Maybe you have to be a German to understand Goethe's "Trost in Tränen" (Comfort in Tears). Maybe the poem's narrator who just loves to cry, who finds comfort in crying, who renounces happiness, achievement, and even the moon and the stars so he can spend his nights crying, is so German in his sentimental melancholy that non-Germans just can't understand it.

But Germans understand it. The poem has been set to music by German composers at least six times: by Zelter, Reichstag, Brahms, Cornelius, Loewe, and Schubert (D. 120), on November 30, 1815. In Schubert's song Goethe's eight pairs of verses are set as pairs of strophes, with the question of each opening verse set to hopeful F major music and the answer of each closing verse set to sorrowful F minor music which ends emphatically in the tonic minor. The question and answer both have lightfooted tunes in gently swaying 6/8 time, granting a comfort and consolation that the song's sentimental melancholy might not provide for non-Germans.

© All Music Guide

Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.