Like drops of ice melting, snowflakes twinkling in light, perhaps,
triplets descend in a delicate pattern to open this song.  Savour them,
for they will keep recurring, in various guises, commenting on the vocal
part.  Then the voice wafts in 'Wie heimlicherweise, ein Engelein mit
rosigen Fusslein (warm, open emphasis on 'rosigen') die Erde betritt,
so nahte der Morgen.  (How secretly, silently, an angel descends to earth
with rosy, bare feet, to greet the dawn).  In a few bars, lasting barely
30 seconds, Wolf creates a image evoking so much - the frost of winter,
the angel's inner glow, dawn banishing darkness.

With what subtlety the piano part is written - the last bars of the first
sentence have already expanded towards the themes in the second sentence:
no sooner have the first rays of dawn reached the cold earth, than
rejoicing bursts forth.  'Jauchzt ihm, ihr Frommen, ein heilig Wilkommen,
ein heilig Wilkommen, Herz, jauchze du mit!' (Rejoice, good people, a
reverent welcome, - Heart, rejoice with us!) The crescendo on 'ein heilig
Wilkommen' is Wolf's trademark explosion of ecstasy.  The poet, Eduard
Morike, wrote 'heilig' not 'selig' which might have been close - this
welcome isn't mere joy but heavenly rapture.  Eric Sams describes the
repeated notes as sounding like a carillon of bells, and in this section,
they do.

Then there are a few seconds of silence.  This serves the same purpose
as the break between the two verses in the poem, which are so different.
It's Wolf's way of alerting us to the substance of the poem.  The piano
may be playing similar notes as before, but slower and more reverentially.
'In Ihm sei's begonnen, der Monde und Sonnen, an blauen Gezelten des
Himmels bewegt'.  (In Him let it begin, this New Year, He who causes
suns and moons to revolve in the blue vastness of Heaven) The mood is
dignified, for it expresses wonder at the power of the Force that orders
creation, but it needs to be balanced with delicacy.  Morike wrote the
poem thinking of a tune in a Salieri opera, and its rococo prettiness
is underpinned by a plotline.  The central image in this song is the
vulnerability of the youthful angel, and the sense of a miraculous fusion
of Heaven and Earth: the cherub's descent to earth has purpose.

'Du, Vater, du rate!' What a lovely line!  One day I'd like to hear that
line sung to bring out its full beauty, for it is the pivot on which the
whole song seems to hang.  Wolf must have thought it specially beautiful,
because now he decorates it with enhanced flourishes of melody.  'Herr,
dir in die Hande sei Anfang und Ende, sei alles gelegt!' (Lord, you who
hold our beginning and end, and all creation in your hands).  'Sei alles
gelegt' is repeated like the earlier 'heilig Wilkommen', but is set with
intimacy, even though the concept is cosmic.  This is quite fascinating
- a parallel pair of crescendos but the subtler one is in fact more
significant to the meaning of the poem.  This God may have the power to
control the universe, but he is personal and nurturing, too.  Some may
well prefer the authority figure treatment this song gets from some
singers, where the 'heilig Wilkommen' is shouted with such vehemence
that all else is obscured, but for me, however noble and impressive it
may sound, the idea doesn't work.  The change in mood from exterior
jubilation to inward contemplation is typical of Morike.  Wolf, with his
moment of silence and change of gears was flagging this so clearly that
performers ignore it at their peril.  This is a gentle God, who sends a
messenger in the form of an angel to renew the bond between the divine
and the human.  As the song ends, you suddenly realise what the repeated
phrases were whispering: they are wordless echoes of the phrase 'Du,
Vater, du rate' which have been infusing the song all along.

Anne
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