"Morgen!" ("Tomorrow!") is the last in a set of four songs composed in 1894 by the German composer

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; ; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer and conductor best known for his Tone poems (Strauss), tone poems and List of operas by Richard Strauss, operas. Considered a leading composer of the late Roman ...

. It is designated Opus 27, Number 4. The text of this

Lied In the Western classical music tradition, ( , ; , ; ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German and Dutch, but among English and French speakers, is often used interchangea ...

, the German love poem "Morgen!", was written by Strauss's contemporary, John Henry Mackay, who was of partly Scottish descent but brought up in Germany.

History

Strauss had met Mackay in Berlin, and set ''Morgen!'' to music on 21 May 1894. It was one of his four Lieder Opus 27, a wedding present to his wife Pauline. Initially, he set the accompaniment for piano alone, and for piano with violin. In 1897 he arranged the piece for orchestra with violin solo. "Morgen!" remains one of Strauss's best-known and most widely recorded works. Strauss himself recorded it in 1919 accompanying the tenor Robert Hutt on the piano, and again in 1941 conducting the orchestral version with tenor Julius Patzak and the

Bavarian State Orchestra The Bavarian State Orchestra () is the orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Germany. It has given its own series of concerts, the , since 1811. Profile The origins of the ensemble date back to 1523 and the times of composer Ludwig Se ...

. His last recording of it was 11 June 1947, a live broadcast on radio with Strauss conducting the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and soprano Annette Brun.

Instrumentation of accompaniment

Strauss wrote the song originally to be accompanied by piano. In 1897 he orchestrated the accompaniment for orchestral strings plus a solo

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

, a

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

, and three horns. The orchestral strings are muted, and the dynamic throughout is

pianissimo In music, the dynamics of a piece are the variation in loudness between note (music), notes or phrase (music), phrases. Dynamics are indicated by specific musical notation, often in some detail. However, dynamics markings require interpretation ...

or softer. The harp, playing

arpeggio An arpeggio () is a type of Chord (music), chord in which the Musical note, notes that compose a chord are individually sounded in a progressive rising or descending order. Arpeggios on keyboard instruments may be called rolled chords. Arpe ...

s, and the solo violin accompany continuously until the word "stumm", at which point the horns enter. The violin and harp reenter after "Schweigen', and the horns fall silent until the last few bars. The last chord is joined by a solo horn. A performance lasts about 3 1/2 minutes.

Text

The poem, with minor changes by Strauss, reads as follows:

Morgen! Und morgen wird die Sonne wieder scheinen und auf dem Wege, den ich gehen werde, wird uns, die Glücklichen sie wieder einen inmitten dieser sonnenatmenden Erde... und zu dem Strand, dem weiten, wogenblauen, werden wir still und langsam niedersteigen, stumm werden wir uns in die Augen schauen, und auf uns sinkt des Glückes stummesIn the last line Strauss replaced Mackay's "großes" with "stummes" Schweigen...

Literal translation:

Tomorrow! And tomorrow the sun will shine again and on the way that I will go, she will again unite us, the happy ones amidst this sun-breathing earth, and to the beach, wide, wave-blue will we still and slowly descend silently we will look in each other's eyes and upon us will sink the mute silence of happiness

Poetic English translation:

Tomorrow! Tomorrow again will shine the sun And on my sunlit path of earth Unite us again, as it has done, And give our bliss another birth... The spacious beach under wave-blue skies We'll reach by descending soft and slow, And mutely gaze in each other's eyes, As over us rapture's great hush will flow.

English edition by John Bernhoff, 1925 Universal Edition:

Tomorrow! Tomorrow's sun will rise in glory beaming, And in the pathway that my foot shall wander, We'll meet, forget the earth, and lost in dreaming, Let heav'n unite a love that earth no more shall sunder... And towards that shore, its billows softly flowing, Our hands entwined, our footsteps slowly wending, Gaze in each other's eyes in love's soft splendour glowing, Mute with tears of joy and bliss ne'er ending...

Opus 27

The other three songs of Strauss's ''Opus'' 27 are: * No. 1 " Ruhe, meine Seele!" (Nicht ein Lüftchen regt sich leise) * No. 2 " Cäcilie" (Wenn du es wüßtest) * No. 3 " Heimliche Aufforderung" (Auf, hebe die funkelnde Schale)

References and notes

External links

*
Sheet music for Morgen

* , by David Bennett Thomas (

University of the Arts (Philadelphia) The University of the Arts (UArts) was a Private university, private Art school, arts university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its campus made up part of the Avenue of the Arts (Philadelphia), Avenue of the Arts cultural district in Center Cit ...

); Claudine Ledoux (mezzo-soprano), Olga Gross (harp), Olivier Thouin (violin) {{Authority control Songs by Richard Strauss 1894 songs