1.Wiegenlied

Composed in Marquartstein on August 22, 1899, and dedicated to Mme. Marie Rösch (née Ritter) "in friendly admiration," this gentle lullaby is interesting for the way that Strauss maintains a compelling balance between an intimate song style and a concert aria.

The song's conventional harmonies perfectly follow the subtly shifting moods of Richard Dehmel's poem. The opening is marked sanft bewegt (with gentle motion) and the piano accompaniment's thirty-second-note harp-like arpeggios are played sehr leicht und flüchtig (very light and fleeting) at a very subdued pianississimo dynamic level. The vocalist's melodic line moves along in a hushed, considerably slower pace, without elaboration, only simple passing tones, and completely in B flat major: "Dream, my sweet life, of heaven that brings forth flowers."

The middle section modulates to the subdominant key (E flat major) with a modulation to the minor (G seventh to C minor) on the words "Blossoms quiver, shaken by the song...," and then peacefully returns to the home key on the words "...that your mother sings." The melody continues to move in considerably longer notes, in the augmentation style, which the composer employs in the wind and brass choir parts in several of his orchestral compositions.

The second verse initially sounds like a recapitulation of the first "Dream, dream...," but immediately switches to the parallel minor key (B flat minor) as the mood becomes more serious on the words "my worries sprouted, since the days the flowers bloomed, since that bright morning...." And, as in the previous verse, there is a modulation back to the tonic key when the thoughts become hopeful: "...your care has opened up the world to me."

The third verse reiterates the first and second. This time the child is asked to "Dream, dream, my love, of the silent, holy night." The harmonies soon start to modulate in a subtle manner to a considerably removed key by a series of false anticipations that trick the ear with very gentle enharmonic movement to unanticipated tonal centers (B flat major, D major, A major, E minor sixth, B minor). The modulations crescendo toward two sustained peaks on the words "Welt" (world) on a G major chord and "Himmel" (heaven) on a full C major chord at the end of the verse: "When the bloom of his love made the world like heaven for me." This last line is repeated once more as the music returns to the tonality and mood of the opening, and the piece concludes on whispering arpeggios that ascend to the highest range on the piano.

© All Music Guide