The h2g2 Poem
Created | Updated Nov 25, 2004
Im Abendrot - In the Red of Evening
One of the most beautiful songs for voice and orchestra is Im Abendrot by Richard Strauss.
The song is a setting to music of a poem by Joseph von Eichendorff (1788 - 1857). Written near the end of Strauss's long and productive life, the music is sad, wistful and intensely beautiful. It ends with an orchestral chord sequence which will make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. Im Abendrot is the last of the four songs known as Strauss's Four Last Songs; these are normally performed together as a single work.
This new translation of the poem matches the rhythm of the music syllable for syllable, so that it can be sung along with the Strauss music.
Im Abendrot - Joseph von Eichendorff (1788-1857)
| In the Red of Evening
|
A more accurate translation of the second verse, which unfortunately does not exactly match the music, is as follows:
The valleys fold around us
And now the sky grows dark,
The wistful heavens are empty
But for two soaring larks.
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