AMD 3

For the past two weeks I have been singing two German pieces, Vergebliches Ständchen, and Dein blaues Auge. Both pieces are Brahms pieces.

Dein blaues Auge was a poem written by one of Brahms friends, Klaus Johann Groth. The text is simple, but beautiful. My voice teacher always has me recite the text to make sure I am pronouncing the german correctly. I make sure to know the german first before I start learning the melody. I learn the word for word translation, which is not as beautiful as what the actual meaning of the text is. This technique helps me to identify more words with each piece I sing in German. It is easier to remember the meaning of foreign words when I sing in German because I am feeling the text, not just memorizing the words. Even singing in a foreign language there is a story to tell. I would not be able to express the song well if I was pronouncing the words correctly, but I did not know what they meant.

Here is the German, and then the English translation of the text

German :

Dein blaues Auge hält so still, Ich blicke bis zum Grund. Du fragst mich, Was ich sehen will?  Ich sehe mich gesund.   Es brannte mich ein glühend Paar, Noch schmerzt, noch schmerzt das Nachgefühl: Das deine ist wie See so klar Und wie ein See so kühl. 

English Translation:

Your blue eyes keep so still,  That I can gaze upon their very depths.  You ask me,  What do I want to see?  I see my own well-being.   A glowing pair burned me once;  The scar still hurts, still hurts.  Yet your eyes are like the sea so clear,  And like the sea, so cool and detached

Vergebliches Ständchen envolves a lot more text, so it proved much more challenging.  The text is too long to paste here, but I will summarize it.  It is a song that involves two different people: A man trying to quart a woman, and a woman who sees through all of his tricks.  It is very playful.  He calls her "mein Kind" and she calls him "mein Knab."  It is a very fun song, the first I have done where I play more than one character.  I love singing both of these pieces.  They are complete opposites.  I love how Brahms took two very different texts and composed music that fit perfectly with the pieces to make them come alive.  Singing in German is very new to me, and I look forward to getting better at it.