Sung by DALE SMITH
THE fourteenth to the nineteenth songs of the cycle are now to bo sung.
XIV. Hochlandisches Wiegenlied (Highland
Cradle Song). A lullaby (the words by Burns) to a baby of a roving clan, who is playfully told of his future career-as a cattle stealer.
XV. Mein Herz ist schwer (My heart is heavy).
A setting of a poem of Byron. The speaker calls for the music of the harp, to bring forth a tear that shall save the heart from bursting with grief.
XVI. Röthsel (Enigma). Everyone knows
Byron's clever conundrum beginning
'Twas whispered in heaven, 'twas muttered in hell,
And echo caught faintly the sound as it fell.
Schumann has set the enigma in a declamatory style. In the last line a clue is given-' Oh, breathe on it softly, it is but a ('tis what ?) it is but a breath.'
(The solution to the enigma is the letter H.)
XVII. Leis' ntclern hier (Row gently here). A setting of a gondola song by Tom Moore. The lover, preparing to climb his lady's balcony, while the gondolier keeps watch below, piously reflects what angels we should be if we took half the pains for heaven that we take for love !
XVIII. Wenn durch die Piazzetta (When through the Piazetta). Another love song by Moore-a brief page about a rendezvous.
XIX. Der Hauptmann's Weib (The Captain's
Lady). This is a setting of the well-known Burns poem. beginning
0 mount and go,
Mount and make you ready ;
0 mount and go
And be the Captain's Lady.
Her lot shall be to see her love in battle, and then, ' when the vanquished foe sues for peace and quiet,' to enjoy the sweets of love.