Resounding Verse

Author: Stephen Rodgers

Join music theorist Stephen Rodgers as he explores how composers transform words into songs. Each episode discusses one poem and one musical setting of it. The music is diversecovering a variety of styles and time periods, and focusing on composers from underrepresented groupsand the tone is accessible and personal. If you love poetry and song, no matter your background and expertise, this show is for you. Episodes are 20-40 minutes long and air every couple of months. 
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Genres: Arts, Books, Music, Music Commentary

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Die frühen Gräber (The Early Graves): Friedrich Klopstock and Fanny Hensel
Episode 10
Wednesday, 11 November, 2026

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock’s “Die frühen Gräber” reflects on the sorrow of losing those who have died too soon. In Fanny Hensel’s haunting setting, that grief is present from the song’s very first measures, long before the poem names its “early graves.”The episode features a performance of the song by soprano Christina Högman and pianist Roland Pöntinen, from an album released by BIS Records.For more on Fanny Hensel's songwriting style, including a discussion of this song, see my article "Fanny Hensel's Lied Aesthetic," Journal of Musicological Research (2011).Die frühen GräberFriedrich Gottlieb KlopstockWillkommen, o silberner Mond,Schöner, stiller Gefährt’ der Nacht!Du entfliehst? Eile nicht, bleib, Gedankenfreund!Sehet, er bleibt, das Gewölk wallte nur hin. Des Maies Erwachen ist nurSchöner noch, wie die Sommernacht,Wenn ihm Tau, hell wie Licht, aus der Locke träuft,Und zu dem Hügel herauf rötlich er kömmt. Ihr Edleren, ach, es bewächstEure Male schon ernstes Moos!O, wie glücklich war ich, als ich einst mit euchSähe sich röten den Tag, schimmern die Nacht! The Early Graves Welcome, o silver moon,Beautiful, quiet companion of the night!You flee? Don’t hurry, stay, friend of thought!See, it stays; only the clouds were flowing away. The awakening of May is evenLovelier than the summer night,When dew, bright as light, drips from its locks,And it rises red behind the hill. You nobler beings, alas, your monumentsAre already overgrown with gloomy moss!O how happy I was, when I could once, with you,See the day redden and the night glimmer.