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Joshua Shank
Joshua Shank (B&F Music)
Wanderer’s Nightsong
A simple song about finding peace in nature.
high voice and piano
Using one of Goethe’s most famous poems, this brief song addresses a “wanderer” trying to find peace in nature. Appropriate for singers of all levels.
Composer’s Notes
“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.”
-Joshua Shank, 2021
Text
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.
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
English translation by the composer
$3.00 per licensed PDF
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