January 25, 2013

To the Fates (Friedrich Hölderlin)


To the Fates (Friedrich Hölderlin). YouTube Video Description - [Channel: Gottfried Leibniz]:
This poem was published by Hölderlin in 1799.

"Grant me only one summer, you mighty ones!
And one autumn for ripened song,
So that my heart, sated with the sweet
Music, may then die more willingly!

The soul that in life did not receive
Its divine due does not rest even below in Orcus;
But if I once accomplish the sacred thing that
My heart is set on—the poem—

Welcome, then, O silence of the world of shades!
I am satisfied even if my lyre Does not accompany me below; once
I lived like gods, and no more is needed.


YouTube Video Description - [Channel: 3lbsofLove]:
A setting of a Friedrich Hölderlin poem for high voice and piano. Cassandra Naaktgeboren and John Holloway, performers. Recorded at the University of Northern Iowa Student Composer's Recital Spring 2011.