Brahms's Lullaby
Johannes Brahms's Wiegenlied of 1868, the lullaby everyone knows, in its old English singing words "Lullaby and good night", for 2 to 4 singers: the soprano sings the tune, the alto rocks along under it in thirds and sixths on the same words, and the tenor and bass sing soft "oo" chords from Brahms's own piano part. Two verses, slow and gentle, every line one easy breath: a song to sing for someone.
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The parts
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The first verse
Words: Arthur Westbrook (1901), after Natalia Macfarren's English (about 1874), from the German: verse 1 the folk verse in Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1808), verse 2 Georg Scherer's (1849)Tune: Johannes Brahms, Op. 49 No. 4 (1868)
Lullaby and good night!With roses bedight,Creep into thy bed,There pillow thy head.If God will, thou shalt wakewhen the morning doth break,If God will, thou shalt wakewhen the morning doth break.
About Brahms's Lullaby
Brahms's Lullaby is the Wiegenlied, Op. 49 No. 4, that Johannes Brahms published in 1868, a gift for his friend Bertha Faber on the birth of her second son. Its first known public performance was in Vienna, sung by Luise Dustmann with Clara Schumann at the piano. Our arrangement is read from the first edition (Simrock, Berlin, 1868), in Brahms's key of E-flat, with Arthur Westbrook's English, which keeps Natalia Macfarren's opening "Lullaby and good night", as a Ditson book printed it in 1903. This is both verses for 2 to 4 singers, slow and gentle: the tune on top, the alto in thirds and sixths below, and the tenor and bass on soft "oo" chords from Brahms's piano part.
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