6 Comments

1. 
   cjwrightoboe

   July 6, 2008 at 10:44 am

   Funny you ask. I’m doing a ridiculously long paper on Schumann and the piano concerto, so I have all of these books on Schumann surrounding me.

   No, you’re not. Mondnacht (Moonlit Night) comes from Liederkreis Op. 39 (not 24), and is written on poetry by Joseph van Eichendorff. The piece was written in 1840, his “liederjahr” in which he wrote at least 125 lieder, perhaps more. The words are:

   Es war, als hatt’ der Himmel
   Der erde still gekusst,
   Dass sie im Blutenschimmer
   Von ihm nur traumen musst.
   Die Luft ging durch die Felder,
   Die Ahren wogten sacht,
   Es rauschten leis’ die Walder,
   So sternklar war die Nacht.

   Und meine Seele spannte
   Weit ihre Flugel aus,
   Flog durch die stillen Lande,
   Als floge sie nach Haus.

   One translation I found online was:

   It was as if the sky
   Had quietly kissed the earth,
   So that in a shower of blossoms
   She must now dream of him.

   The breeze wafted through the fields,
   The ears of corn waved gently,
   The forests rustled faintly,
   So sparkling clear was the night.

   And my soul stretched
   its wings out far,
   Flew through the still lands,
   as if it were flying home.
2. 
   Patty

   July 6, 2008 at 11:57 am

   Thanks, Cooper! Now of course I could have spent time looking this up myself, but I’m old and lazy! (And I was running off to church.)

   Hope things are going well for you, even though you appear to be stuck where you are and your big plans didn’t work out. 🙁

   Maybe next year?
3. 
   Lane Savant

   July 6, 2008 at 1:03 pm

   Just found your site, I’ve linked it.
   Love the sound of the double reeds.
   (with the exceptions of shawm, bombard, bagpipes, which I find merely amusing)
4. 
   Patty

   July 6, 2008 at 1:23 pm

   Well thanks for commenting!

   Years ago a wealthy patron of the arts sponsored my chair, which was as English hornist of the San Jose Symphony. He explained that the English horn was as close he could get in a symphony orchestra to his favorite instrument of all time … the bagpipes.

   I never knew how I should take that. So I chose to take it with humor. Heck, why not? 🙂
5. 
   bbushman

   July 7, 2008 at 1:32 pm

   In a similar vein, of course – “The Greatest Works Schubert Never Wrote for Oboe” CD by Alex Klein:
   http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Works-Schubert-Never-Wrote/dp/B00004XPL3
6. 
   Patty

   July 7, 2008 at 1:41 pm

   Hah! I love it … and I’d not heard of that CD before. Guess I’ll have to look around for it. (I see that Amazon doesn’t have it right now.)

   Of course I suppose I should wait until my income is back up … summer is rotten for my income. Sigh.