Ludwig Hölty

“Die Mainacht” Op. 43 No. 2 (Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897)), written 1866, published 1879, text by Ludwig Heinrich Christoph Hölty (1748-1776)

One of Brahms’ most beloved songs, this is one of the great, quintessential Romantic Period song-diary creations, an exquisitely crafted Nature-Nocturne. Brahms’s songs often use a modified strophic form, which seems to help Brahms contain both the forward-looking, personal element of his art, as well as remaining firmly rooted in the Classical Tradition; the technique leads to a form at once grounded in the solid formal [read more…]