{"id":563,"date":"2016-02-05T09:04:31","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T08:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/?page_id=563"},"modified":"2016-08-09T14:02:35","modified_gmt":"2016-08-09T12:02:35","slug":"the-german-style-of-comedy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/the-art-of-understanding\/the-art-of-song-writing\/the-german-style-of-comedy\/","title":{"rendered":"the german style of comedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

the german style of comedy<\/b><\/p>\n

\n

From an invisible murder to an invisible murderer is just a step. One that brings\u00a0us to the moonlit countryside of Thuringia. Or more precise ; to the park of\u00a0Tiefurt Palace at Weimar. There to hear star singer Corona Schr\u00f6ter,\u00a0under the alders (Erlen) along the river Ilm,\u00a0<\/span>in the\u00a0nightly prelude<\/a>\u00a0to her 1782 semi-opera\u00a0Die Fischerin<\/i>\u00a0(The Fisherwoman):<\/p>\n

Wer reit(e)t so sp\u00e4t durch Nacht und Wind?
\nEs ist der Vater mit seinem Kind.
\nEr hat den Knaben wohl in dem Arm,
\nEr fa\u00dft ihn sicher, er h\u00e4lt ihn warm.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mein Sohn, was birgst du so bang dein Gesicht? \u2014\u00a0<\/span>
\nSiehst Vater, du den Erlk\u00f6nig nicht!<\/span>
\nDen Erlenk\u00f6nig mit Kron\u2019 und Schweif? \u2014<\/span>
\nMein Sohn, es ist ein Nebelstreif. \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201eDu liebes Kind, komm geh\u2019 mit mir!<\/span>
\nGar sch\u00f6ne Spiele, spiel ich mit dir,<\/span>\u00a0
\n<\/span>Manch bunte Blumen sind an dem Strand,<\/span>\u00a0
\n<\/span>Meine Mutter hat manch g\u00fclden Gewand.\u201c \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Mein Vater, mein Vater, und h\u00f6rest du nicht,
\nWas Erlenk\u00f6nig mir leis(e) verspricht? \u2014
\nSei ruhig, bleibe ruhig, mein Kind,
\nIn d\u00fcrren Bl\u00e4ttern s\u00e4uselt der Wind. \u2014
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201eWillst feiner Knabe du mit mir gehn?\u00a0<\/span>
\nMeine T\u00f6chter soll(e)n dich warten sch\u00f6n,<\/span>
\nMeine T\u00f6chter f\u00fchren den n\u00e4chtlichen Reihn\u00a0<\/span>
\nUnd wiegen und tanzen und singen dich ein.\u201c \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Mein Vater, mein Vater, und siehst du nicht dort<\/span>
\nErlk\u00f6nigs T\u00f6chter am d\u00fcster(e)n Ort? \u2014<\/span>\u00a0
\n<\/span>Mein Sohn, mein Sohn, ich seh\u2019 es genau:<\/span>\u00a0
\n<\/span>Es scheinen die alten Weiden so grau. \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201eIch liebe dich, mich reizt dein(e) sch\u00f6n(e) Gestalt,
\nUnd bist du nicht willig, so brauch ich Gewalt!\u201c \u2014
\nMein Vater, mein Vater, jetzt fa\u00dft er mich an,
\nErlk\u00f6nig hat mir ein Leids getan. \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Dem\u00a0Vater\u00a0<\/span>grauset\u2019s, er reitet geschwind,
\nEr h\u00e4lt in den Armen das \u00e4chzend(e) Kind,
\nErreicht den Hof mit M\u00fch(e) und Not,
\nIn seinen Armen das Kind war tot.<\/p>\n

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832)<\/span>
\nafter\u00a0\u2018Erlk\u00f6nigs Tochter\u2019<\/em>\u00a0by Johann Gottfried von Herder<\/span><\/p>\n

Thirty-two lines (the age of Goethe at the date of first performance) of wordsubstitution to go.\u00a0And this time there is no getting\u00a0around. Unless you can read German, of course. Or find the translation in\u00a0Wikipedia. But one better sticks to the basics, assisted by the guidance of this\u00a0short synopsis :<\/p>\n

\n

At a late hour the father rides through the dark with his son in his\u00a0protecting arm. He asks the boy why he covers his face in such fear. \u201cBut\u00a0father, don\u2019t you see the Elf King?\u201d The father explains the appearance away\u00a0as a wisp of fog. He then dismisses the voice that whispers in the boy\u2019s ear as\u00a0the gale playing with the fallen leaves. And when the son points at the dance of\u00a0the elf\u2019s daughters, the father assures him that a line of willows moving in the\u00a0wind make the same impression. At that very moment, aroused by the boy\u2019s beauty,\u00a0the elf makes his move, and his target suffers some shortlived agony.\u00a0Horrified, the father rides on, now holding his moaning son with both arms. But\u00a0when he arrrives at his destination, it is for the boy too late.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This summary covers all the recorded facts. Facts that allow to define the\u00a0son\u2019s age, as Goethe had it in mind, with pinpoint precision. But everything else\u00a0is conjecture : the ballad perhaps suggests, but never comfirms the boy to\u00a0suffer a dangerously high running fever. Or the hallucinations that go with it.\u00a0Whence father and son come, or where they go, is anybody\u2019s guess (\u2018Hof\u2019\u00a0leaves several options open), while the galloping horse is only present in the\u00a0mind of the reader. And, of course, in the song\u2019s piano accompagnement by\u00a0Franz Schubert<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Having sung this ouverture on a more airily tune of her own, young miss\u00a0Schr\u00f6ter introduces herself as Dorchen, a fisherman\u2019s daughter who suffers\u00a0as much from lack of manly appreciation as that boy had suffered from\u00a0excess.<\/p>\n

\n
Corona Schr\u00f6ter set the words, under Goethe\u2019s direct supervision, on music in the simple\u00a0pattern of a traditional ballad. This evidence of his artistic preference may explain why Goethe\u00a0returned, without comment, the dedication copy of Schubert\u2019s masterpiece to sender. And why\u00a0Carl Loewe\u2019s attempt to perform\u00a0his version<\/a>\u00a0in Goethe\u2019s presence got nowhere : these were\u00a0songs rather than ballads.<\/span><\/em><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Life, apparently, isn\u2019t fair. And to do something about it, she is now\u00a0setting the stage for her death. Not for real, of course, but convincingly\u00a0enough to make her father and her boyfriend search for her corpse : that will\u00a0teach them (it is a comedy). And they will both pay her due attention when she\u00a0has turned up again.<\/p>\n

If this is a context to go by, it is evident what attentive reading (i.e. careful\u00a0wordsubstitution) is going to reveal. The question that matters therefore\u00a0is : are there any \u2018Oh\u2019s?<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

go to next chapter<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/span>\u00a0back to the previous chapter<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

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the german style of comedy From an invisible murder to an invisible murderer is just a step. One that brings\u00a0us to the moonlit countryside of Thuringia. Or more precise ; to the park of\u00a0Tiefurt Palace at Weimar. There to hear … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":679,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1194,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/563\/revisions\/1194"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}