Ex. 3-8: Der Gang zum Liebchen

"Der Gang zum Liebchen" (The Walk to the Sweetheart) is a song by Johannes Brahms, published in 1868 as No. 1 of his Seven Songs, Op. 48. Brahms liked this poem so much that he set it twice, to completely different music: this song, for a single voice, and a separate version for a vocal quartet (Op. 31 No. 3). The two share only the words.

This solo song has a melody of its own — a graceful waltz in a minor key.

The words come from a Bohemian folk poem, put into German by Josef Wenzig. Under the moonlight, a young man hurries to his sweetheart, who is weeping far away. In his hurry, he calls to the doves and the breezes, afraid that someone else will carry his sweetheart off before he can reach her.

Brahms wrote both versions in his late twenties and early thirties, when he was deeply involved in music for voices — he led a women's choir in Hamburg and, in 1863, became conductor of a singing society in Vienna.

From the EP Johannes Brahms by Islama Abdullayeva (2022)
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