Six Songs and a Romance

Six Songs and a Romance opus 93a for a cappella choir was completed by JOHANNES BRAHMS in 1883–1884. He selected three folklore and three authorial texts of romantic poets. The first song is based on a German folk text from the Rhine region and tells the story of four witches who hire a hunchbacked violinist for their dance on Walpurgis Night, removing his hump as a sign of gratitude. Brahms later referred to the folklore original of the melody three more times - in choral songs from the 1860s and in 1894 - in his Volkslieder. The second song "The Girl" and the fifth - "The Falcon" are based on a Serbian folklore texts, for which Brahms uses the translation of Siegfried Kapper. The second song is considered unusual for the classic German Brahms symmetry. This is because he alternated two meters ¾ and 4/4 through which he tried to imitate the Balkan uncommon measures. The other songs - written by Achim von Arnim, Friedrich Rueckert and Goethe - show no less that the composer's original approach to harmony, to the non-traditional and rich melodic beauty. The song "Farewell" written by Rueckert was performed in 1897 during Brahms' funeral procession.