The Longing

This work is based on two of Mignon’s songs from Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister. It was devised as a sister work to Franz Schubert’s celebrated lyrical scene Der Hirt auf dem Felsen [The Shepherd on the Rock] of 1829 and can be included in concert programmes performed by the same ensemble of soprano, clarinet and piano. Substantial quotations from Beethoven’s song Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt establish a stylistic link with Viennese Classicism. We feel Mignon’s unquenchable longing for another world nach jener Seite [to the other side] beyond death, while in the second song So laßt mich scheinen [Thus let me seem], the longing for death is coloured with details from another, lovelier life.