Dear Nick,

Thank you for pointing me to Richard Strauss' Vier letzte Lieder.  I've listened to them several times, not only as sung by Jessye Norman, but also by Elly Ameling, and particuarly by Gundula Janowitz a soprano whose rendition of Arabella has made her voice and demeanor familiar and congenial to me. 

The threshold issue in my mind is your own enthusiasm for these songs, which seems to me to reveal not only something about the meanings of the songs but also about your own relationship to this particular music and perhaps to music in general. Please don't misunderstand; far from being critical, I admire your enthusiasm, very much aware that there is something here for me to learn.

I spent many minutes reading on the Internet the discussion about the word "Lied" in Grimms' 33 vol "Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. For me, "Lied" is a word that bridges the social gap between the individual - i.e. myself and the community in which I find myself. When I sing, "I" merges into and fuses with "we" in a manner monumental and unique. Since I play no musucal instrument, it is the only occasion when I feel myself part of a group.  When I was young, I sang a great deal, the folksongs - Volkslieder of my childhood, which my parents, my sister and I sang enthusiastically in the automobile as we drove to and home from the nearby forests, mountains and heaths. Almost as satisfying as singing in the shower!  There was a time when I knew by heart many of Schubert's songs, including most of die Winterreise and die schöne Müllerin, die Zauberflöte and die Matthäuspassion. My wife was sceptical about CD's.  She often said that rather than the electronic reproduction, she much preferred to hear me sing the familiar music.

All this is not the boasting of a wannabe Fischer-Dieskau, but an explanation of what I felt and thought as I listened to Richard Strauss' Vier letzte Lieder. They are astounding exhibitions of the soprano voice, but my poor semi-deaf ears could discern in them neither rhythm nor melody. I would have much difficulty memorizing, and I could never sing them. As I listened to the music, I also followed the text, asking what the text might tell me about the music, and/or what the music might tell me about the text.  But those are separate stories for which this letter has run out of space.  

Thank you again for the stimulating pointer!

Jochen