Traum durch die Dämmerung
| Traum durch die Dämmerung | |
|---|---|
| Lied by Richard Strauss | |
The song on a love poem by Bierbaum describes a twilight which is similarly captured in a contemporary painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1902
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| English | Dream in the Twilight |
| Catalogue | Op. 29/1 |
| Text | Poem by Otto Julius Bierbaum |
| Language | German |
| Composed | 7 June 1895 |
| Dedication | Eugen Gura |
| Scoring | Medium voice and piano |
"Traum durch die Dämmerung" ("Dream in the Twilight", literally "Dream through the twilight"), is both a German poem by Otto Julius Bierbaum and a Lied (art song) by Richard Strauss, his Op. 29/1. The opening line is "Weite Wiesen im Dämmergrau" ("Broad meadows in grey dusk"). It is the first of three songs by Strauss based on love poems by Bierbaum, composed and published in Munich in 1895, and dedicated to Eugen Gura. The works were scored for medium voice and piano, and published by Universal Edition as 3 Lieder mit Klavierbegleitung (3 songs with piano accompaniment), later with English versions and orchestral arrangements.
"Traum durch die Dämmerung" first appeared in Berlin in 1892 in a collection known as Erlebte Gedichte ("Experienced Poems") by Bierbaum that was published by Verlag von Wilhelm Issleib ("Wilhelm Issleib's Publishing House). Bierbaum dedicated the 217 page collection, with Traum durch die Dämmerung on page 130, to Detlev von Liliencron as he expressed in the personal foreword. A second edition of the collection appeared one year later.
In his anthology Lyrik des Jugendstils (Poetry of Art Nouveau) Jost Hermand noted that the title is paradigmatic for the literature of the Jugendstil. The theme is a man going to meet a beloved woman, as in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 1771 poem "Willkommen und Abschied" (Welcome and Farewell). In Bierbaum's poem, he speaks in the first person.
Traum durch die Dämmerung
Weite Wiesen im Dämmergrau;
Die Sonne verglomm, die Sterne ziehn;
Nun geh' ich hin zu der schönsten Frau,
Weit über Wiesen im Dämmergrau,
Tief in den Busch von Jasmin.
Durch Dämmergrau in der Liebe Land;
Ich gehe nicht schnell, ich eile nicht;
Mich zieht ein weiches, sammtenes Band
Durch Dämmergrau in der Liebe Land,
In ein blaues, mildes Licht.
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