Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Some weeks back, in midsummer, I sat at my worktable as night drew to an end, when sunrise broke out magnificently in my window wall (see photo #1 in my 8/25 posting “Where I live”) and filled me with joy at the gift of a new day. Also triggering an avalanche of musical associations — conveying fresh beginnings (as here), or rebirth (both of them in Schubert lieder, to come below), or (as in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, also to come below), resurrection. (There’s more, lots more; I’ll list only a tiny sampling, from the odd trio of Haydn, Grieg, and Grofé — ok, Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross, they’re not))

Schubert. Morning light, the glow of fresh beginnings and rebirth, was one of the obsessions of his (disastrously short) life, worked into one composition after another; he was always on the lookout for poets he could mine for their texts, and he gathered in free-spirited artistic circles with them.

Just one example: Morgenlied, D. 266 “Willkommen, rotes Morgenlicht” (which you can listen to here, sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, accompanied by Gerald Moore (from Deutsche Grammophon in 1970).

Willkommen, rotes Morgenlicht!
Es grüsset dich mein Geist,
Der durch des Schlafes Hülle bricht,
Und seinen Schöpfer preis’t.

Willkommen, goldner Morgenstrahl,
Der schon den Berg begrüsst,
Und bald im stillen Quellental
Die kleine Blume küsst!

— English translation by Richard Wigmore:

Welcome, rosy light of morning!
My spirit greets you,
breaking through the veil of sleep
to praise its Creator.

Welcome, golden ray of morning,
which already greets the mountains,
and in the silent valley, by the stream,
will soon kiss the little flowers.

(just the first two verses, picked out by Schubert from a great many)

The text comes from Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg-Stolberg, whose Wikipedia thumbnail sketch tells us:

(7 November 1750 – 5 December 1819) … German lawyer, and translator … also a poet of the Sturm und Drang and early Romantic periods.

So: minor royalty with artistic credentials.

Mahler. O Röschen rot! I’ve been through the wringer with Mahler 2 mvt 4 many times. Incredibly, twice in the last two weeks. I’ve come to think of it as the Sweat Symphony — from the occasion when I experienced Leonard Bernstein conducting it in London many years ago, spraying his sweat all over the stage and leaving my very proper concert-going clothing soaked with my own sweat. Yes, ecstasy for everyone. You don’t get that much in classical music concerts; lots of people think it’s just vulgar — Tommy for the elites. (I happen to adore Tommy, embrace its noisy good-hearted sexy vulgarity, so don’t come complaining to me)

But Mahler 2 mvt 4, “Urlicht”. Let’s look at it more dispassionately. From Wikipedia:

The Symphony No. 2 in C minor by Gustav Mahler, known as the Resurrection Symphony, was written between 1888 and 1894, and first performed in 1895. This symphony was one of Mahler’s most popular and successful works during his lifetime. It was his first major work to establish his lifelong view of the beauty of afterlife and resurrection.

… The fourth movement, “Urlicht” (Primal Light) is marked Sehr feierlich, aber schlicht (Very solemn, but simple). It is a Wunderhorn song, sung by an alto, which serves as an introduction to the Finale. The song … illustrates the longing for relief from worldly woes, leading without a break to the response in the Finale [AZ: which breaks out with Aufersteh’n, ja aufersteh’n wirst du ‘Rise again, yes, rise again’ (from Friedrich Gotttlieb Klopstock’s Die Auferstehung ‘The Resurrection’) and goes on from there, hair-raisingly, for about half an hour]

The text, in German and then a serviceable English translation:

O Röschen rot!
Der Mensch liegt in größter Not!
Der Mensch liegt in größter Pein!
Je lieber möcht’ ich im Himmel sein.

Da kam ich auf einen breiten Weg:
Da kam ein Engelein und wollt’ mich abweisen.
Ach nein! Ich ließ mich nicht abweisen!
Ich bin von Gott und will wieder zu Gott!
Der liebe Gott wird mir ein Lichtchen geben,
wird leuchten mir bis in das ewig selig Leben!
—Des Knaben Wunderhorn

O little red rose!
Man lies in greatest need!
Man lies in greatest pain!
How I would rather be in heaven.

There came I upon a broad path
when came a little angel and wanted to turn me away.
Ah no! I would not let myself be turned away!
I am from God and shall return to God!
The loving God will grant me a little light,
Which will light me into that eternal blissful life!

I happen not to subscribe to any of the beliefs embedded in this text, also manifested in the Sacred Harp music I sing so passionately. But I appreciate the power in this music, which my Christian friends identify as the grace of God, and it moves me profoundly. And then, in both the Mahler and the SH songs I particularly admire, there’s real genius in the way the musical motifs are developed. The Mahler is a miracle just as a composition; you can study it the way we study Bach’s instrumental music: pure, as if there were no texts, no extramusical content, no human values attached to it.

That’s in fact why I voluntarily endure — actually welcome — repeated performances of it; otherwise, it would just be exhausting. Instead, I get to the point where I want to cry out, “Jesus fuck, is he going to ding at that damned melody line again“, only to realize that it’s changed just a bit, it’s developing into something new, and it will keep doing that, remarkably, for about half an hour, working towards a climax that will bring the whole thing to repose.

Don’t get many sunrises like that.

Sunrise music. Vast amounts of it. I’ve picked a tiny sample of old favorites of mine. From Haydn, two works with no extramusical content beyond the sunrise; then from Grieg and Grofé, two from program music that has a sunrise in the program.

Haydn. The String Quartet Op. 76 No. 4 “Sunrise”. And a part of his Symphony No. 6 [AZ: he wrote 104 of them] often referred to as the “Sunrise Symphony”

Grieg. “Morning (Mood)” from Peer Gynt, Op. 23

Grofé. “Sunrise”, mvt 1 from his Grand Canyon Suite

This entry was posted on August 27, 2026 at 10:26 am and is filed under German, Language and religion, Music, My life, Poetry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.