Listening Guide
The Work
Key: D minor (with occasional hints of B-flat and A major), ending in D major.
Tempo: Mit ruhelos schmerzvollem Ausdruck (With a restless, painful expression).
Time Signature: 4/4
Form: free strophic form with a prelude and postlude, each verse being separated by an interlude of varying length. The last verse is much longer than the earlier ones and, because of its vastly different character, is considered by La Grange to be virtually a separate song unto itself.
Orchestration: the only song in the cycle initially written for full orchestra, including piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets in A, bass clarinet in A, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns in F, timpani, celesta, tam-tam, harp and muted strings.
| In diesem Wetter, in diesem Braus, nie hätt’ ich gesendet die Kinder hinaus, man hat sie getragen, getragen hinaus. Ich durfte nichts dazu sagen.
In diesem Wetter, in diesem Saus, In diesem Wetter, in diesem Graus, In diesem Wetter, in diesem Graus! In diesem Wetter, in diesem Saus, in diesem Braus, | In this weather, in this tumult, I should never have sent the children out, they have been carried, carried out. I could say nothing about it.
In this weather, in this storm, In this weather, in this horror, In this weather, in this horror! In this weather, in this storm, in this tumult, |