Ex. 4-7: Schwanenlied

No. 1 from Fanny Mendelssohn's "6 Lieder" (Op. 1, 1846) — the very first piece in the first collection she published under her own name. The poem is "Es fällt ein Stern herunter" (A Star Is Falling Down) from Heine's "Lyrisches Intermezzo" (Lyrical Intermezzo). Fanny knew Heine personally through the Mendelssohn family salon in Berlin.

A falling star, scattered blossoms, a dying swan singing its last song, then silence and darkness. In European tradition, a swan sings most beautifully just before death — and Fanny herself died of a stroke the following year, at 41. Other songs from the same collection are also in this app. (Ex. 5-5: Wanderlied by Fanny Mendelssohn, Ex. 1-5: Warum sind denn die Rosen so blass? by Fanny Mendelssohn, Ex. 3-4: Mayenlied by Fanny Mendelssohn, Ex. 7-5: Gondellied by Fanny Mendelssohn)

Track 1 from the album F. Mendelssohn-Hensel: Lieder, Vol. 1 by Dorothea Craxton and Babette Dorn (2009)
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