Deciphering Schumann’s “Lotosblume”

Tips for Your Struggle through German Grammar and Libretti (III)

 

The poem Die Lotosblume which Robert Schumann set into music was written by Heinrich Heine in the 1820s. It is a simple text, but easily misunderstood if you do not notice the little grammatical trap that is waiting for you in the second verse. Eventually, you will master it and the poem’s passion will open up to you as the flower opens its blossom. Just, follow these steps:

1. Mark all nouns.

2. Identify the verbs (activity words) and look how they are conjugated (changed in spelling according to ich, du, er, wiretc.).

3. Look at the meaning of the verb (activity) and find the thing, person (name, function) or pronoun that is doing this activity.

4. Find the thing, person (name, function) or pronoun to whom the activity is directed.

5. Look at the vocabulary below the poem, read the poem again and try to understand its meaning.

6. Answer the questions below.

Die Lotosblume ängstigt
sich vor der Sonne Pracht,
und mit gesenktem Haupte
erwartet sie träumend die Nacht.

Der Mond, der ist ihr Buhle,
er weckt sie mit seinem Licht,
und ihm entschleiert sie freundlich
ihr frommes Blumengesicht.

Sie blüht und glüht und leuchtet,
und starret stumm in die Höh;
sie duftet und weinet und zittert
vor Liebe und Liebesweh.

Vocabulary:

ängstigen sich vor = to be afraid of
(Reflexive: ich ängstige mich, du ängstigst dich, die Lotosblume ängstigt sich)
der Sonne Pracht – die Sonne (sun), die Pracht (magnificence, splendor). Both words are combined in a genitive case, “the poet’s genitive” der Sonne Pracht. Today, we say die Pracht der Sonne.
gesenkt = participle from senken, to lower, here: lowered
das Haupt = (old) head
der Buhle = (old) love
Possessive pronouns: ihr = her, seinem = his
entschleiern = to unveil (der Schleier = veil)
fromm = pious, here: angelic
in die Höhe = up into the heights/skies
das Liebesweh = lover’s grief

Questions:

– Who is active (the subject) in verse no 1?
– What are the two activities (verbs) the subject is doing?
– What is the third activity/verb turned into an adjective (participle present)?

– What is the Monddoing in verse no 2?
– Who unveils (entschleiert) his or her face,Blumengesicht? (Be aware of the word order and the pronoun. The dativ pronoun ihmnever does anything, and therefore does not entschleiern!)

– What is “she”, the flower doing in verse no 3?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to approach a German text

Tips for Your Struggle through German Grammar and Libretti (II)

You chose an aria of a German opera. The music is clear, the words are not. Now what?

While everyone has her or his own process, some singers have told me that they look at the music first when they prepare for a role, a specific aria, or a Lied. Then they turn to the text, not to interpret its meaning but to establish word for word the string of sounds that needs to be formed to produce the music. Of course, it is crucial to know what the text is all about, and for some singers, this is sufficient for a great performance. Others look at the translations first and try to understand word for word what they are singing. It is written to fit the music and therefore loses some of the original meaning. I have met singers who undertake a translation themselves, their smartphone with a dictionary app in one hand and a pencil in the other to scribble the English equivalent into the score. But as advanced as translation technology is, it can still only help up to a certain point. It is often at a loss to grasp the language of earlier time periods, and, especially with German texts, they can get just as confused by quirks of syntax as their human users.

I have developed a simplified approach to a German text which, with the help of a dictionary, gives a thorough view of what the poet or the librettist meant. It turns out that German is not as complicated as you might think—if you follow a few basic rules.

Consider first: in German, all nouns (proper names, things, ideas) are capitalized, as well as verbs and adjectives that have been converted to a noun. [This is called nominalization (e.g., das Singen = singing, das Schöne = beauty).] All other words are written in lower case.

Consider then: the way sentences are built can be different in German, depending on the context, i.e., words show up in places you do not expect. However, consider the iron rule:

In German, all conjugated verbs are in position number twoin the sentence, no matter what occupies position number one:

– Der Hölle Rache kochtin meinem Herzen.

– Im August kochtder Hölle Rache in meinem Herzen.

– In der Bäckerei kochtder Hölle Rache in meinem Herzen.

When reading a new text, please employ the following method:

1. Mark all nouns.

2. Identify the verbs and look at how they are conjugated (changed in form according to the doer of the action: ich, du, er, wir, etc.).

3. Look at the meaning of the verb and find the thing, person, or pronoun that is doing the specific action. For now, disregard adjectives, adverbs, etc.

4. Find the thing, person, or pronoun to whom the activity (the verb) is directed. Put it together and see if it makes sense.

5. Add another layer of meaning by inserting the adjectives, adverbs, etc.

6. Tie up loose ends: Is there anything that would answer where the activity takes place? Look at prepositions like in,auf,über,unter,neben, etc.

By now, you might have a general sense what the text is about. If not—for example, if there are several verbs in one sentence—consider these two questions:

A. Is it possible that the sentence is written in future tense or in past tense?

B. How do the “little words” fit in, e.g., negative pronouns (e.g.,kein,nicht) or words called particlesthat either carry emotions and attitudes or intensify the meaning of the statement (e.g., doch,bloß,noch).

Do a test run with one of Schubert’s Lieder or an aria you like. Even if you do not understand everything, you will understand the structure of what is written. You will come across compound nouns that will move you — Liebeswehand Fieberschauer,Jubelklangand Herzenskuss— and sad or hopeful or romantic phrases the writer seems to have invented just for you to sing. You just might find that discovering the beauty of the language is as rewarding as mastering the beauty of the music.

Read next week: Put it to the test – decipher Schumann’s Lotusblume

 

 

If you can sing it, you can speak it better (I)

Tips for Your Struggle through German Grammar and Libretti

 

No one needs to learn a foreign language more than classical singers. At least once in their career, singers strive to work and live in a foreign country, mostly in Europe and very often in German-speaking countries, where they hope to find work at one of the many state and local opera houses. Naturally, they need to speak the language to communicate—both on stage and in life. To perfect their art, singers also need to know the meanings of the texts they sing.

English-speaking singers who have flocked to Germany, Austria, or Switzerland with enthusiasm to study and sing the works of Mozart, Strauss, or Schubert, sit in their first German class feeling pretty miserable. They’ve just realized that this language has far less in common with their own than Spanish or French. In German, there are three genders, and therefore three articles (der, die, das), when in English one would easily do. To add insult to injury, they can turn into different creatures: Der Tenormight become dem Tenoronly to change to des Tenorsthe next moment, and then, no one less female than die Sopranistinis suddenly converted into der Sopranistin. Nouns are stuck together like Lego blocks to unforseeable lengths. Even worse, sometimes they change their spelling depending on the role they play in the sentence. Mark Twain, himself a student of German, admitted he would rather decline a whiskey than a German noun.

How can music written in such a complicated language be so beautiful? At the end of their first class, singers realize they have no other choice than to begin their march through a linguistic jungle, worried that behind every epiphany lurks a venomous rule that seems to upend everything they have understood so far. But don’t worry. According to neuroscientific and linguistic research, the networks of your brain that process language are well conditioned: they are in large part the same that deal with music.

Trained to listen and reproduce melodies, musicians distinguish words, syllables, and phonemes of a foreign language more easily than non-musicians, scientists have found. Musical expertise benefits auditory attention and above all pronunciation. Recently, a student of mine, an American mezzo soprano, experienced in singing but a beginner in learning German, confronted a customer in a Berlin bakery who cut the line by intoning the text of Der Hölle Rachein perfect High German. The native, intimidated by the Queen of the Night’s impassioned threats, had no clue that this was actually all she could say.

Singing, as the Spanish linguist María del Carmen Fonseca points out, also helps increase vocabulary, reinforce grammatical structures, and develop faster fluid speech. A study by Italian and German scientists found evidence that children who learn an instrument or start singing before the age of seven have a deeper understanding of grammar and fewer difficulties acquiring a second language. In Finland, learning music from an early age is customary; it’s also obligatory in school. For an average Finn to speak five languages then is nothing out of the ordinary. The Finnish musicologist and author Liisa Henriksson-Macaulay concludes, “Music is the master language that transcends all others.”

Read next week part II: How to Approach a German Text