Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1869


Schneeflckchen, Weirckchen

Buy Schneeflckchen, Weirckchen now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article


'Schneeflckchen, Weirckchen' (little snowflake, white little skirt) is a German christmas carol. The original version comes from (18371901), who published the song in her first book in 1869.

Lyrics



'Contemporary (German) version and its English translation'Schneeflckchen, Weirckchen,

wann kommst du geschneit?

Du wohnst in den Wolken,

dein Weg ist so weit.

Komm setz dich ans Fenster,

du lieblicher Stern,

malst Blumen und Bltter,

wir haben dich gern.

Schneeflckchen, du deckst uns

die Blmelein zu,

dann schlafen sie sicher

in himmlischer Ruh.

Schneeflckchen, Weirckchen,

komm zu uns ins Tal.

Dann baun wir den Schneemann

und werfen den Ball.


Tiny Snowflake, little whitedress,

when are you coming snowed?

You live in the clouds

your way is so far

Come sit at the window

you lovely star

paint flowers and leaves,

we like you.

Tiny Snowflake, you cover us

the flowers,

then they sleep safely

in heavenly peace.

Tiny Snowflake, white little skirt,

come to us in the valley.

Then we'll build the snowman

and throw the ball




Compared to the original text, which consists of two stanzas, each with eight lines, the text is now usually reproduced in four four-line stanzas. Weirckchen, a Silesian synonym for snowflake, does not appear in the original version of the text in the opening verse, only in the fourth to last line.

Melody



\relative c'

\addlyrics





According to the poet's will, the song should have been sung to the melody of the song "Wir Kinder, wir haben der Freuden so viel" (We children, we have so much of joy). The text of this song by Christian Adolph Overbeck was first published in the 'Musen-Almanach' on the year 1777. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart set the revised text in 1791 as a song for voice and piano "Das Kinderspiel", KV 598. Another setting had been published by Karl Christian Agthe in 1782. It cannot therefore be said with absolute certainty whether Hedwig Haberkern wanted Mozart's melody for her snowflake song. Since the two known settings are art songs that are melodically and rhythmically more demanding than a simple children's song, it would also be conceivable that Hedwig Haberkern knew another, more folksong melody.

The melody common today, the composer of which is not known, has been documented in song books since 1915. However, in the first half of the 20th century, the song was spread across several different melodies. So it was sung on the melody of "" as well as on compositions by Johann Andr and Kurt Schlger. At the latest after the end of the Second World War, the melody known today prevailed. Occasionally but only in post-war songbooks the source is mentioned, that the song was brought by German colonists from Russia or from Courland.

References



Category:Songs about weather

Category:Christmas in Germany

Category:German-language Christmas carols

Category:1869 songs

Category:19th-century hymns in German

Buy Schneeflckchen, Weirckchen now from Amazon

<-- Return to songs from 1869



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1069151373.