Lyrics Versions: Brahms' Lullaby

Subject: Brahms Lullaby
From:
Date: 08 Oct 98 - 01:45 PM

Does any body no the lyrics to Brahms (sp) Lullaby

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: malena
Date: 08 Oct 98 - 04:53 PM

What exactly do you mean by Brahms Lullaby?

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: Wolfgang Hell
Date: 08 Oct 98 - 05:25 PM

this is what I found entering Brahms + Wiegenlied into a search machine. No idea whether it is close to what you are looking for, Garrison.

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: Alice
Date: 08 Oct 98 - 05:46 PM

All I can think of is the first words "Lullaby, and goodnight..." didn't find it in the database, and right now can't remember the rest. May be able to get back to you on this.

alice

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: Alice
Date: 08 Oct 98 - 05:53 PM

Found it in a few seconds with an AltaVista search on the words "lullaby and goodnight". The page address is:

http://hendersonville-pd.org/nurserylullaby.html

alice in montana

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: Barbara
Date: 09 Oct 98 - 12:02 AM

Lullaby and goodnight,
With the roses in sight
And the clover, all around,
You will sleep safe and sound.
And when day starts to break
You will once more awake,
And when day starts to break
You will once more awake.

Those words?
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: BSeed
Date: 09 Oct 98 - 02:34 AM

Those are the words, Barbara, and a lovely lullaby it is. Bless YOU. --seed

Subject: Lyr Add: GUTEN ABEND, GUTE NACHT / BRAHMS' LULLABY
From: AndreasW
Date: 09 Oct 98 - 03:28 AM

This is the "original" version, as Brahms was German-speaking.

Brahms: GUTEN ABEND, GUTE NACHT

Guten Abend, gute Nacht,
Mit Rosen bedacht,
Mit Näglein besteckt,
Schlupf unter die Deck'
Morgen früh, so Gott will,
Wirst du wieder geweckt.
Morgen früh, so Gott will,
Wirst du wieder geweckt.

Guten Abend, gute Nacht,
Von Englein bewacht,
Die zeigen im Traum
Dir Christkindleins Baum.
Schlaf nun selig und süß,
Schau im Traum's Paradies.
Schlaf nun selig und süß,
Schau im Traum's Paradies.

cu, Andreas

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: malena
Date: 09 Oct 98 - 01:20 PM

I guess every German knows it as a kid´s song/folksong/lullaby, but who ever knew it was by Brahms? Good on you, Andreas, did you remember all the words by heart or did you look it up? Daniel

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: AndreasW
Date: 12 Oct 98 - 04:39 AM

It is too long since I was a kid to remember all the words, and I do not yet have my own kids, so I have to admit that I had to look up the second verse.

cu, Andreas

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: Barbara
Date: 12 Oct 98 - 06:56 AM

Whereas, as an American kid growing up, I knew the name of that particular lullaby was "Brahms Lullaby" long before I had a clue who Brahms was. My mother sang it, and that's how we asked for it.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: malena
Date: 12 Oct 98 - 03:13 PM

Andreas, I wouldn´t even have remembered the first verse, that is, everthing except the third line. "Mit Näglein besteckt", is that some kind of sadistic ritual? Does it really say "Näglein"??? (Oder Nelklein oder so?, to all non-germanistics: to me that means something like "pierced with nails...")

Barbara, funny that Americans have Brahms in the name, while Germans usually know the song and know who Brahms was but would never make a connection between these (unless there experts)...

Daniel

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: AndreasW
Date: 13 Oct 98 - 01:41 AM

I never thought about the meaning of the text until now.
I looked it up, and wherever I looked (on the web, in a book)
it says "Mit Näglein besteckt"
Perhaps these small nails (Näglein) are the thorns of the Roses?
I don't know, sorry.
cu,Andreas

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: Wolfgang
Date: 13 Oct 98 - 07:00 AM

that was an unsolved riddle for me when I was young and it still is.

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 13 Oct 98 - 05:11 PM

I know it wouldn't be good writing, but could the nails be stuck in the bed or cradle? Perhaps for decoration?

Does anyone know who wrote the German words?

Does anyone know whether this is really by Brahms, or is it a folk song he arranged, like "Da unten im Tale", "Mein Maedel hat ein Rosenmund", and others?

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: Jerry Friedman again
Date: 13 Oct 98 - 05:12 PM

And is anyone willing to provide a translation into English?

Subject: Lyr Add: GUTEN ABEND, GUTE NACHT / BRAHMS' LULLABY
From: AndreasW
Date: 14 Oct 98 - 05:04 AM

I am willing, my attempt at a translation
I did not try to make it into rhymes,
I tried to get a translation quite near the German version.
But please consider: I only learned English at school ;-)
(translation in italic)

Brahms: Guten Abend, Gute Nacht

Guten Abend, gute Nacht,
   Good Evening, good night
Mit Rosen bedacht,
   given roses
Mit Näglein besteckt,
   stabbed with small nails
Schlupf unter die Deck'
   slip under your coverlet
Morgen früh, so Gott will,
   tomorrow morning if God likes
Wirst du wieder geweckt.
   you will be woken again.
Morgen früh, so Gott will,
   tomorrow morning if God likes
Wirst du wieder geweckt.
   you will be woken again.

Guten Abend, gute Nacht,
   Good Evening, good night
Von Englein bewacht,
   guarded by small angels
Die zeigen im Traum
   who show in your dream
Dir Christkindleins Baum.
   to you Christ baby's small tree
Schlaf nun selig und süß,
   sleep now blessedly and sweetly
Schau im Traum's Paradies.
   Look into dream's paradise
Schlaf nun selig und süß,
   sleep now blessedly and sweetly
Schau im Traum's Paradies.
   Look into dream's paradise



cu, Andreas

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: Wolfgang
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 03:52 PM

Jerry, verse 1 comes from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn", a very old song collection, so it is definitely trad/anon, verse 2 has been added by Georg Scherer.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 06:21 PM

Danke schön, Andreas und Wolfgang!

I'm still wondering about the nails. Could the thing covered with roses and stuck with nails be the blanket (or coverlet)? Back when the verses in Des Knaben Wunderhorn were written, did people nail the blanket to the crib (leaving one side open to slip the baby under), by any chance? Or does the German have to mean that the baby has been stuck with nails? Yuck. Unless there's supposed to be a connection with the Christ child?

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 07 Mar 99 - 06:40 PM

This seems to be my day for Brahms. If anyone still cares--I recently saw a translation (in the liner notes to Twilight and Innocence, an album by Heidi Grant Murphy, soprano, and Kevin Murphy, piano). They translated "Naeglein" as "carnations". So Daniel Malena was on the right track. I guess the connection is that carnations smell like cloves, and cloves look like nails. After all, one English name for carnations--clove pinks--comes from the French word for nail--clou.

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: Wolfgang
Date: 19 Mar 99 - 08:19 AM

I asked Frank Petersohn (ingeb.org) who knows more about German folk than most others. His explanation: "N„glein" is Suebian dialect for "Nelklein", i.e. "kleine Nelken" and that's carnations (the flowers). So the suspicious line means "decorated with flowers", a better fit for a lullaby than "pierced with nails", if I may add: even for a German lullaby!

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: Bri
Date: 21 Mar 99 - 12:40 PM

The words I always knew were:

Lullaby and good night,
With roses bedight,
With lilies bedeck,
The baby's sweet head!
Lay thee down now and rest,
May thy comfort be blessed,
Lay thee down now and rest,
May thy comfort be blessed.

Is that wrong, because Barbara's were different?

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: Barbara
Date: 22 Mar 99 - 01:42 AM

Bri, they're all translations from the German, and there are German variations as well. I don't think there's right words, just the ones you know, or the ones I know. Someone in search of a doctoral thesis topic could try to put the German variations, and the English ones in chronological order, to see how it evolved, and we would still just have a time consuming proof that this is indeed a folksong.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: GUEST,Yovanny
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 11:49 AM

i think all of u have a valid point no matter how we see this composicion. it is interesting how it let us to different thoughts regarding that just a simple word gave us the idea that it was related to 'Christ'..like Jerry Friedman said..

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: masato sakurai
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 12:18 PM

Score is at The VARIATIONS Online Score Prototype - Song Literature - Brahms Lieder, Band II.

Op. 49, No. 4. Wiegenlied.

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: masato sakurai
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 12:37 PM

Grainger, Free Settings & Favorite Melodies for Piano Solo: Nr. 1. Cradle-Song (Wiegenlied) by J. Brahms [score]

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: masato sakurai
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 12:43 PM

Cradle Song - Johannes Brahms [gif] (score with English words).

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: Leadfingers
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 02:19 PM

Back when I was playing Jazz clarinet I was sat in with a German Band in the Jazz Club in Moenchen Gladbach . The Banjoist said "Terry you
will know this next one,its an old English folk Song" Guess What !!
Brahms Bleeding Lullaby done as a STOMP !!! (in Bflat)

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: ranger1
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 07:36 PM

My mom always sang us a rather twisted version that went like this:

Go to sleep, little creep,
Or I'll bash your front teeth in.
Drink your bat's blood
And your goat's milk
Like a good monster should.

Not nearly as nice as the original.

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 09:01 PM

I always knew these words. I have no idea where they came from.

Lullaby and good night
Go to bed now and sleep tight.
Close your eyes and start to yawn,
Do not wake again 'til dawn.
All your toys are in bed,
They are resting and dreaming.
Snuggle tight, say goodnight,
For it's time you were dreaming too.

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: Wolfgang
Date: 12 Feb 04 - 06:02 AM

The German word 'Nelke' has also another meaning beside carnation: clove
The scent of the clove is used in Germany to shy away the midges.

So the line 'mit Naeglein besteckt' also could mean that the mother has ensured her baby's sleep by putting some clove to the upper part of his bed to help him sleeping.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: cetmst
Date: 14 Feb 04 - 06:13 AM

Priscilla Herdman on her Star Dreamer album sings words attributed to William Engvick to Brahms' tune:

Close your eyes, close your eyes, go to sleep now my darling.
There's a sandman, old and wise, bringing happy dreams to you.
Settle down and go to sleep 'til the quiet night passes.
You are safe in my arms, in my arms all night through.

Now the moon, riding high, turns the shadows to silver.
And the night winds, with a sigh, whisper soft across the hill.
It's a bright enchanted land where the unicorn dances
'Til the stars disappear and the whole world is still.

Words not as inspired as the original German or the English translation my mother sang us to sleep with a few years back. She learned it from a record played on a wind-up Victrola her mother had before the manse where I was born in the 1920's was wired for electricity. The Star Dreamer album, IMHOP, is the best collection of lullabies recorded and Priscilla Herdman's one of the loveliest voices for singing lullabies though Custer LaRue's album is also
delightful.

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: masato sakurai
Date: 18 Mar 04 - 10:10 PM

Cradle song - Wiegenlied / by Joh. Brahms [sheet music, with German & English lyrics] (Philadelphia: Andre & Co., G., 1873) is at American Memory.

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: Fibula Mattock
Date: 19 Mar 04 - 04:54 AM

Unless there's another Brahm's lullaby that I don't know, isn't this the cloying and downright creepy tune that my mother used to sing (sorry ma!):

Slumber sweetly my dear,
For angels are near
To watch over you
The silent night through.
And to bear you above,
To the dreamlands of love.
And to bear you above,
To the dreamlands of love.

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: nutty
Date: 19 Mar 04 - 07:08 AM

I remember the whole thing as ......................
   

    Roses whisper "goodnight"
    'Neath silv'ry light
    Asleep in the dew
    They hide from our view
    When the dawn peepeth thro'
    God will awaken them, and you.

    Slumber sweetly my dear,
    For angels are near
    To watch over you
    The silent night thro'
    And to bear you above
    To the dreamland of love.

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: nutty
Date: 19 Mar 04 - 07:09 AM

PS ... the last two lines of each verse are repeated

Subject: RE: Brahms Lullaby
From: clueless don
Date: 19 Mar 04 - 02:06 PM

I learned the following version from my wife. It's similar to Mary in Kentucky's version:

Lullaby, and good night
go to bed now and sleep tight
close your eyes, start to yawn
pleasant dreams until the dawn
when the sun lights the sky
you'll awake feeling high
start your day with a smile
life is always worthwhile

Don't know the original source, but I like it. I've sung it to my daughter any number of times.

Don

---

Messages from multiple threads combined. Messages below are from a new thread.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Tune Req: Brahms Lullaby
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 31 May 04 - 05:56 AM

Help, can anyone supply the dots for this great tune, or point me to where I can find them.

Thanks in advance, eric

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Brahms Lullaby
From: masato sakurai
Date: 31 May 04 - 07:25 AM

I've given some links to scores at Lyr Req: Brahms' Lullaby.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Brahms Lullaby
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 31 May 04 - 10:20 AM

Many thanks Masato, I've just been listening to the version by David Grisman and Jerry Garcia, wonderful.

eric

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Brahms Lullaby
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 31 May 04 - 01:07 PM

Found a lot of sheet music, but not free. A freeabc notation: search for Wiegenlied on this spage, with the second click you're there. Easy to read, if you've studied the principles of transliteration before.

Enjoy, but don't fall asleep before end
Wilfried

Subject: Lyr Req: BRAHAMS LULLABY
From: GUEST,SHANNON LEDFORD
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 04:00 PM

I THINK IT STARTS OUT... LULLABY AND GOODNIGHT, MAY GOD BLESS AND KEEP YOU... (BUT IAM NOT SURE. MAYBE JUST MYMOMS WORDS.) PLESE HEL! THANKS,SHNNON

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Brahms' Lullaby
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 04:05 PM

Hi, Shannon - I moved you over here. You'll find various versions of the lyrics above.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Brahms' Lullaby
From: KateG
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 05:06 PM

I like "with roses in sight" better than the "with roses bedight" that I learned as a child. I knew that "bedight" was a corruption of the german "bedacht" (we had a Swiss-German neighbor who would sing it to her little girl and me in German), but it never made sense in english. And I like the carnations better than lilies, too, even if they don't scan in English. Much less funereal.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Brahms' Lullaby
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 05:55 PM

Hi, Kate - my dictionary says "bedight" is an archaic English word for "arrayed" or "decked out" - but I admit that I've seen this word only in this one song, and I'm sure "bedight" and "bedacht" come from the same root.

But how would you translate, "Mit Näglein besteckt"? "Stuck with nails/thorns" is all I can come up with - and ya can't sing that in English-speaking lands and get away with it.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Brahms' Lullaby
From: Wolfgang
Date: 21 Jul 04 - 11:17 AM

Joe,

look here at the German song Es dunkelt schon in der Heide, last verse: 'Braunnägelein' are 'Gewürznelken' and I'm close to 100 % sure that 'Nägelein' in this song here is just short for Braunnägelein

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Brahms' Lullaby
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 22 Jul 04 - 12:47 AM

The words I learned are close to Bri's (from 1999, above):

Lullabye, and good night
With roses bedight
With lilies o'erhead
Make baby's sweet bed
Lay thee down now and rest
May thy slumbers be blest
Lay thee down now and rest
May thy slumbers be blest

I believe it was from a beginning piano book that had the notes in different colors, which corresponded to a chart that you wedged behind the black keys so it matched up with the keys on the piano. We're probably talking 1958 or 1959 here.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: Lyr Add: BRAHMS' LULLABY
From:
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 09:16 PM

The correct words to the song Brahms' Lullaby are:

Lullaby and good night,
With roses bedight.
With lilies o'er spread,
Is baby's wee bed.
Lay thee down now and rest.
May thy slumber be blessed.
Lay thee down now and rest.
May thy slumber be blessed.

Lullaby and goodnight,
Thy mother's delight.
Bright angels beside
My darling abide.
They will guard thee at rest.
Thou shall wake on my breast.
They will guard thee at rest.
Thou shall wake on my breast.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Brahms' Lullaby
From: GUEST,K. O'Brien
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 09:38 PM

I disagree with the translation of "Mit Rosen bedacht" as "given roses" and that "bedight" (Eng.) and "bedacht" (Ger.) may come from the same root.

"Bedight" (now obsolete) means to prepare or set in order and comes from the Anglo-Saxon "dihtan" (to compose, write, arrange). I don't have a German dictionary with word origins, but "bedenken" is probably related to the A-S root "thencan" (to think). If a translator changed "bedacht" to "bedight", they were probably translating phoenetically--that's how we ended up with "cole slaw" instead of "Kohlsalat" (cabbage salad).

"Mit rosen bedacht" might best be translated as "with roses in mind". "Bedacht" is the past participle of the irregular verb "bedenken" (think of English irregular verbs like "go" [went, gone]; "drive" [drove, driven], etc.). "Bedenken" means to consider, think over, reflect on, keep in mind ("denken" is to think). So the writer seems to be telling the child to think about roses while falling asleep.

"Nägelchen" is the German word for clove (or cloves). In German, "chen" or "lein" can be added to other words to make them diminuitive..."Frau" (woman) + lein = "Fräulein" (girl); "Brot" (bread) + "chen" = "Brötchen" (roll); "Nagel" (nail) + chen = "Nägelchen" (tack, brad). "Nägelchen" is a dialectical word for "clove" (maybe since a clove looks like a little nail or tack), and Brahms may have used the "lein" instead of the "chen" ending when forming the diminuitive. The endings aren't really interchangable, but we can grant him poetic license. Therefore, the "clove" translation seems to make more sense than the "little nails" or "carnations" theories espoused above (even moreso if it's true what the writer above says about cloves in the bed to ward off bugs). The "nails" translation just doesn't make any sense and the "carnations" seem to be a stretch from "Nelke" to "Nägelchen." And why would the author say "covered with carnations" when he's just said "with roses kept in mind"? The German-to-English translator(s) may have thought "clove" wouldn't make sense outside of the German culture, so "clover", "carnation", "lilies", etc., may have been substituted with poetic license.

Just my two cents worth, from a 2nd-year (adult) German student.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Brahms' Lullaby
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 12:52 AM

All of the English lyrics are modifications of the German, there is no 'correct' translation.The arrangers have attempted to fit English to the melody, and the German words written by Brahms, and have had to depart from any straight literal translation.
Most people have no idea of the problems faced by translators of poems or songs- word for word translation is impossible. See Andreas W above.   

The bedacht to bedight transfer appears in the English lyrics of 1873 (and 1868), by Auber Forestier, linked by Masato above; most singers have followed. I can't think of a better solution that also fits the notes of the melody.
The words following 'bedacht' are- "mit Näglein besteckt schlupf' unter die Deck'"- this does not translate as "Creep into thy bed, There pillow thy head." Closely translated, it is- garnished (clad) in pinks (nightdress), sleeping under the covers. The English words get the idea of sleeping across although the covers and the baby's night dress get left out and a bed is introduced.
Note that I am translating 'näglein' as pinks, an accepted meaning in one of my German-English dictionaries, and guessing that it would have been an idiom for a baby's night clothes when the song was written. I also assume that näglein is an alternate spelling. These assumptions may be in error, but without an idiomatic German dictionary for the 1860s, I can't be sure.

"Wiegenlied" is one of five solo songs in Brahms' Opus 49. He wrote many songs; 125 were published in groups of four to nine.