Johannes Brahms was a great admirer of art, especially painting and drawing. This will give me the chance to write (at least) three articles about three different artists who inspired him to write a song. This article, the first one, talks about Brahms and Franz Kugler, who never met.
And who was this gentleman, so little-known nowadays? Franz Kugler (1808-11858) was a renowned art historian, Doctor of Architecture, professor at the Prussian Academy of Arts and a significant member of the Prussian Ministry of Culture, who always put a lot of interest in training citizens in the appreciation of art. He wrote several books considered to be of reference for decades, such as the Handbuch der Geschichte der Malerei [Handbook of the History of Painting, 1837] or the Handbuch der Kunstgesichte [Handbook of the History of Art, 1842]. He was also the director of an art magazine, Museum, Blätter für bildende Kunst [Museum, sheets for the Visual Arts, 1834]. He was himself a painter; he made mostly portraits, and we owe to him the most popularized portrait of Eichendorff, as well as others such as those of Heine, Chamisso or Uhland, to mention only names that are familiar to Lied lovers.
Kluger was an extremely sociable person with an extensive circle of friends, including historians, writers, painters, and musicians (he had also studied music, like so many cultured people at the time). And this sociability is the source of a book that Brahms, who already knew the most important works, sought for years: Skizzenbuch [Book of sketches, 1830].
The Skizzenbuch, edited by Adalbert von Chamisso, contained poems by Kugler himself or his friends, all of which were set to music. Music could be either traditional (with the verses being written to a specific tune) or specially composed by different people, including Felix Mendelssohn, it seems; each of the songs was illustrated with a drawing by Kugler (if you are curious, De Gruyter reissued it in 2022). The print run of this book must have been very short, since Brahms was unable to find it anywhere. He finally got the daughter-in-law of Kugler to loan him a copy that was in the family library.
The only Lied that the composer would write with Kugler's poem, Ständchen, came from Skizzenbuch. He wrote it in the summer of 1888 and it was published in October that year as Op. 106/1. The poet explains in three stanzas the serenade of the title. In the first one, he introduces the scene, which is a night of moon propitious to the celebrations. In the second, we know the three students who make the serenade playing the flute, the violin, and the zither. In the third, we know that the addresee is asleep, but the music sneaks into her dreams and she sees a loved face.
Brahms song has an unusual lightness. It has the form ABA, so that the first and last stanza share music. In the second stanza, the composer introduces a new melody that groups two verses and is repeated. The accompaniment refers to, above all, the zither, which is the instrument that carries (literally) the singing voice. Like so many other times, Brahms wrote a song elaborate enough to look like a simple piece of traditional inspiration. I suggest you listen to this beautiful song performed by Sarah Connolly and Eugene Asti.
Der Mond steht über dem Berge,
So recht für verliebte Leut;
Im Garten rieselt ein Brunnen,
Sonst Stille weit und breit.
Neben der Mauer, im Schatten,
Da stehn der Studenten drei
Mit Flöt’ und Geig’ und Zither,
Und singen und spielen dabei.
Die Klänge schleichen der Schönsten
Sacht in den Traum hinein,
Sie schaut den blonden Geliebten
Und lispelt: „Vergiß nicht mein!“
The moon hangs over the mountain,
So fitting for love-struck people.
In the garden trickles a fountain;
Otherwise, it is still far and wide.
Near the wall, in shadows,
there stand the students three:
with flute and fiddle and zither,
they sing and play there.
The sounds waft up to the loveliest of women,
gently entering her dreams.
She gazes on her blond beloved
and whispers: "Forget me not!"
(Translation by Emily Ezust)
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