DER JÜNGLING AM BACHE (The Youth By The Brook) D30

[haydnguy]

Schiller

The poem dates from 1803. The autograph (Vienna, SB) is dated 24 Setptember 1812. The song swass first published in the Gesamtausgabe.

Der Jügling am Bache is the first setting of a true lyric by Schubert which can be precisely dated. Up to this point he had been concerned almost exclusively with dramatic narratives of an epic and horrific kind; this is probably his first excursion into the field of pure song. Anton Salieri, who had been Schubert's tutor since the early summer of 1812, may claim some of the credit for it. One of the exercises that Schubert wrote out for Salieri (D17 no. 1), an aria for soprano solo to a text by Metastasio, bears an obvious resemblance to this song. There is no doubt that Salieri set out, among other things, to stimulate and refine the young composers melodic gifts. It is not only that there is something Italian here about the shape of the melody; the dramatic and declamatory elements which are seized upon so skillfully in the second verse and the last give the song a quasi-operatic tone. Der Jüngling am Bache has a good claim therefore to be the first true Schubert lied. Thanks to the freshness and spontaneity it is the earliest song to have kept its place in the repertory. The later (1819) version maintains the elegiazc tone throughout, and so misses the youthful assurance which is so effective in the climax of this one.

Der Jüngling am Bache

An der Quelle saß der Knabe,
Blumen wand er sich zum Kranz,
Und er sah sie fortgerissen,
Treiben in der Wellen Tanz.
»Und so fliehen meine Tage
Wie die Quelle rastlos hin!
Und so bleichet meine Jugend,
Wie die Kränze schnell verblühn!

Fraget nicht, warum ich traure
In des Lebens Blütenzeit!
Alles freuet sich und hoffet,
Wenn der Frühling sich erneut.
Aber diese tausend Stimmen
Der erwachenden Natur
Wecken in dem tiefen Busen
Mir den schweren Kummer nur.

Was soll mir die Freude frommen,
Die der schöne Lenz mir beut?
Eine nur ist's, die ich suche,
Sie ist nah und ewig weit.
Sehnend breit' ich meine Arme
Nach dem teuren Schattenbild,
Ach, ich kann es nicht erreichen,
Und das Herz ist ungestillt!

Komm herab, du schöne Holde,
Und verlaß dein stolzes Schloß!
Blumen, die der Lenz geboren,
Streu ich dir in deinen Schoß.
Horch, der Hain erschallt von Liedern,
Und die Quelle rieselt klar!
Raum ist in der kleinsten Hütte
Für ein glücklich liebend Paar.«



[ame]http://www.classicalmusicforum.net/music/01-Der-Jungling.mp3[/ame]



The youth by the stream

At the stream sat a boy,
winding flowers for a wreath,
and he saw them torn away,
driven in the dance of the waves.
And so fly my days
like the restles stream!
And so fades my youth,
Like the wreaths that quickly wilt.

Don't ask me why I'm sad
In the flower of my youth!
Everything is joyful and all is full of hope
when Spring renews itself.
And yet the thousands of voices
of Nature awakening
arouse in the depths of my heart
only a heavy, troubling sorrow.

What should I to do with the pure joy
that fair Spring offers me?
There is only one which I seek
And she is near yet eternally far.
Longingly I reach my arms
toward that dear shadowed figure,
Oh! I can not reach it,
And my heart is unruly!

Come here, you beautiful lady,
and leave your proud castle!
Flowers that Spring creates,
I strew into your lap;
Listen, the grove resounds with songs,
And the stream trickles clearly!
There is room in the smallest hut
For a happy, loving pair."