Ex. 5-9: Die Nacht

"Die Nacht" (The Night) is No. 3 of Richard Strauss's Acht Lieder aus "Letzte Blätter" (Eight Songs from "Last Leaves"), Op. 10 — his first published set of songs, written in 1885 (about age 21) to poems by Hermann von Gilm. His friend the composer Ludwig Thuille had introduced him to Gilm's poems a few years earlier.

Strauss's father, Franz Strauss, was principal horn at the Munich Court Opera and a strict conservative: he loved Mozart and disliked Wagner, and would not let the young Richard study Wagner's scores — though he still played in the 1882 premiere of Wagner's Parsifal as part of his job.

In 1885, the conductor Hans von Bülow hired Strauss as his assistant conductor at the court orchestra in Meiningen, Germany. Strauss left home to take the job.

In the poem, night is a thief: it puts out all the world's lights and colors, takes the silver from the stream and the gold from the cathedral roof, and the singer ends in fear that night will steal his beloved too.

The set opens and closes with two of Strauss's most famous songs — No. 1 "Zueignung" and No. 8 "Allerseelen." Years later, in 1918, he wrote another night song, "An die Nacht" (Op. 68 No. 1), on a much larger, orchestral scale.

Music video by Sabine Devieilhe and Mathieu Pordoy (2024)

From the album Mozart & Strauss: Lieder by Sabine Devieilhe and Mathieu Pordoy (2024)
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