Johannes Brahms Valse des chansons d'amour

Speak, maiden, whom I love all too much,
who hurled into my once aloof heart,
with only one glance,
these wild, ardent feelings!

Will you not soften your heart?
Do you wish to be chaste
and remain without sweet bliss,
or do you want me to come to you?

To remain without sweet bliss –
I would never make such a bitter penance.
So come, dark-eyes,
come when the stars greet you.

Against the stones the stream rushes,
powerfully driven:
those who do not know to sigh there,
will learn it when they fall in love.

O women, O women,
how they melt one with bliss!
I would have become a monk long ago
if it were not for women!

Like the evening’s lovely red,
would I, a poor maiden, like to glow,
to please one, one boy –
and to then radiate bliss forever.

The green hops vine,
it winds along the ground.
The young, fair maiden –
so mournful are her thoughts!

You –

...

1. Rede, Mädchen (SATB) Rede, Mädchen, allzu liebes,
das mir in die Brust, die kühle,
hat geschleudert mit dem Blicke
diese wilden Glutgefühle!

Willst du nicht dein Herz erweichen,
willst du, eine Überfromme,
rasten ohne traute Wonne,
oder willst du, dass ich komme?

Rasten ohne traute Wonne,
nicht so bitter will ich büßen.
Komme nur, du schwarzes Auge.
Komme, wenn die Sterne grüßen.

2. Am Gesteine rauscht die Flut (SATB) Am Gesteine rauscht die Flut,
heftig angetrieben;
wer da nicht zu seufzen weiß,
lernt es unterm Lieben.

...

Roland Kunz
Translation (abridged): John Coombs

“The earnest, taciturn Brahms, the true disciple of Schumann, a north German, a Protestant, and as unworldly as Schumann himself, writing waltzes? A single word solves the riddle; it is: Vienna.”

The music of Brahms’s maturity would probably have been of an entirely different character had he not settled in Vienna in 1862. He came into contact there with an entirely unfamiliar musical culture, and Eduard Hanslick, the dreaded Viennese music critic, was understandably surprised by the waltzes of this “unworldly Protestant.” In Vienna conservative minded artists and critics set the tone; the tradition of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert was still flourishing, and Brahms became familiar there with Schubert’s ländler, Strauß waltzes, Austrian folk music and the music of the gipsies. No wonder that he was inspired to write waltzes, the

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