Ex. 1-8: Nachtwandler
Johannes Brahms
Key: C/AmTime: 3/46 Lieder (Op.86)
No. 3 from Brahms's "6 Lieder" (Op. 86, published 1882). The poem is by Max Kalbeck, a music critic who later wrote the first biography of Brahms.
A sleepwalker wanders along the edge of a cliff, guided by moonlight, lost in a dream of sweet sorrow. The poem warns: do not wake him — "woe to the lips that rouse him." The piano accompaniment captures both the stillness of the night and the eerily steady footsteps of the dreamer.
Track 4 from the album The Exquisite Hour by Dame Sarah Connolly (2006)Spotify