German Versions of "Eileen Aroon" (1874/1885)

I have already written quite a lot about the great popularity of the British song "Robin Adair" in 19th- and early 20th-century Germany (see my text on JustAnotherTune.com). But what I wasn't aware of until recently was that it's partner piece "Eileen Aroon" also was translated into German language and subsequently set to music by at least three composers. I only learned that when reading Ernst Fleischhack's bibliography of musical settings of Ferdinand Freiligrath's poems and translations (Freiligrath's Gedichte in Lied und Ton, Bielefeld 1990, here p. 60). 

The indefatigable Freiligrath (1810-1876) was at that time one of the most important and influential mediators of English language poetry and song lyrics. Composers loved his adaptations - especially those of Robert Burns' and Thomas Moore's songs - and supplied them with new tunes. According to Fleischhack (p. 18) 71 of his translations were set to music a total of 425 times.

His "Eileen-A-Roon" - described as "Irisches Volkslied" - was published in Zwischen den Garben. Eine Nachlese älterer Gedichte (Stuttgart & Tübingen 1849, pp. 182-3, at BStB-DS) and the title of this interesting collection of poems and translations suggests that it may have been written earlier.

Stets will ich lieben dich,
Eileen-a-roon!
Segnen dich ewiglich,
Eileen-a-roon!
O für dich eilt' ich gern
Irland durch, nah und fern,
Hoffnung mein Licht, mein Stern,
Eileen-a-roon!

O wie gewinn' ich dich,
Eileen-a-roon?
Sag', o wie minn' ich dich,
Eileen-a-roon?
Gern ohne Rast und Ruh'
Zög' ich der Ferne zu,
Würdest mein Hausweib du,
Eileen-a-roon!

Drum, willst Du ziehn mit mir,
Eileen-a-roon?
Sag', aber bleibst du hier,
Eileen-a-roon?
Nein, ich bin dein, bin dein!
Ziehe mit dir allein!
Einzig dein Lieb soll sein
Eileen-a-roon!

Heil hundertausendmal,
Eileen-a-roon!
Heil dir ohn' Maß und Zahl,
Eileen-a-roon!
Heil und Willkommen froh,
Jetzt und für immer so,
Bis Lieb' und Leben floh,
Eileen-a-roon!

 The original English language text is quite easy to find, even though Freiligrath for some reason preferred not to mention the source. It is poet Thomas Furlong's translation of an Irish text that was published in 1831 by James Hardiman in his Irish Minstrelsy, Or: Bardic Remains Of Ireland With English Poetical Translations (pp. 265-7):

I love thee evermore,
Eileen a Roon!
I'll bless thee o'er and o'er,
Eileen a Roon!
Oh! for thy sake I'll tread,
Where the plains of Mayo spread;
By hope still fondly led,
Eileen a Roon!

Oh! how may I gain thee?
Eileen a roon!
Shall feasting entertain thee?
Eileen a Roon!
I would range the world wide,
With love alone to guide,
To win thee for my bride,
Eileen a Roon!

Then wilt thou come away?
Eileen a roon!
Oh! wilt thou come or stay?
Eileen a Roon!
Oh yes! oh Yes! with thee
I will wander far and free,
And thy only love shall be,
Eileen a Roon!

A hundred thousand welcomes,
Eileen a Roon!
A hundred thousand welcomes,
Eileen a Roon!
Oh! welcome evermore,
With welcomes yet in store,
Till love and life are o'er,
Eileen a Roon!

Hardiman had called this text the "Old Eileen Aroon" and his notes (p. 328) somewhat suggest that "the original and sweetly simple song of Eileen a roon" was at that time already a couple of hundred years old, at least older than the other version in his book (on p. 211) which is described as "the production of a Munster bard, of a seventeenth century" (p. 328). But there is no evidence for these claims and at the moment I still don't know where Hardiman had found the two original Irish texts. 

I wonder if Freiligrath had a copy of Hardiman's book. It is not listed in the Verzeichniss of his library (available at the Internet Archive) that was put together after his death. But as far as I know Furlong's translation hadn't been published anywhere else up to that point. 

Three composers have set Freiligrath's text to music:

• Heinrich Bellermann, Sechs Lieder für eine Singstimme mit Begleitung des Pianoforte : op. 18, No. 5, "Stets will ich lieben dich", Berlin, Trautwein, n. d. [1871, see Hofmeister XIX; only extant copy at Musikwissenschaftliches Institut, Universität Hamburg, II Bel-3 G 1.1 ]
• Carl Banck, 24 Lieder und Gesänge für eine Singstimme mit Begleitung des Pianoforte, op. 70, No. 9: Eileen a Roon („Stets will ich lieben dich“), Leipzig, Kistner, n. d. [1874, see Hofmeister XIX; only extant copy at Musikwissenschaftliches Seminar, Universität Heidelberg, N 91::9]
• Eusebius Mandyczewski, Lieder und Gesänge für gemischten Chor, Op. 8, Heft 1, No 1. Eileen-a-Roon. Irisches Volkslied, Wien, Rebay & Robitschek, n. d. [1885, s. Hofmeister XIX, only extant copy at ÖNB, Wien, MS83074-4°]

Unfortunately I couldn't get Bellermann's version but was glad to receive copies of the other two. Carl Banck (1809-1889, see H. A. Lier in ADB 46, Leipzig 1902, pp. 199-202, at BStB-DS; see also Wikipedia), composer, mostly of songs, and music critic, published this collection in 1874. It was one of his late works. These 24 songs are mostly settings of German poems, some of them by Mörike and Heine. But he also included a Lithuanian and a Danish "Volkslied". His tune for "Eileen-a-roon" sounds of course in no way like the original Irish melody: 

 

Eusebius Mandyczewski (1857-1929; see M. Handlos in: NDB 16, Berlin 1990, pp. 20, at BStB-DS; see also Wikipedia), a composer and scholar from Romania living in Vienna, included his setting of Freiligrath's "Eileen-a-roon" in one of his earliest works. This collection is not that dissimilar from Banck's. He also used mostly German language poems - here for example by Körner, Geibel and Rückert - but also two translations of foreign songs, in this case both by Burns. All of them were arranged for a mixed choir. Here is the soprano voice of his arrangement:

Credits:

• I wish to thank the Musikwissenschaftliches Seminar, Universität Heidelberg for sending me a copy of Banck's work. And I also wish to thank the professional scanning service of the ÖNB, Wien, for supplying me with a copy of Mandyczewski's collection.

Old German Songbooks, No. 12: English and French Songs for Schools (1911/12)

What kind of songs did the German children sing in school in the early 20th century? Mostly so-called "Volkslieder", of course a lot of patriotic ditties as well as some religious songs. But besides these they also learned a number of foreign songs, especially from Britain and even the USA, with German texts. We can take for example a look at one popular collection:

• Simon Breu, Deutsches Jugendliederbuch für Gymnasien, Oberrealschulen, Realschulen und andere höhere Lehranstalten, 2. Auflage, Essen & Würzburg 1909
  Available at the Internet Archive

Here we can find German language versions of "Robin Adair", "My Heart's In The Highlands", "Home, Sweet Home", "The Blue Bells of Scotland" and "Long, Long Ago" (pp. 52, 60, 63, 64 , 74). These are the common standards - mostly British popular hits - that had been adapted in the German speaking countries during the 19th century, in case of Burns' "My Heart's in the Highlands" even with a new tune. They can be found in numerous songbooks of all kinds and one may say that they had become an integral part of German musical culture.

But at some point teachers came up with the obvious idea that the pupils could also sing original British songs to help them learn the language. A nice example is an instruction book for English first published in 1894 and then in use at least until 1921 (see DNB 573880719):

• Schmidt, Ferdinand: Lehrbuch der englischen Sprache auf Grundlage der Anschauung, 4. Auflage, Bielefeld & Leipzig 1899, pp. 309-327 (available at ULB Münster, Digitale Sammlungen, urn:nbn:de:hbz:6:1-80447)

A chapter of nearly 20 pages includes a handful of popular songs from the British Isles like "Robin Adair", "The Last Rose Of Summer", "Home, Sweet Home" and "John Anderson My Jo". But there were also complete books of foreign songs for educational purposes. Here are two of them, both first published between 1909 and 1912:

• Karl Irmer, Sammlung französischer und englischer Lieder für den Schulgebrauch. Zweite Auflage (3.-5. Tausend), N. G. Elwertsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Marburg 1911 (first published 1909)
  Available at the Internet Archive
• F. Simon & J. Stockhaus, Französische und Englische Volkslieder für den Schulgebrauch. Ergänzung zu Stockhaus "Der Schulgesang", Verlag von Moritz Diesterweg, Frankfurt am Main 1912
  Available at the Internet Archive

Irmer noted in his preface that "the idea to use foreign folk tunes for the teaching of modern languages is getting more and more popular among experts" (p. 4). He was the co-author of an instructional book for French (see Google Books) and - according to the title page of his collection - the headmaster of a school in Silesia. Julius Stockhaus had already published a music book for schools and his Französische und Englische Volkslieder were intended als supplement to that work. He and Simon claimed in their introductory notes that only the real folk songs ["das echte, im Volke lebende Lied"] should be used in school "weil es allein geeignet ist, in den Geist und die Gefühlswelt des fremden Volkes einzuführen".

I can't say anything about the French songs in these collections. But the selection of British "folk tunes" is quite interesting. Both offered of course partly the same pieces, among them most of the popular standards from the 19th century like "The Last Rose of Summer", "Home, Sweet Home", "My Heart's in The Highlands", "Auld Lang Syne", "The Minstrel Boy", "Rule Britannia" and "Ye Mariners of England". Simon and Stockhaus also included "Robin Adair", "Long, Long Ago" and even the "Roastbeef of Old England".

A new book about the reception of Burns in Europe, but...

I saw that there is a new book out about Robert Burns and the reception of his works in Europe:

• Murray Pittock (ed.), The Reception of Robert Burns in Europe, Bloomsbury, New York etc 2014 (The Reception of British and Irish Authors in Europe) [see amazon.de]

This looks very interesting and in fact it is exactly what I am interested in at the moment. But the book is a little bit expensive, isn't it. At amazon.de the printed edition costs about 200 Euros and even the Kindle-edition is priced at nearly 120 Euros. So that's nothing for a normal book buyer and I should wait until the libraries here have it. I saw that four or five of them in Germany have ordered this publication and don't doubt that in a couple of months it will be available for Inter Library Loan.

Old German Songbooks, No. 11: Max Friedlaender, Commersbuch (2 editions: 1892 & 19??)

Commercium books were very popular during the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. Apparently the students used to sing much more than today. For publishers these kind of collections must have been good business. Some of them - like the Allgemeines Deutsches Commersbuch - were published in numerous editions. Here I have another Commersbuch, both the original edition published in 1892 and an expanded 4th edition with 30 more songs that came out a couple of years later: 

• Commersbuch, herausgegeben und mit kritisch-historischen Anmerkungen versehen von Max Friedlaender, C. F. Peters, Leipzig n. d. [1892]
  Available at the Internet Archive
• Kommersbuch, herausgegeben und mit kritisch-historischen Anmerkungen versehen von Max Friedlaender, C. F. Peters, Leipzig n. d. [c. 1900?]
  Available at the Internet Archive

This is a not untypical collection. Here we can find the usual amount of drinking songs - in fact one doesn't get the best impression of the young academic elite of that era - as well as many popular "Volkslied"-standards from Silcher's "Loreley" to "Geibel's "Der Mai ist gekommen". The editor notes in his preface that this book is intended for practical use and therefore only includes those songs "die jetzt überall gesungen werden" (see p. v). 

What makes this book really worthwhile are the editor's historical notes on many of the songs. Max Friedlaender (1852-1934, see Moser in NDB 5, Berlin 1961, p. 455, at BStB-DS) was a renowned scholar of both art-songs and "Volkslieder". He did some real research and much of what he found out is still essential. Anybody interested in the history of these kind of songs is well advised to check out his notes.

I must admit that I first only needed this publication to read what he had written about one particular song. Unfortunately at the moment there is no digitized version of this book available. But I was glad to find both the 1st and the 4th edition in antiquarian bookshops and scanned them myself. As usual these books are no clean library copies but were clearly heavily used by their original owners. 

Ferdinand Freiligrath's Library

Ferdinand Freiligrath (1810 - 1874) was not only a popular poet but also very important as the translator of British poetry and songs. I would not say that he is completely forgotten today but one gets the impression that his big role in 19th century German cultural life is somewhat overlooked a little bit even though it seems at the moment as if a kind of rediscovery is on the way. 

What is rarely discussed today is that he was an immensely influential mediator of English and Scottish literature in Germany. His numerous translations were widely read and often set to music. He for example wrote adaptations of some of Robert Burns' songs. His translation of "My Heart's in the Highlands" - "Mein Herz ist im Hochland" - was supplied by German composers with numerous new tunes and became one of the most popular songs of the 19th and early 20th century. 

Freiligrath had an impressive library both of German and British literature which unfortunately was auctioned after his death. At the Internet Archive I found the catalog of his collection as it was published by the bookseller from Stuttgart who arranged the auction: 

• Verzeichniss der von Ferdinand Freiligrath nachgelassenen Bibliothek, besonders reichhaltig in der deutschen und englischen classischen Literatur, welche am Dienstag den 18. Juni 1878 und an den folgenden Tagen, Vormittags 8-12 und Nachmittags 3-5 Uhr, durch Oskar Gerschel's Antiquariats-Buchhandlung (Stuttgart, Schloss-Strasse 37) zu Cannstatt in der Wohnung des Dichters; Gasthof zum alten Hasen, an der Neckarbrücke, versteigert wird, Stuttgart 1878 (available at the Internet Archive)

It is really worth reading simply to see what a great amount of English and Scottish publications he had acquired during his lifetime and one may say that it was a great shame that this astonishing collection was sold and scattered.

Links

• For more about Freiligrath see Wikipedia (German & English) and the fine biographical article at Rheinische Geschichte. The Lippische Landesbibliothek, Detmold hosts the Freiligrath-Sammlung and also offers a bibliography and links to other relevant resources.