Classical Music | Baritone

Recorded on 04/06/2005, uploaded on 03/21/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Feldeinsamkeit from Sechs Lieder, op. 86      Johannes Brahms

The Sechs Lieder, op. 86 is the last set of songs that fall into Brahms's roughly defined middle period. Though the opus number suggests a later composition date, many of the Lieder from this set were heard in manuscript form as early as 1878, placing them close to the composition of the opp. 69-72 sets. By this time, Brahms's had attained a masterly skill of both form and expression in his Lieder. The voice was increasingly woven into the overall musical texture. Furthermore, like his late piano pieces, the composition techniques used became more and more subtle.

The second song of the op. 86 set, Feldeinsamkeit ("Alone in the Fields"), continues a nature-theme that runs through several of the songs of this period. In this particular song, the lyrics describe the artist lying in a field of grass looking up at the sky. The rising and falling melodic line, thus, portrays the clouds passing over the observer who is held fast to the earth by the gravity of a tonic pedal.

Text by Hermann Allmers

Quiet I rest in tall green grass

and upward long direct my gaze,

by unremitting crickets ringed,

enfolded wondrously by blue sky.

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.