Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
The First Walpurgis Night

Ballad by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Instrumentation Soloists, Mixed Choir and Piano
Composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Editor Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Series Bärenreiter Urtext
Editor John Michael Cooper
Lyricist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Difficulty Level
(medium)
Edition Piano Reduction
Publisher Bärenreiter Verlag
Order no. BA9072-90

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Description:

Language: German English
Pages: 109
Release: 04.10.2010
Term: 035:00
Dimensions: 270 x 190 mm
Weight: 322 g
Opus: 60
Genre: Sacred & Church Music
Accompaniment: Piano
ISMN: 9790006534876

Ballad by Goethe for soloists, choir and orchestra - piano reduction by the composer
Edited by John Michael Cooper
Text by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

In the summer of 1799, Goethe wrote his ballad The First Walpurgis Night and asked his friend Carl Friedrich Zelter to set the work to music. However, Zelter felt unable to do so and so Goethe's wish was not realized until 30 years later by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. After a visit to Weimar, the 'heavenly words' of the pagan ballad had virtually urged Mendelssohn to set it to music. The composition took shape in 1832 and was premiered a year later at the Berlin Sing-Akademie.
However, Mendelssohn was dissatisfied with the first version of the work and held it back until he decided on a thorough revision ten years after the premiere. In this form, in which the work is still performed today, Die erste Walpurgisnacht was premiered in Leipzig in 1843 in the presence of Robert Schumann and Hector Berlioz. With the edition by John Michael Cooper, Associate Professor of Music History at the University of North Texas (Denton), an Urtext edition of the work is now being presented for the first time on the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth. The edition is based on the latest research, and a critical report rounds off the volume.

Preface
Vorwort
Die erste Walpurgisnacht / The First Walpurgis Night:
Dramatis Personae, Text, and Translation
Ouverture: I. Das schlechte Wetter / Bad weather
Ouverture: II. Der Übergang zum Frühling / The translation to springtime
Nr. 1: Es lacht der Mai / Now May again
Nr. 2: Könnt ihr so verwegen handeln / Know ye not a deed so daring
Nr. 3: Wer Opfer heut zu bringen scheut / The man who flies our sacrifice
Nr. 4: Verteilt euch, wackre Männer hier! / Disperse, disperse ye gallant men!
Nr. 5: Diese dumpfen Pfaffenchristen / Should our Christian foes assail us
Nr. 6: Kommt mit Zacken und mit Gabeln / Come with flappers, fire, and clappers
Nr. 7: So weit gebracht, dass wir bei Nacht / Restrain'd by might, we now by night
Nr. 8: Hilf, ach hilf mir, Kriegsgeselle / Help, my comrades, see a legion
Nr. 9: Die Flamme reinigt sich vom Rauch / Unclouded now, the flame is bright