Songs
Der König von Thule
Der König von Thule
Es war ein König in ThuleGar treu bis an das Grab,Dem sterbend seine BuhleEinen goldnen Becher gab.Es ging ihm nichts darüber,Er leert ihn jeden Schmaus;Die Augen gingen ihm über,So oft er trank daraus.Und als er kam zu sterben,Zählt’ er seine Städt’ im Reich,Gönnt alles seinen Erben,Den Becher nicht zugleich.Er sass beim Königsmahle,Die Ritter um ihn her,Auf hohem Vätersaale,Dort auf dem Schloss am Meer.Dort stand der alte Zecher,Trank letzte Lebensglut,Und warf den heilgen BecherHinunter in die Flut.Er sah ihn stürzen, trinkenUnd sinken tief ins Meer.Die Augen täten ihm sinken;Trank nie einen Tropfen mehr.
The King of Thule
There was a king in Thulefaithful unto the grave,whose dying mistressgave him a golden goblet.Nothing was more precious to him;he drained it at every feast.His eyes filled with tearswhenever he drank from it.And when he came to diehe counted the towns in his realm,bequeathed all to his heirs,except for that goblet.He sat at the royal banquet,his knights around himin the lofty ancestral hallin his castle by the sea.The old toper stood there,drank life’s last glowing draught,and hurled the sacred gobletinto the waves below.He watched it fall and drinkand sink deep into the sea.His eyes, too, sank;he drank not one drop more.
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Composer
Poet
Johann Wolfgang Goethe was a German writer and statesman. His body of work includes epic and lyric poetry written in a variety of metres and styles; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour; and four novels. In addition, numerous literary and scientific fragments, more than 10,000 letters, and nearly 3,000 drawings by him exist. A literary celebrity by the age of 25, Goethe was ennobled by the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Karl August in 1782 after first taking up residence there in November 1775 following the success of his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther. He was an early participant in the Sturm und Drang literary movement. During his first ten years in Weimar, Goethe served as a member of the Duke's privy council, sat on the war and highway commissions, oversaw the reopening of silver mines in nearby Ilmenau, and implemented a series of administrative reforms at the University of Jena. He also contributed to the planning of Weimar's botanical park and the rebuilding of its Ducal Palace, which in 1998 were together designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Taken from Wikipedia. To view the full article, please click here.
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Previously performed at:
- 14 Oct 2019: 17. Alchemy, Magic and the Legend of Faust
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Der König von Thule
The King of Thule
If you would like to use our texts and translations, please click here for more information.
Composer
Poet
Johann Wolfgang Goethe was a German writer and statesman. His body of work includes epic and lyric poetry written in a variety of metres and styles; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour; and four novels. In addition, numerous literary and scientific fragments, more than 10,000 letters, and nearly 3,000 drawings by him exist. A literary celebrity by the age of 25, Goethe was ennobled by the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Karl August in 1782 after first taking up residence there in November 1775 following the success of his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther. He was an early participant in the Sturm und Drang literary movement. During his first ten years in Weimar, Goethe served as a member of the Duke's privy council, sat on the war and highway commissions, oversaw the reopening of silver mines in nearby Ilmenau, and implemented a series of administrative reforms at the University of Jena. He also contributed to the planning of Weimar's botanical park and the rebuilding of its Ducal Palace, which in 1998 were together designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Taken from Wikipedia. To view the full article, please click here.
See Full Entry
Sorry, no further description available.
Previously performed at:
- 14 Oct 2019: 17. Alchemy, Magic and the Legend of Faust
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Oxford Lieder is one of the world's leading promoters of song and the winner of a prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award. The focal point of each year is the two-week Oxford Lieder Festival in October.
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