recordings is a Record Label specializing in the music of composer Christopher Ludwig and its artists.
Ludwig Recordings has an especially strong focus on Art Song.
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