We continue our journey through the novel "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship" by Goethe, and we arrive at the 12th post of the series about its songs.

In our previous post, we left the novel at chapter 10 in book V, when Wilhelm was in his room, awake, with Philine's slippers on his hands, hesitant (which is, as you know, his natural state). Now it's the opening night of Hamlet, with Wilhelm in the leading role; the performance has been a success, all the actors have been praised and the company celebrates with a dinner party. They eat and drink (mostly drinking…), sing and dance.

 

Three something years and 63 male composers later, the first female composer arrives at Liederabend. Dear readers, let me introduce you to Amy Beach.

Amy Marcey Cheney was born in Henniker, New Hampshire, in 1867. As far as we know about her childhood, it seems quite clear that she likely was a child prodigy; let me tell you, for instance, this anecdote: when Amy was four years old she went back home after spending a few days at her grandparents’ place and told her mother: "I did three waltzes." Mrs. Cheney was an excellent singer and pianist and was teaching her daughter, but she thought her comment was excessive as there wasn't a piano at her grandparents’ place. The girl replied that [...]

 

Last June, I started my buggy songs list. According to my friend’s practical definition, a bug is a "small animal prone to be crushed with a slipper", and my list includes creatures such as beetles, cockroaches and crickets. Even so, you might remember a creature that also got into the list but it wouldn't be crushed by a slipped: a dragon. Then, let’s say that I needed my 10th buggy song and snails are mentioned in this one (incidentally, my friend loves it). Let's say too that every year, when I write the St George's post, I think of the poor dragon and its sad role in the story. Another friend tells me "it's not a dragon, it incarnates evil forces ", and he's right but still... poor dragon!

 

Tomorrow is Saint George's Day; you would expect a post with a rose, wouldn’t you? After Strauss, Quilter and Haydn, in this occasion, our rose is a Lied by Schumann, Meine Rose. It's one of the many pearls in a production full of them, perhaps less known than others because it belongs to his second phase, to the Lieder he wrote between 1849 and 1853. Some time ago we listened to two lieder from the beginning of this phase, In der Nacht and Frühlingslied, and we talked a little about the circumstances surrounding the composer's life at that time: how his poor health forced him to leave Leipzig in 1844 and live in a more peaceful city like Dresden; how the outbreak of the revolution in 1849 affected him and how Lied became, again as in 1840, his refuge.