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CANCIONES DE CUNA

CANCIONES DE CUNA

For Lilian and Julian

This project was inspired by my joy at the birth of my grandchildren. Motivated by the special emotions awakened by the miracle of new life coming into the world, my friends and colleagues generously offered suggestions, provided musical scores and took part in the performance of some of the pieces. I would like to thank them warmly for their enthusiasm and cooperation.

The repertoire of cradle songs is vast. From the perspective of a guitarist, I have made a selection of pieces that covers the life of the classical guitar from the early nineteenth century to the present day. As I was putting them together, I was surprised by the affinities and influences that became evident and by the intensity with which the personality of each composer is reflected in these miniatures.

Two valuable gifts, specially composed for this occasion, gave me the chance to include lullabies of the twenty-first century: Uspávanka s pocitánim ovci for violin or voice and guitar, by the Czech composer Sylvie Bodorovà—whose deep friendship I have enjoyed for well over twenty years and whose brilliant career I am privileged to follow very closely—and ...che move il cielo e le altre stelle, a piece for solo guitar by Simone Fontanelli, whom I first met at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena in 1982, when he was a student in Franco Donatoni´s course, and whom I encountered again years later as a colleague at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

Our very first experiences of music are typically the cradle songs our mothers and grandmothers sing to us when we are very small. These songs also form an important part of our cultural identity.

In Europe, the first lullabies, nanas or Wiegenlieder were sung at the Christmas crib. Interest in the folk song repertoire increased towards the end of the eighteenth century. Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a collection of popular songs compiled by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, was published in Germany at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Most of the representative composers of the Romantic period, among them Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms, composed Wiegenlieder that reflect popular cradle songs both in their characteristic rhythm and intimate character and in their allusions to certain words or images and to nature in general. The instrumental versions of these cradle songs were called Berceuse.

Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909), the guitarist from Valencia who founded a guitar school that had a strong influence through the world, knew that a transcription of Schlummerlied op. 124 N° 6 by Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856) would suit the guitar very well. But Domingo Prat, one of his students, criticized this version very harshly, complaining that it was impossible to recognize the original melody in it.

During his short life, Franz Schubert (1797-1828) wrote nine symphonies, liturgical music, operas, incidental music, and chamber music. Unlike the Viennese composers of the classic period, he also dedicated a large part of his compositional output to small lyric forms. He wrote over 600 Lieder, one of which is Wiegenlied op. 98 N° 2. Although Schubert owned a guitar, there is no evidence that he used it to accompany his songs. However, the guitar was a popular instrument in Vienna during this period, and music publishers used to release both a guitar and a pianoforte accompaniment in the scores of the Lieder they released.

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) was of the most remarkable musicians of his generation. He was appointed organist in the Église de la Madeleine and director of the Paris Conservatoire (where he managed to reform the study programs in order to cover a broader spectrum of music from the Renaissance to Impressionism). Berceuse op. 16 shows the qualities that the French composer, as a pedagogue, wished his disciples to develop: good taste, a feeling for harmony, love for pure lines, surprising and colorful modulations.

Manuel de Falla and Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco met for the first time in Florence in 1919. Castelnuovo Tedesco was impressed by M. de Falla’s calm and serene voice, his slender build, and his introverted, mystical, ascetic appearance that contrasted with the exuberance of his music. De Falla fell in love with Florence just as Castelnuovo Tedesco had fallen in love with Granada during his journey to Spain in 1913. Their friendship endured even when both had to go into exile (de Falla in Argentina, Castelnuovo Tedesco in the United States). An encounter with Andrés Segovia in Venice in 1932 marked the beginning of a long friendship that stimulated Castelnuovo Tedesco to write for the guitar. He ultimately became one of the most important composers in the guitar literature of the twentieth century.
Platero y yo (a composition for narrator and guitar in which he set to music 28 of the 138 chapters of the book by Juan Ramón Jiménez) was completed in 1960. Castelnuovo Tedesco regarded this work and Romancero Gitano (based on García Lorca´s poetry) as the most poetic pieces he wrote for the guitar.

Juan Ramón Jiménez used to call Platero y yo “Elegía Andaluza,” an Andalusian elegy. In this book, published in 1914, the writer narrates his adventures with the donkey Platero in the surroundings of Moguer, his birthplace. La Arrulladora, in which he describes an Andalusian girl rocking her small brother, is one of the most beautiful and moving moments of this work.

The Greek composer Manos Hatzidakis (1925 –1994), who was also active in the field of theater, used the Rembetika, a popular urban Greek song form, in many of his works. From 1950 onwards, he concentrated on writing popular pieces. He won an Academy Award in 1960 for his song Never on Sunday, written for the eponymous film.
He remained in the United States during the time of the military regime in Greece. After returning to his home country, he was offered positions with the Athens National Orchestra, the National Opera, and the National Radio, and he also founded the Orchestra of Colours. Nani a Garoyfalo moy (Νάνι το γαρούφαλλό μου) was arranged for guitar by the Greek guitarist Yorgos Nousis.

Back in central Europe

One of the most famous Wiegenlieder, Schlafe mein Prinzchen, was long believed to have been written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and was later attributed to Bernhard Flies, a German physician and composer born around 1770 in Berlin, who was thought to have composed it for the play Esther. According to information provided by the Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, however, the researcher E. Goretzki believes that the real composer of this piece was the German Johann Friedrich Anton Fleischmann (1766-1798).

Carl Maria von Weber (1786 –1826) was a German pianist, conductor, guitarist, and critic, and was also one of the first significant composers of the Romantic period. He was appointed director of the Operas in Breslau, Prague, and Dresden. He organized a rehearsal plan and an arrangement of the musicians in an orchestra that is still in use today. His operas, among them Oberon and Der Freischütz, had a strong influence on the style of later German composers. The text of this Wiegenlied was written by Franz Carl Hiemer, a German actor, dramatist, and painter who also wrote the libretto for Weber’s opera Abu Hassan.

A grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809–1847) was born into a Jewish family whose home was frequented by the most interesting European artists, musicians, and scientists. Mendelssohn later converted to the Lutheran faith. Already as an infant he was a musical prodigy. It is thanks to his interest that the music of Johann Sebastian Bach was rescued from oblivion.
He went on many successful European concert tours. Many of his compositions were premiered in Great Britain, where he was very welcome as a composer, as a soloist, and as a conductor. Relatively conservative in his style, he remained faithful to the classical forms and embarked upon a profound study of Renaissance music, the works of Bach, the early classical period. His oeuvre includes symphonies, concertos, oratorios, chamber music and pieces for piano. He founded the Leipzig Conservatoire. The text of Bei der Wiege was written by the poet and musician Karl Klingemann (1798–1862) , a close friend of the Mendelssohn family.

In the New World

In 1924 Agustín Barrios played his Habanera at “La Argentina,” a well known concert hall in Buenos Aires. This is also one of the many pieces he recorded between 1913 and 1942. The published version of this composition, which bears the name Canción de cuna, exhibits some variations from the original, though this is not surprising as Barrios frequently played several different versions of the same piece.
Known as “the magician of the guitar” during his first Latin American concert tours, Barrios adopted the name
“Nitsuga Mangoré, el Paganini de la Guitarra de la Selva Paraguaya”. Under this exotic identity he performed with enormous success in America and Europe. His compositions, some of them reminiscent of Latin American folklore, and others with a religious character (such as La Catedral) or an imitative style, show an enormous musical intuition and a gift for creating a special universe of sound through inventive technical effects, interesting tunings, and virtuoso passages.

Carlos Guastavino (1912-2000) was born in Santa Fé, Argentina. Because of the character of his works, which reflect the influence of romantic and neoclassical styles, he became known as “the Schubert of the Pampas.”
After meeting the composer in Buenos Aires, John Duarte wrote:

Jars containing chemicals lined the walls of Carlos Guastavino's small apartment in Buenos Aires, souvenirs of his early studies as a chemical engineer. He lived somewhat reclusively, writing his music between four and eleven o´clock each morning; his interest in science and his love of music and nature (to both of which he reached with deep emotion) protected him from any sense of loneliness.” In his own words: "When I realize that I have written what I want, I stand, make gestures, laugh or cry, and thank God. Music doesn't grow by itself, I don't carry the responsibility; a part of my brain has music".

His series Seis Canciones de Cuna for voice and piano, written to lyrics by the Chilean poetess and teacher Gabriela Mistral, stand out among his rich range of music for voice. Four of these songs, “Hallazgo,” “Apegado a mí,” “Corderito,” and “Meciendo,” are well suited to a guitar accompaniment. Inspired by the American identity and by love and nature, the lyrics are taken from her books Ternura and Poema de Chile. The influence of Manuel de Falla, with whom Guastavino was acquainted because the Spanish composer lived in Argentina, can be felt in these pieces.

The Argentine folklorist, poet, philosopher, and guitarist Atahualpa Yupanqui (1908-1992) was born in Pergamino in Buenos Aires province. His father was Argentine, a descendant of the Quechuas (an indigenous group in Argentina), and his mother belonged to a Basque family. His original name was Héctor Roberto Chavero Aramburo, but as an artist he adopted the name Atahualpa, after the last of the native lords of the Inca Empire, and Yupanqui, a quechua word meaning “he who comes from ancient lands to communicate something”.

Yupanqui became a student of the indigenous culture. In 1935, he played on a radio show in Buenos Aires, where he met Antonieta Paula Pepin Fitzpatrick, his lifelong partner and collaborator under the pseudonym ”Pablo Del Cerro.” He was a winner of the Charles Cros Academy Prize for best foreign recording and went on extensive concert tours in Europe. His very personal style, unmistakable because of the color he achieves through glissandi, vibratos, and other technical effects, pervades even his simplest pieces, such as this arrullo (lullaby) Duérmete changuito. Atahualpa Yupanqui´s version of a piece by Ernesto Grenet, Drume Negrita, which he used to sing while accompanying himself on the guitar, represents one of his most successful interpretations.

This song also inspired the Cuban composer Leo Brouwer (1939), who recreated it in a lovely Afro-Cuban Canción de Cuna. A winner of the renowned Tomás Luis de Victoria 2010 Prize , Brouwer is a guitarist and conductor and one of the most important composers of the twentieth century. He has composed chamber music, symphonies, film music, many pieces for solo guitar, and several concertos for guitar and orchestra. His first works were influenced by the style of Béla Bartók and Igor Strawinski . Later he experimented with modal and serial music. He has approached minimalism in his latest works. An honorary member of UNESCO since 1987, Leo Brouwer has also done remarkable work as a pedagogue and has held positions with Cuban radio and television.

The influence of African music in Latin America are also evident in the music of the Río de la Plata, especially in the candombe. This influence can be felt in Calabú, a candombe cradle song written in 1856. Its composer, the porteño (resident of the city of Buenos Aires) Sebastián Piana (1903-1994), was born into a family of Italian immigrants. He and the poet Homero Manzi became famous as a team that created many songs, such as Milonga sentimental. Piana enriched the milonga with a more substantial musical structure, something he considered essential for this musical form. He composed around 500 pieces.

Mocking bird, also known as Hush little baby, seems to have its origins in North America. Its author and date of creation are not known. In the lyrics, all kind of rewards are offered to the child if he will be quiet. The arrangement on this recording is by Richard Charlton, one of the most renowned Australian guitarist-composers, who was born in Great Britain in 1955. According to the British magazine Classical Guitar, Charlton has created some of the most inspired and accessible pieces for the guitar in our era.

Returning to the Wiegenlieder of the nineteenth century through Brahms
On October 25, 1853, Schumann published an article praising the young Brahms in Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, the magazine he had founded in Leipzig. Born in Hamburg in 1833, Johannes Brahms spent a great part of his professional life in Vienna, where he died in 1897. As a composer, he is considered a master of counterpoint and of development. He was also very successful as a pianist and as a conductor.

In 1857 he dedicated Sandmännchen to the children of Robert and Clara Schumann. Robert had died one year earlier. Clara, a great pianist and composer, was an inspiring muse for Brahms and a long-lasting friendship developed between the two.

Notwithstanding his reputation as a composer of long pieces and complex structures, many of the works that were successful during his lifetime were short, popular pieces: Hungarian dances, waltzes, and cradle songs such as Wiegenlied op. 49, N° 4: “Guten Abend, gute Nacht.”

In the twenty-first century

Sylvie Bodorovà (1954) studied in Brno and Prague and was also a student of Franco Donatoni in the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. She received many important commissions after the success of her Terezina Ghetto Requiem, and her compositions include the oratorios Juda Maccabeus and Moses and her Symphony No. 2 “Con le campane.” The music of Sylvie Bodorovà transcends the times and has a mystical component. The powerful ideals that characterize her personality emerge with full authenticity in and through her music.
Uspávanka s pocitánim ovci was composed to lyrics by the Czech poet Jan Skácel

Simone Fontanelli (Milan 1961) studied guitar, philosophy, composition, and conducting. After winning the International Mozart Competition in Salzburg in 1995, Fontanelli is regarded as one of the most interesting and authentic personalities of contemporary music.
The Berceuse ...che move il sole e l´altre stelle was written in December 2008. Its title quotes a verse by Dante Alighieri that concludes the last chapter (Paradise) of the Divine Comedy:

L´Amor che move il sole e l´altre stelle

María Isabel Siewers- Translation: Eva- Raphaela Jaksch

Artist´s profiles

Acclaimed for her extraordinary lyricism, refined artistic temperament and outstanding technique, María Isabel Siewers has performed in many of the greatest halls, including the Wigmore Hall (London), Konzerthaus (Vienna), Martinu Hall (Prague), Carnegie Hall (New York), and the Théatre des Champs Elysées (Paris), and has played in many important music festivals. She has regularly toured, taught and adjudicated in international competitions throughout Europe, North and South America, Australia, and New Zealand. She has occupied several teaching posts in Argentina and, since 1989 she has been head of a guitar department in the Arts University Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.
She has appeared as a soloist with the Argentine National Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Virtuosi, the Radio/TV Orchestra of Zagreb, the Bohemian Chamber Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Cuba, the Cracow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestras of Mayo and Morón (Argentina), and many other ensembles.
María Isabel Siewers studied in her native Argentina with María Luisa Anido and at the Manuel de Falla Conservatory in Buenos Aires. Subsequently, she studied with Andrés Segovia, Abel Carlevaro and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
Ms Siewers' recordings reflect her special interest in and love for twentieth-century masterpieces for the guitar and also for the rich and enchanting Latin American repertory (including cross-over music) and for chamber music with guitar, a field in which she has considerable experience. Her recordings have received many awards, including “Critic’s choice” (Gramophone-London) for her Guastavino recording, “Best record of the year” (Acoustic Guitar) for her CD “ Maximo Pujol, Guitar and Chamber Music” and a nomination for the Carlos Gardel prize in 2007 for “Tango, Milonga y Final”.

Christoph Rösel was born in Thüringen, Germany. At the age of five he had his first piano lessons and became a member of the Thüringer Sängerknaben.
He graduated with degrees as an opera singer and singing educator from the University of Music “Franz Liszt” in Weimar (Germany).
An award winner in several international competitions such as the Robert Schumann Competition and the Johann Sebastian Bach Competition, Mr. Rösel was engaged to sing as a soloist at the German National Theater in Weimar, the Semperoper Dresden and the Landestheater Dessau and has been invited to take solo parts in concerts of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Rundfunkorchester Leipzig and Berlin, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the Riga Philharmonie, the Bachchor Salzburg, the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-fields, the Berlin Philharmonie, and many other orchestras under world known conductors such as Kurt Masur, Peter Schreier, Howard Arman, and Helmuth Rilling.
His performing activities throughout Europe and in Latin America have been complemented since 1992 by his work as a professor for singing at the University of Arts Mozarteum in Salzburg.

Amiram Ganz was born in Montevideo (Uruguay), and began studying the violin at the age of sux. Five years later he won the First Prize at the national competition of Jeunesses Musicales and embarked on a solo career. His teachers in Uruguay were Israel Chorberg, Ilya Fidlon, and Jorge Risi. After graduating from the Montevideo Conservatory, he received a scholarship which allowed him to study at the Moscow “Tchaikovsky” Conservatory with Viktor Pikaisen.
In 1977 he was one of the award winners at the international competition Jacques Thibaud in Paris. In 1979 he was invited to take a position as leader at the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg in France. At the same time, he continued to develop his solo and chamber music career
Ganz has been a member of the Altenberg Trio Wien since 1994. They have performed in almost every country in Europe, the USA, Canada, and Mexico. The Altenberg Trio has recorded 12 CDs, including the complete Schumann trios. Their CD “Piano trios from America” won the Edison award in the Netherlands.
Since the very beginning of his career, Ganz has been playing duo recitals with guitarist María Isabel Siewers, and the two have recorded several CDs as a duo.

Silvia Cambiasso pursued music studies and obtained degrees in Choir Conducting and in Vocal Studies from the Conservatorio Superior de Música Manuel de Falla, Conservatorio Alberto Ginastera and Instituto Universitario de las Artes in Buenos Aires. She also completed vocal specialization courses with Lucía Boero, Víctor Srugo, Heather Harper, Constanza Cuccaro and Erick Werba
An award winner of several music competitions in Argentina, Silvia has sung a broad repertoire of chamber music and is active in the field of Oratorio. She has performed as a soloist in Gustav Mahler’s “Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen” along with the Symphonic Orchestra of Santa Fé, Bach’s “Magnificat”, Pegolessi’s “Stabat Mater” and Haydn’s “Theresienmesse” with the Symphonic Orchestra of Entre Ríos.
Aware of Sivia´s deep knowledge of the vocal repertoire of argentine composers, the University of Arts Mozarteum in Salzburg invited her to perform and teach in Innsbruck, Austria. She also produced the CD “Amores y Coplas” together with the pianist Beatriz Feldman and the guitarist Jorge Biscardi.
She is head of a Vocal Studies class at the Conservatorio Superior de Música Manuel de Falla in Buenos Aires.

Erica Pazur was born in Argentina in 1976. She graduated from the Escuela de Arte Dramático of Buenos Aires.
Since 2003 she has produced the clown shows ‘The Music Stand’ (second prize at 3 de Febrero's Regional Children’s Theater Contest) and ‘The Date , the buffon´s act Oh, sana! and the melodrama ‘The Box’ or ‘Secrets Disclosed’ for actress and guitar, the latter in cooperation with the composer Marios Elias Joannou (Cyprus)
Erica Pazur has taken part in national and international festivals such as Necochea's Children's Festival and Villa Giardino’s Drama Festival in Argentina, Pflasterspektakel Linz, Villach Festival, Feldkirch Gaukler Festival and Festival der Träume in Innsbruck, all in Austria.
In 2007 she was invited to perform in the International Drama Festival in Sibiu—then the European Capital of Culture—in Rumania, and was sponsored by the Cultural Department of Argentina’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A grant from the Instituto Nacional del Teatro (INT) enabled her to attend courses and seminars with Claudio Martinez Bel, Cristina Martí and Angelelli.
Since 2010 she performs regularly as a fairy in W. Shakespeare´s ‘Midsummer Night's Dream’, at the Beckett Theater in Buenos Aires. The Universidad del Litoral in Santa Fé, Argentina, invited this group to perform at their Seventh Argentine Drama Festival, in September 2010.
‘ESB” (A Love Story in the Suburbs)—a collaborative creation—where Erica performs the main role, was premiered at the Tadrón Theater in Buenos Aires in 2010.
Erica teaches Drama at a public primary school in the province of Buenos Aires and attends courses at the Drama Teaching Training College of the Instituto Universitario Nacional de las Artes (IUNA).

Tomás Nicolás Pazur graduated as Profesor Superior de Violín from the Conservatorio Manuel de Falla in Buenos Aires. He also studied violin and viola with Alberto Varady.
He has been member of the Orquesta Estable del Teatro Colón , the Orquesta de Cuerdas de Morón and the Orquesta Ciudad de Buenos Aires in Argentina and the orchestras Hallegro and Musikfreunde Innsbruck in Austria.
He often plays in chamber music concerts, and has taken part in Tango projects- for example with Antonio Agri- in musicals like “ Drácula” and in film music recordings.
As a violin guitar duo with María Isabel Siewers he has performed and recorded in Argentina and in Europe.

Franz Schubert – Wiegenlied (Cradle Song)
Lyrics: Anonymous, wrongly attributed to Matthias Claudius (1740-1815)
Sleeping, sleeping, pretty dear my pleasure,
rocking gently under mother´s hand,
softing resting, darling treasure
You are sailing unto slumberland
Sleeping, sleeping, little eyelids close,
gentle breezes murmur lullabies,
and a lily and a rose,
I´m keeping for a sweet surprise

Federico García Lorca-Lullaby from Seville
This little turtle
Has no mother,
A gipsy woman bore it
And abandoned it in the street
This small child
Has no cradle.
His father is a carpenter
And will fashion one for him

Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco-La Arrulladora
Text: Juan Ramón Jiménez
(English translation by Elise Roach)
The charcoals burner´s little daughter, as pretty and dirty as a coin, with eyes of burnished black
and full lips that seem about to burst with the red blood behind the grime, is at the cabin door, sitting on a tile, rocking her baby brother to sleep.
The vibrant break of May time is everywhere, ardent and clear as an inner sunlight.
In the bright peacefulness, the boiling of the pot in the open fire is heard with the lowing of cattle from the pasture and the mirth of the sea wind in the tangled branches of the eucalyptus.
Feelingly, sweetly, the charcoal burner´s daughter sings.
Sleep, little one, sleep,
to please the good Shepherdess
Pause…the wind in the tree- tops.
Sleep, my little one, dream
while the little mother sings.
The wind…
Platero, who is walking gently among the pines, approaches, little by little…
Then he lies down on the hard earth, and, soothed by the monotonous lullabies of the singer,
he falls asleep, like a child.

Schlafe, mein Prinzchen, schlaf ein- attributed to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. (KV 350), later to Bernhard Flies and after new research to Friedrich Anton Fleischmann (1766-1798)
Sleep, my little prince, fall asleep:
the lambs and birdies are resting,
the garden and meadow are silent,
and even the little bee hums no more.
Luna with a silver gleam
is pouring her light into the window.
Sleep by the silvery light,
sleep, my little prince, fall asleep!
Everyone in the castle is already lying down:
everyone is cradled in slumber,
and even the little mouse rustles no more.
The cellar and kitchen are empty,
only in the chambermaid's quarters
one can hear a languishing sigh!
What kind of sigh might this be?
Sleep, my little prince, fall asleep!
Who is happier than you?
Nothing but amusement and rest!
Toys and sugar enough,
and even a stately coach to convey you;
everyone is careful and ready
so that my little prince will not shriek.

Felix Mendelssohn- Beside the cradle
Lyrics: Karl Klingemann (1798-1862)
Slumber!
Slumber and dream of coming times,
that soon must unfold for you,
dream, my child, of joy and pain,
Dream of dear shapes!
may yet many come and go,
yet must new ones arise for you,
Be good and stay patient!
Slumber!
slumber and dream of spring's power,
see all the blooming and becoming,
listen, how birdsong rings through the grove.
Love in Heaven, on Earth.
today passes by and does not concern you,
but your spring will also bloom and shimmer,
be good and stay patient!

Carl Maria von Weber- Cradle Song
Lyrics: Carl F. Hiemer (1768-1822)
Sleep my love, my darling are you!
close your blue eyes!
All is calm is still, like deep rest,
sleep and I will keep the flies away.
Angels from heaven so darling as you,
floating around your little bed and smiling at you.
They climb down to you,
only wiping away your tears.
Sleep my love, night is coming now,
your mother is sitting by your bed, keeping watch.
Be it so early, and be it so late,
my dear heart, never sleeps!

Carlos Guastavino- 4 Lullabies
Lyrics: Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957)
English translation: Frederick Fuller

Discovery
In the fields I found him
as I wandered lonely,
contended by sleeping
on a bed of vineleaves.
Or perhaps it was rather
while, lost in reflection,
gathering the vinecrop
my eyes first beheld him.
That´s why I fear now
should he go on sleeping
he may fade fast
as the dew on the vineleaves.

Close to my heart
Little rosebud borne on my bosom,
little flower that grew in my breast,
little darling, so cold and lonely
lay thy head on my bosom and rest.
As the lark sleeping low in the meadow
while the tall grasses away over her nest
sleep thou gently, no sound wake thy slumber,
sleep my darling, held close to my breast.
Little reed on the wind, frail and tender,
timid thing that each movement alarms
closely cling to thy mother, my darling,
sleep my babe, rocked to sleep in my arms.
Though my wordly hopes may fail me,
yet I find consolation in thee,
lie thou still on my bosom, dearest,
dream sweet dreams, clinging closely to me.

Little Lambkin
Little Lambin, my dear one,
little lambkin, tender and sweet,
come, rest on my breast a while,
as soft as a pillow of down.
Thy frail body´s white
as the slanting moon beams
that dance on thy bed.
Thou art all in all
to thy mother who cradles
thy innocent sleepy head.
Love.
Thou art all in all to me,
all my world is in thee,
and this heaving bosom,
where my infant lambkin is nourished.
I crave no older joy.
Now thy craving, dear son, is assigned.
Contented I rest
while thou art asleep on my breast.

Meciendo
The sea is a myriard cradles
rocking for ever
and to her gentle croon
I rock my darling.
The breezes blow hither
and thither rocking the corn tops,
their whispering voices are hashed
as I rock the cradle where sleeps my dear one.
The Lord God.
In silence, the cradle of Life
rocks through eternity.
His presence is near as I rock my darling baby.

Johannes Brahms- Sandmännchen (Sandman)
Lyrics: Anton Wilhelm von Zuccalmaglio (1803-1869 based on „ Zu Bethlem geboren”, a XVI Century lullaby .
Translated by Allen Shearer
The flowers are long asleep
in the moonlight;
they nod their heads
on slender stems.
The blossoming tree's a-quiver,
whispering as in a dream:
Sleep, sleep, my child!
The birdies sang so sweetly
while the sun was shining;
now they've gone to sleep
in their little nests.
Only the cricket sings his song
deep in the meadow.
Sleep, sleep, my child!
The Sand Man sneaks up
and peeks in the window
to see if some little darling
is not in bed.
Whenever he finds a child
he strews sand in his eyes.
Sleep, sleep, my child!
Sand Man, go away now,
my dear one's fast asleep,
his peepers tightly closed.
Tomorrow morning
those innocent little eyes
will shine again to greet me.
Sleep, sleep, my child!

Johannes Brahms- Guten Abend, Gute Nacht (Good evening, good night)
The lyrics belong to “Des Knaben Wunderhorn” and to Georg Scherer (1824-1909).
Good evening, good night
provided with roses,
covered with carnations,
slip under the blanket.
In the morning, if God wills,
you will wake again.
In the morning, if God wills,
you will wake again.
Good evening, good night,
watched by little angels;
they show in your dream
the Christmas tree.
Just sleep blessed and sweet,
see Paradise in your dream.
just sleep blessed and sweet,
see Paradise in your dream.

Acknowledgement
Thanks to Sylvie Bodorová, Silvia Cambiasso, Richard Charlton, Simone Fontanelli, Amiram Ganz, Silvia Glocer, Iris Guiñazú, Eva- Raphaela Jacksh, Jorgos Nousis, Melanie Plesch and Christoph Roesel who have supported this project with their enthusiasm and talent .