• low voice & piano
• Year of Composition: 1848
• Composer: Johanna Kinkel (1810 - 1858)
• 979-0-708209-28-7

New 2025 updated and revised 2nd edition with an improved layout and revamped translations by Rosalind Trübger, enabling the songs to be performed with the original German text or sung in English. For the English settings, Rosalind worked carefully to maintain the original meter, meaning and rhyming patterns.

The life story of Johanna Kinkel has a strong resonance with women of today. She was a working mother who, in her short life, was effected by sexual inequality, domestic abuse and an undemocratic regime. She wrote books and composed music, and earned a living as a piano and singing teacher. Her writings reveal that she faced all the same problems as music teachers of today !

Rosalind's note: As well as composing the music to all the songs, Johanna Kinkel also wrote the words for the third song 'Liebesmacht' (The power of Love). Three of the other poems are by her husband, Gottfried Kinkel.

audio SAMPLES: click to open in Soundcloud

Johanna Kinkel (also Mathieux, Mockel) made her mark in the worlds of both music and literature and her life makes a fascinating story, holding a strong resonance with the women of today. She was a working mother who, in her short life, was effected by sexual inequality, domestic abuse and an undemocratic regime. She wrote books and composed music, and earned a living as a piano and singing teacher. Her writings reveal that she faced all the same problems as music teachers of today ! Born in Bonn (Germany) she studied music there with Beethoven’s early teacher. As an adult, she spent time in Berlin, where she was a friend of Fanny Mendelssohn, before returning to Bonn and getting caught up in the revolutionary events of 1849, eventually helping her husband, Gottfried Kinkel, to escape from Spandau prison, before emigrating with him and their four children to London. There her short life ended tragically when she fell (or was pushed?) from her bedroom window in near Paddington station.