For his darkly dramatic song
Vier trübe Monden sind entflohn, Mendelssohn set only the first three verses of Ludwig Hölty’s ‘Lied eines Mädchens auf den Tod ihrer Gespielin’ (‘Song of a girl on the death of her playmate’). We do not know when the song was composed, as no autograph manuscript has been located; Louis Weissenborn copied this work, as well as
Weinend seh ich in die Nacht,
Erwartung, and
Lieben und Schweigen.
Vier trübe Monden was published in 1882 by the composer Carl Reinecke (teacher to Edvard Grieg, Leoš Janácek, Max Bruch and others).
from notes by Susan Youens © 2010
