Nänie

Nänie (the German form of Latin nenia, meaning "a funeral song"^[1]) is a composition for SATB chorus and orchestra, op. 82 by Johannes Brahms, which sets to music the poem Nänie by Friedrich Schiller. Brahms composed the piece in 1881, in memory of his deceased friend Anselm Feuerbach. Nänie is a lamentation on the inevitability of death; the first sentence, Auch das Schöne muß sterben, translates to "Even the beautiful must die." An average performance has a duration of approximately 15 minutes. It is one of the most rarely performed pieces by Brahms mostly due to its difficulty, leaving only more experienced choirs able to perform it.^{[citation needed]}

The text follows:

Auch das Schöne muß sterben! Das Menschen und Götter bezwinget,

Nicht die eherne Brust rührt es dem stygischen Zeus.

Einmal nur erweichte die Liebe den Schattenbeherrscher,

Und an der Schwelle noch, streng, rief er zurück sein Geschenk.

Nicht stillt Aphrodite dem schönen Knaben die Wunde,

Die in den zierlichen Leib grausam der Eber geritzt.

Nicht errettet den göttlichen Held die unsterbliche Mutter,

Wann er am skäischen Tor fallend sein Schicksal erfüllt.

Aber sie steigt aus dem Meer mit allen Töchtern des Nereus,

Und die Klage hebt an um den verherrlichten Sohn.

Siehe! Da weinen die Götter, es weinen die Göttinnen alle,

Daß das Schöne vergeht, daß das Vollkommene stirbt.

Auch ein Klagelied zu sein im Mund der Geliebten ist herrlich;

Denn das Gemeine geht klanglos zum Orkus hinab.

English translation:

Also Beauty must perish! What gods and humanity conquers,

Moves not the armored breast of the Stygian Zeus.

Only once did love come to soften the Lord of the Shadows,

And at the threshold at last, sternly he took back his gift.

Nor can Aphrodite assuage the wounds of the youngster,

That in his delicate form the boar had savagely torn.

Nor can rescue the hero divine his undying mother,

When, at the Scaean gate now falling, his fate he fulfills.

But she ascends from the sea with all the daughters of Nereus,

And she raises a plaint here for her glorified son.

See now, the gods, they are weeping, the goddesses all weeping also,

That the beauteous must fade, that the most perfect one dies.

But to be a lament on the lips of the loved one is glorious,

For the prosaic goes toneless to Orcus below.

References

External links

• Nänie: Free scores at the Brahms Institut.

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