Wanderer’s Nightsong

High voice and piano

This is one of Goethe’s most famous poems. He’s said to have scrolled it onto the wall of a wooden gamekeeper lodge near the top of Kickelhahn mountain in central Germany in 1780. What I love about the poem is that the overarching image is one of peace, but the text is actually about the opposite. The speaker is addressing a “wanderer”—perhaps himself—who is aspiring to be as calm as the bucolic scene Goethe describes. We’ve all had moments where I’m sure we can relate.

Wanderer’s Nightsong is dedicated with love and admiration to the soprano it was originally written for, the wonderful Dr. Sonya Newstrom.

The Text

By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
English translation by the composer

Over every peak
There is peace,
In the treetops
You hear
Hardly a breath;
The birds in the forest are silent.
Just wait,
Soon, you will be peaceful too.