DAILY DOSE OF BEETHOVEN (October 12, 2020)
No song in this circle ever ends simply. Instead, each leads to a new begin. They all segue, like a stream, from one to another, despite their great differences. In this circle, we heard many youthful, and beautiful images of love.
However, by now, we feel the need for something more serious. Several aspects of the sixth song suggest that the separation from his beloved, so bemoaned by the poet, may be more psychological than physical. Song six introduces something new on every level. For the first time in the cycle, we have a slower tempo. For the first time, the poet is speaking in a more direct manner than he has yet done, to his beloved:
"Take them then, take my songs which I have sung to you, my beloved, and sing, sing them in the evening."
Maybe for the first time, the beloved is not just worshipped, but acts. Beethoven repeats, and draws attention to the words "Und du singst", (And YOU sing). But for the first time, marks it molto adagio (very slow). It stands out.
Not everything is new though. Beethoven has returned to Ab, the key of the third song, and is on his way back to his opening key Eb. Have we then come full circle? The poet says that there is no artfulness in his songs, and follows with—“Of nothing but yearning, was I aware”.
Artfulness, in this case, may mean “artificiality". We have to be careful with the word "Sehnsucht”—or, yearning. Longing and yearning have different connotations in English. For German poets of that time, it could mean the yearning for a deeper spiritual fulfillment, for truth and meaning in life.Thus, Beethoven repeats the words "Nur der Sehnsucht sich bewußt", (Of nothing but yearning was I aware), dramatically.
Thus, we come back to the idea in our first posting on the matter, that the 'distant beloved' could refer not just to an immortal beloved woman, but a loving connection to the Creator, and to one's own creativity. The poems were composed in 1815, when that love of creativity was being threatened, as the Congress of Vienna began to brutally impose banality. The songs were set soon after by Beethoven. The different meanings, need not be exclusive.
Beethoven then returns to his opening song, but on the words, "Then my songs shall surely soften, what has kept us so far apart." Is this a circle?
The first time, the poet sang of sitting on a hill, gazing into the distance where his beloved dwelled. Now he is next to her, seeking to resolve that distance.
He follows by repeating:
Und ein liebend Herz erreichet
(And a loving heart will arrive)
Was ein liebend Herz geweiht.
(At what a loving heart has made Holy.)
Is it the same as in the beginning? Hardly! "Geweight" means consecrate, or to make Holy. Beethoven shouts it from the rooftops. “To truly love another, you must first consecrate that other!” How can Beethoven repeat a song so differently? His act of composition has consecrated the poetry, and perhaps helped the young poet understand the deeper aspects of what he had done.
Here is song 6 by itself.
https://youtu.be/AeBYcmosEDo?list=TLPQMDQxMDIwMjCLS5lKGhqlxA
Nimm sie hin denn, diese Lieder,
(Take them then, these my songs)
Die ich dir, Geliebte, sang,
(Which I to you, beloved, sang,)
Singe sie dann abends wieder
(Sing them in the evening)
Zu der Laute süßem Klang.
(to the sweet sound of the lute.)
Wenn das Dämmrungsrot dann zieht
(When the fading red light draws)
Nach dem stillen blauen See,
(Away from the blue lake,)
Und sein letzter Strahl verglühet
(And the last ray's glow fades)
Hinter jener Bergeshöh;
(Behind that beautiful hill;)
Und du singst, was ich gesungen,
(And you sing, what I have sung')
Was mir aus der vollen Brust
(What I from my overflowing breast)
Ohne Kunstgepräng erklungen,
(Sounded, with no artfulness,)
Nur der Sehnsucht sich bewußt:
(Of nothing but yearning, was I aware!)
Dann vor diesen Liedern weichet
(Let these songs then soften)
Was geschieden uns so weit,
(What has kept us far apart,)
Und ein liebend Herz erreichet
(And a loving heart will arrive)
Was ein liebend Herz geweiht.
(At what a loving heart has dedicated.)