Ex. 1-5: Warum sind denn die Rosen so blass?

No. 3 from Fanny Mendelssohn's "6 Lieder" (Op. 1), set to a poem from Heinrich Heine's "Buch der Lieder." The poem describes a world drained of colour after lost love — roses turn pale, violets fall silent, and all of nature withers.

This collection was the first work Fanny published under her own name, in 1846, at the age of 40. Earlier in her career, several of her songs had been published under her brother Felix's name — as a woman of the upper class, she was discouraged from pursuing music professionally. With the support of her husband, the painter Wilhelm Hensel, she finally claimed her own voice. She died of a stroke the following year.

Track 29 from the album Lieder by Diana Damrau and Helmut Deutsch (2017)
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