And yesterday he brought me roses

This is the 14th year that we celebrate Sant Jordi's Day on Liederabend. I haven't reviewed all the roses of previous years, but I would say that most were rather sad or nostalgic: roses were symbols of an ephemeral youth, of the passage of time, of love that has ended... There are not many songs that celebrate love, as we celebrate love on Saint George's Day. However, this year is the case.

Little is known about the poet Thekla Lingen, who wrote the poem of our song. She was born in Latvia in 1866, and her real name was Thekla Johanna Müller. At a young age, she wanted to become an actress, and she was until she married. At the same time, she was interested in becoming a writer, and in 1898 she published the first volume of poetry, Am Scheidewege, which enjoyed remarkable recognition and had a second edition two years later. In 1901, she published a volume of short novels, Die schönen Frauen, and in 1902, a second volume of poetry, Aus Dunkel und Dämmerung. As I told you, not much is known about her life: she married again after becoming a widow, her daughter drowned in a boat accident, and she died in a mental hospital in 1931. From his work we can say, at least, that the philosopher Rudolf Steiner defined his poems as “revelations of the female soul”.

Today's song poem, Ach, gestern hat er mir Rosen gebracht belongs to the first collection of poems, Am Scheidewege [At crossroad]. Joseph Marx put it into music in 1908, the same year that he earned his doctorate in Philosophy. As I told you a while ago, his father, a good musician himself, did not want his son to dedicate himself to music professionally; Marx followed his father's will, but he continued to study music and compose. And, in 1909, two recitals tipped the scales in music's favor. Anna Hansa, soprano from Graz, offered them in Graz, with Marx at the piano. The first was with songs by Debussy and Marx, and the second, entirely by our composer.

Marx music was a great success. The «Grazer Tagespost» published the following lines: "He is a man of most excellent ability who has quietly developed into a master. If his idiom is to be compared to famous composers, I would like to name Max Reger and Hugo Wolf [...] without seeming to be an imitator of either... Watch this man!”. The audience was also delighted with those Lieder, and the most obvious evidence is that the Schuberthaus publishing house rushed to publish all those that had been performed in those two concerts. It would not be long before great singers, such as Elisabeth Schumann, brought them to Europe.

I am not sure if Und gestern hat er mir Rosen gebracht [And he brought me roses, yesterday] – Marx subtly changed the initial exclamation, “Ach”, to “Und” – was published in that first collection of songs. If not, it was published soon, and became one of his best known songs. It has a delicate balance between introversion and extroversion; we feel the woman keeping her feelings secret, until the emotion makes them almost shout to the four winds. I hope you enjoy it. We will hear it performed by Katharina Karnéus and Roger Vignoles.

Have a fantastic Sant Jordi Day!

Und gestern hat er mir Rosen gebracht

Und gestern hat er mir Rosen gebracht,
Sie haben geduftet die ganze Nacht,
Für ihn geworben, der meiner denkt --
Da hab' ich den Traum einer Nacht ihm geschenkt.

Und heute geh' ich und lächle stumm,
Trag seine Rosen mit mir herum
Und warte und lausche, und geht die Thür,
So zittert mein Herz: ach, käm' er zu mir!

Und küsse die Rosen, die er mir gebracht,
Und gehe und suche den Traum der Nacht.

And yesterday he brought me roses,
They diffused their scent the whole night long,
They wooed me on his behalf, he who thinks of me --
So I bestowed the dream of one night upon him.

And today I wander about and smile mutely,
Carry his roses around with me
And wait and hearken, and if I hear the door,
My heart quivers: ah, if he would only come to me!

And I kiss the roses that he brought me,
And I go and seek the dream of the night.

(translation by Sharon Krebs)