LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,158)
  • Text Authors (19,574)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,115)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)

Wie ergreift uns der Vogelschrei.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Wie ergreift uns der Vogelschrei....
Irgendein einmal erschaffenes Schreien.
Aber die Kinder schon, spielend im Freien,
schreien an veirklichen Schreien vorbei.

Schreien den Zufall. In Zwischenräume
dieses, des Weltraums, (in welchen der heile
Vogelschrei eingeht, wie Menschen in Träume —)
treiben sie ihre, des Kreischens, Keile.

Wehe, wo sind wir? Immer noch freier,
wie die losgerissenen Drachen
jagen wir halbhoch, mit Rändern von Lachen,

windig zerfetzten. — Ordne die Schreier,
singender Gott! dass sie rauschend erwachen,
tragend als Strömung das Haupt und die Leier.

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   H. Birtwistle 

H. Birtwistle sets line 12-13

About the headline (FAQ)

View text with all available footnotes

Confirmed with Rainer Maria Rilke, Die Sonette an Orpheus, Leipzig: Insel-Verlag, 1923


Text Authorship:

  • by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, appears in Die Sonette an Orpheus 2, no. 26 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Harrison Birtwistle, Sir (1934 - 2022), "Elegy 23, Sonnet II, 26", 2003-04, first performed 2004, line 12-13 [ oboe, harp and countertenor ], from Orpheus elegies, no. 21, Boosey & Hawkes [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Robert Edler (1912 - 1986), "Sonett 26 b (Sprecher, Solo und Chor)", op. 59 no. 14 [ tenor, speaker, chorus and orchestra ], from Sonette an Orpheus, no. 14 [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in English, a translation by Stephen Mitchell (b. 1943) , copyright © ; composed by Eric Moe.
    • Go to the text.
  • Also set in English, a translation by James Blair Leishman (1902 - 1963) , "How it thrills us" ; composed by Libby Larsen.
    • Go to the text.

Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2023-08-05
Line count: 14
Word count: 86

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris