Parish Alvars:
Illustrations of German Poetry No. 1 «Traum am Bache», op. 71

TRAUM AM BACHE
Märchen vom Mummelsee im Schwarzwalde
by August Ferdinand Alexander Schnezler

a beautiful romance intermediate level.

Schott, 1844
7 pages.

A beautiful Romance by Parish Alvars, defined by Berlioz as The Liszt of the Harp inspired by this poem by August Ferdinand Alexander Schnezler.

DREAM AT THE BROOK
A Tale from Mummel Lake in the Black Forest
In Mummel Lake, in the dark lake
There bloom many lilies,
They sway, they bend,
Playing with the blowing wind;
Yet when night falls,
The full moon blinks in the heavens,
They climb out of the bath
As Nymphs on to the shore.
The wind howls, the reeds sing
The melody to the dance,
The lily-maidens twine themselves
As if into a garland;
And float silently around in a circle,
Faces white, robes white,
Until their pale cheeks
Are delicately flushed.
The storm howls, the reeds sing
The pine forest whistles
The clouds pull past the moon,
The shadows on the hill-side,
And up and down, through the wet grass
Turns the boundless roundelay,
And ever louder beat
The waves against the shore.
Then an arm rises up out of the flood,
The gigantic fist clenched,
Then a dripping head, crowned with reed,
Framed by a long, undulating beard,
And a thunderous voice sounds,
That it echos from the mountains:
“Back in your waves,
You ill-mannered lilies!”
The dance falters, the maidens cry out
And become more and more pale:
“Father calls! Puh! Morning air!
Back in the water!”
The mists rise from the valley,
Day is already breaking,
And the lilies are again swaying
To and fro in the water.