WoO 130: Gedenke mein!

Время создания: март 1820 года.

Peter Schreier, тенор
Walter Olbertz, фортепиано

The poet of Beethoven's "Gedenke mein" (Think of Me) is unknown. There is evidence that an early version of "Gedenke mein" was drafted in 1804-5 and enclosed in a letter to publishers Breitkopf und Härtel in Leipzig dated January 16, 1805. The firm never printed it, and "Gedenke mein" would not be published until 1844 in Vienna. In early 1805, Beethoven presented Countess Josephine Deym, with whom he was cultivating a romantic relationship, two songs, "Gedenke mein" and An die Hoffnung, Op. 32. Beethoven took the songs back from her after their relationship evaporated.

Yearning seems to have been at the core of Beethoven's psyche. He set five versions of poems by Goethe on the subject in 1807-10 and one by Reissig in 1815-16. Also, the theme of yearning pervades An die ferne Geliebte, composed in 1816. The diminutive "Gedenke mein" may have been the first of such settings. The narrator begs his beloved to think of him while they are separated, and notes that "the pain of being apart is sweetened by hope."

Beethoven sets the text of "Gedenke mein" in two distinct halves. The first consists of the first line, "Gedenke mein, ich denke dein!" (Think of me, I think of you), sung four times, paired together, each pair forming a complete musical period. The second half begins in a new key with a new accompanimental pattern. Here, the second and third lines form a unit that is repeated, although the music for each reading is different. The song ends ambiguously, quietly, with a reiterated "Ach!, ach!"

(John Palmer, Rovi)

Текст

(автор текста неизвестен)

Gedenke mein! Ich denke dein!
Ach, der Trennung Schmertzen
Versüsst mir die Hoffnung.