Beethoven’s song “Resignation” (WoO 149) dates from late 1817. It’s Beethoven’s only song to a text by Paul Graf von Haugwitz, about whom not much is known other than he was a civil servant who also wrote poetry.
Here’s Paul Reid’s translation of Haugwitz’s “Resignation”:
Go out, my light!
That which you need
Has now gone.
You will not find it again
In this place.
You must now work yourself free.
You used to flare up so brightly,
But now they have taken the air from you.
When this is finally dispersed,
The flame goes astray,
Seeks — and does not find —
Go out, my light!
(from The Beethoven Song Companion, pp. 238–9)
Paul Reid interprets the candle flame seeking oxygen as a metaphor for an artist perhaps exhausted of inspiration.
Beethoven’s “Resignation” was first published in the Vienna Magazine for Art, Literature, Theater and Fashion for 31 March 1818. Notice the “Melzels Metronom” tempo marking of 76 eighth notes to the minute.
Beethoven directs that “Resignation” is “to be performed with feeling, but still resolutely, firmly accentuated and as if speaking.” Beethoven’s setting is heartfelt and moving, suffused with melancholy but also with an acceptance of the things we cannot change.
#Beethoven250 Day 306
“Resignation” (WoO 149), 1817
An ad might precede this glorious live performance by Peter Schreier.
“Resignation” begins and ends with the line “Lisch aus, mein Licht!” whose first and last words are similar in pronunciation. But Haugwitz did not invent this poetic phrase: It appears twice in Gottfried August Bürger’s extremely popular 1774 romantic ballad “Lenore.”
#Beethoven250 Day 306
“Resignation” (WoO 149), 1817
An arrangement for small (and socially distanced) ensemble works quite well with the marvelous soprano Alexandra von der Weth.