Insert here the laugh of the melodrama villain. Just you wait.

As a columnist for an online journal -- Die Wahrheit, if I read right -- Michael Quasthoff, the brother of Thomas Quasthoff, wrote a satirical piece called "Der Sumpf des Grauens," describing his introduction, via televised performance, to Franz Schubert's setting of Goethe's "Heidenröslein," and thus to the fine art of the Kunstlied, the German art-song.

Thomas Quasthoff admits, in an interview, that he once made a public performance out of his brother's piece, to the consternation of some old ladies in the audience, and to everyone else's amusement.

Well, I have to tread carefully here. Of course this ought to be shared with the Mudcat Café. However this piece is under copyright, dating back as recently as the year 2006. And though Michael Quasthoff died of lung cancer since, and although the original German can be linked to online, out of respect I wish to avoid infringement of copyright or whatever it is properly called.

I may resort to a sort of abstract in English.

Der Sumpf des Grauens, von Michael Quasthoff