Friedrich Rückert
From ChoralWiki
Aliases: Freimund Raimar
Life
Born: 16 May 1788
Died: 31 January 1866
Biography
Friedrich Rückert was a German poet, translator, and professor of Oriental languages. When Rückert began his literary career, Germany was engaged in her life-and-death struggle with Napoleon; and in his first volume, Deutsche Gedichte (German Poems), published in 1814 under the pseudonym Freimund Raimar, he gave, particularly in the powerful Geharnischte Sonette (Sonnets in Arms/Harsh Words), vigorous expression to the prevailing sentiment of his countrymen.
Rückert was master of thirty languages and made his mark chiefly as a translator of Oriental poetry and as a writer of poems conceived in the spirit of Oriental masters.
Rückert's poetry was a powerful inspiration to composers and there are about 121 settings of his work — behind only Goethe, Heine and Rilke in this respect. Among the composers who set his poetry to music are Schubert, Robert and Clara Schumann, Brahms, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Zemlinsky, Hindemith, Bartók, Berg, Hugo Wolf and Heinrich Kaspar Schmid.
View Wikipedia article for Friedrich Rückert.
Settings of his literary works
- An die Sterne, Op. 141, No. 1 (Robert Schumann)
- Der alte Barbarossa (Friedrich Silcher)
- Die Rose stand im Tau, Op. 65, No. 1 (Robert Schumann)
- Du bist die Ruh (Franz Schubert)
- Fahr wohl, Op. 93a, No. 4 (Johannes Brahms)
- Gute Nacht, Op. 59, No. 4 (Robert Schumann)
- Widmung (Robert Schumann)
Publications
External links
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