Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty

Poet

Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty

1748 - 1776

Ludwig Heinrich Christoph Hölty, was German poet who is considered the most gifted lyric poet of the Göttinger Hain, a group of young poets who saw themselves as heirs of the great lyric poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and whose work was characterized by love of nature and the expression of national feeling.

He was influenced by Johann Uz and Friedrich Klopstock, but his love for the Volkslied and his delight in nature preserved him from the artificiality of Uz and the unworldliness of Klopstock. A strain of melancholy runs through all his lyrics. His ballads are the pioneers of the rich ballad literature on English models, which sprang up in Germany over the next few years.

To many, the opening lines of Hölty's poem Der alte Landmann an seinen Sohn ("he Old Farmer to His Son) are the very embodiment of all Prussian virtues. This poem was set to music by Mozart to a melody adapted from the aria Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen from his 1791 opera The Magic Flute. It was played daily by the carillon of the Potsdam Garrison Church where Frederick the Great was initially buried.

Many of Hölty's poems were set to music by composers including Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahms. Several streets and schools in Germany are named after him, including the Hölty-Gymnasium in Wunstorf near Hanover; in 2008, the biennial poetry prize Hölty-Preis was created in his name.

Among the many poems set by Schubert are An den Mond (D193 and D468),  An die Nachtigall (D196), Blumenlied (D431), Frühlingslied (D243 and D398), Klage (D436), Mailied (D129, D199 and D202), Minnelied (D429), Die Nonne (D208), Seligkeit (D433), Totengräberlied (D38 and D44) and Winterlied (D401).

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Song List

This list is likely to be of songs that have been performed at Oxford International Song Festivals and Oxford Song events, and may not be comprehensive of this composer's compositions. This database is ever growing as a work in progress, with further songs regularly being added.

An den Mond D193 Franz Schubert
An den Mond (1816) D468 Franz Schubert
An die Apfelbäume, wo ich Julien erblickte (1815) D197 Franz Schubert
An die Nachtigall (1868) Op. 46 no.4 Johannes Brahms
An die Nachtigall (1815) D196 Franz Schubert
Andres Maienlied 'Hexenlied' (1828) Op. 8 no.8 Felix Mendelssohn
Auf den Tod einer Nachtigall (1816) D399 Franz Schubert
Auf den Tod einer Nachtigall (1815) D201 Franz Schubert
Blumenlied (1816) D431 Franz Schubert
Das Traumbild (1787) K530 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Der Liebende (1815) D207 Franz Schubert
Die Knabenzeit (1816) D400 Franz Schubert
Die Mainacht (1868) Op. 43 no.2 Johannes Brahms
Die Mainacht Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel
Erntelied (1816) D434 Franz Schubert
Frühlingslied (1816) D398 Franz Schubert
Klage an den Mond (1816) D436 Franz Schubert
Minnelied (1816) D429 Franz Schubert
Minnelied (1877) Op. 71 no.5 Johannes Brahms
Seligkeit (1816) D433 Franz Schubert
Seligkeit (trans. for guitar by Bernardo Rambeaud) (1816) D433 Franz Schubert
Winterlied (1816) D401 Franz Schubert

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