Ruhetal by Josephine Lang

Wenn im letzten Abendstrahl
Goldne Wolkenberge steigen
Und wie Alpen sich erzeigen,
Frag' ich oft mit Tränen:
Liegt wohl zwischen jenen
Mein ersehntes Ruhetal?

When in the last rays of evening
Golden mountains of clouds rise
And appear like the Alps,
I often ask with tears:
Does my longed-for valley of rest lie among them?

"She remained to the end completely unconscious of her worth and importance. Every homage, every mark of appreciation, every friendly gesture she accepted as an unearned gift a love of which she still had to prove herself worthy.  This unconsciousness gave her character, even in her old age, a charming, moving, childlike quality; and therewith an amiable magic that no frank spirit was long able to resist!' - Lebensabriss 62-63

Josephine Lang was born in Munich, Germany in 1815 and she truly suffered for her art so much that after one performance in 1840 the Queen of Bavaria arranged for her to visit the royal bathhouses to recover however rather than relaxing she started a love affair with a lawyer and poet who fell in love with Josephine's singing voice at first and who soon became her husband and during the next few years her songs were mostly set to his poetry. Her husband became a lecturer at the University of Tübingen which is where the poet, and previously lawyer, Ludwig Uhland was an honorary professor for four years.

Ruhetal is the second song of Sechs Deutsche Lieder published in 1845 and the poetry implies that peace, for the protagonist, can only really exist among the clouds.  Although the subject matter may almost seem bleak it is often cited as human sensitivity and a romanticised nature and Lang finds a melancholy calmness and serenity in the longed for peace of death.  Her use of the chorale-like first two bars sets the tone and gives us the dotted motif that after disappearing after the first beat appears again and remains with us until the very final bar. 
Although the song is about peace the singer has to master big leaps and a conscious control of dynamics and legato which makes the song an excellent study.
The score can be found here on page 5 https://vmirror.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/a/a5/IMSLP616472-PMLP990505-JLang_6_Deutsche_Lieder,_Op.11_color.pdf

Lang's husband dying of cancer in 1956 started a long period of grief and suffering for her where she lost beloved family, including her three sons, and friends as well as her daughters leaving to start their own independent lives. She suffered a heart attack and died in 1880 with an enormous catalogue of music left behind and she continues to inspire and entertain us with her vast legacy of songs.

As far as I am aware there are no commercial recordings of Ruhetal and if you would like to record it and have it posted here I am very happy to receive recordings from you and it would be great to see how many of you can add this beautiful song to your repertoire.

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