A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Sehnsucht

by George Grove

SEHNSUCHT ('longing' or 'yearning' an untranslatable word).

Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt
Weiss was ich fühle,

is one of the Songs of Mignon in Goethe's Wilhelm Meister, which has been specially attractive to two great composers. Beethoven composed it four times for voice and PF.—three times in G minor, once in E♭ major—and the four were published Sept. 22, 1810, at Vienna. Schubert set the words four times—twice as a solo song for soprano (op. 62, no. 4, and 40 Lieder, no. 13); as a duet for Mignon and the Harper (op. 62, no. 1); and as a quintet for men's voices. Goethe wrote another 'Sehnsucht' ('Was zieht mir das Herz so?' Schubert, Lf. 37, 2); and songs with the same title are found in the works of Schiller ('Ach aus dieses Thales grunden,' Schubert, op. 39), Mayrhofer (' Der Lerche wolkennahe,' Schubert, op. 8, 2), and Seidl ('Die Schiebe freiert,' Schubert, op. 105, 4).

The so-called Sehnsucht-walzer, known also as 'Le Desir,' often attributed to Beethoven, was compiled from a 'Trauer-walzer' composed by Schubert in 1816, and published Nov. 29, 1821, as no. 2 of 'Original Tänze,' op. 9, and from Himmel's 'Favorit-walzer'; and was published under Beethoven's name by Schotts in 1826.

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