Der Ritter und die Magd
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
.png)
"Der Ritter und die Magd" (The Knight and the Maid) is a traditional German folk song. It was included by Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim in their 1806 collection of German folk songs and poems, Des Knaben Wunderhorn.[2] As its possible source, both editors used a German broadside printed before 1790.[3] Another version of the song, published in Die deutschen Volkslieder mit ihren Singweisen (1843) was recorded from an oral source near Cottbus.[1]
A knight "plays" with his maid and makes her pregnant. He offers her five hundred thaler and to give her in marriage to his servant, but she refuses and returns to her mother in Augsburg. The mother suggests to throw the child into the river. The young woman, however, decides to keep the child, and anticipates her own death. The knight sees in a dream that his maid has died in childbirth. He wakes up and orders his servant to saddle two horses. Near Augsburg they meet four men bearing a dead woman, and the knight recognizes her. He asks his servant to bury him with her and kills himself with his sword. The maid gets buried in the church yard, the knight however below the gallows. Three months later a lily grew from his grave, and on its leaves was inscribed that they both were together in heaven.
Melody
![\header { tagline = ##f }
\layout { indent = 0 \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \context { \Score \remove "Bar_number_engraver" } }
global = { \key bes \major \time 2/4 \partial 8 }
tenorVoice = \relative c { \global \autoBeamOff \tempo 4 = 96 \set Staff.midiInstrument = "vibraphone"
f8 | bes f d16 d f8 | bes bes bes
d | c a bes g | g ([f]) \tempo 4 = 36 f\fermata \tempo 4 = 96
f16 f | g8 g16 g g8 g16 g | f8 f f\breathe
f | bes bes c c | f,4 bes8 \bar "|."
}
verse = \lyricmode {
Es spielt ein Rit -- ter mit ei -- ner Magd,
bis an den hel -- len Mor -- gen.
vi -- de -- ri, vi -- de -- ra, vi -- de -- ral -- la la!
bis an den hel -- len Mor -- gen.
}
\score {
\new Staff
{ \clef "treble_8" \tenorVoice }
\addlyrics { \verse }
\layout { }
\midi { }
}](http://upload.wikimedia.org/score/4/o/4oqx1jo6pcpe3iuk5f9mmizq7em97gf/4oqx1jo6.png)