So schlaf in Ruh! was, so we learn from a copy by Cécile Mendelssohn’s sister Julie Jeanrenaud, composed on 22 March 1838 and is a setting of a poem by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, famous both for his revolutionary poems and his songs for children. No cannon sound in this tender lullaby for a child; in the refrain, we can almost see the child’s eyelids gradually drifting downwards until they close in sleep.
from notes by Susan Youens © 2010
