Es fiel ein Reif in [der]1 Frühlingsnacht 
wohl über die [schöne]2 [Blaublümelein]3,
sie sind verwelket, verdorret.

Ein Knabe hatt' ein Mägdlein lieb, 
sie liefen heimlich von Hause fort,
es wußt's nicht Vater, noch Mutter.

Sie liefen weit [ins fremde Land]4,
sie hatten weder Glück, noch Stern,
sie sind verdorben, gestorben.

Auf ihrem Grab Blaublümlein blühn,
Umschlingen sich treu, wie sie im Grab,
Der Reif sie nicht welket, nicht [dörret]5.

A. Knab sets stanzas 1-3
W. Petersen sets stanzas 1-3 in (at least) one setting - see below for more information
W. Petersen sets stanzas 1-3 in (at least) one setting - see below for more information

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See also Backer-Grøndahl's song, which uses some of this text.

¹ omitted by Knab, Petersen, Rheinberger.
² Rheinberger: "schönen"
³ Petersen, Knab: "Blümelein"
⁴ Knab: "von Hause fort"
⁵ Rheinberger: "dorret"

Text Authorship:

• from Volkslieder (Folksongs) , "Blaublümelein", collected by Arnim and Brentano [author's text not yet checked 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 Franz Magnus Böhme (1827 - 1898), "Kein Glück noch Stern", published 1885 [ men's chorus a cappella ], from Alte Lieder aus Volksmund für Männerchor gesetzt, no. 6, Mainz, Schott [sung text not yet checked]
• by Rubin Goldmark (1872 - 1936), "Blaublümelein", op. 2 (Sechs Lieder für 1 tiefe Singstimme mit Pianoforte) no. 1, published 1900 [ low voice and piano ], Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel [sung text not yet checked]
• by Armin Knab (1881 - 1951), "Es fiel ein Reif", 1905, published 1921, stanzas 1-3 [ voice and lute ], from Wunderhorn-Lieder, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Robert Konta (1880 - 1953), "Der Reif" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Mathieu Neumann (1867 - 1928), "Es fiel ein Reif in der Frühlingsnacht", op. 79 no. 1, published 1906-1913 [ men's chorus a cappella ], from Deutsche Volkslieder für Männerchor, no. 1, Leipzig, Kahnt Nachfolger [sung text not yet checked]
• by Wilhelm Petersen (1890 - 1957), "Es fiel ein Reif", op. 12b (Fünf Lieder aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn) no. 3, stanzas 1-3 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Wilhelm Petersen (1890 - 1957), "Es fiel ein Reif", op. 12a (Fünf Lieder aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn (frühe Fassung)) no. 4, stanzas 1-3 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Joseph (Gabriel) Rheinberger (1839 - 1901), "Volkslied", op. 4 (Fünf Lieder) no. 2 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Johan August Söderman (1832 - 1876), "Es fiel ein Reif in der Frühlingsnacht", published 1875, from Tre tyska visor i folkton = Drei deutsche Lieder im Volkston, no. 3, also set in Swedish (Svenska) [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in Czech (Čeština), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Bohuslav Martinů.
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• Also set in English, a translation by Henry Grafton Chapman (1860 - 1913) ; composed by Willem Willeke.
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• Also set in French (Français), a translation by Léon Valade (1841 - 1884) , no title, appears in Nocturnes, in Tragédie, no. 2, first published 1880 ; composed by Claude Achille Debussy.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856) , no title, appears in Neue Gedichte, in Verschiedene, in Tragödie, no. 2 [an adaptation] ; composed by Carl Banck, Heinrich Bellermann, Johann Hermann Berens, Heinrich Böie, Wilhelm Brauer, Reiner Bredemeyer, August Bungert, Ferruccio Busoni, Georgy Aleksandrovich Demidov, Felix Dreyschock, Gustav Eggers, Johann Wolfgang von Ehrenstein, Karl Heinrich Alfred Ehrlich, R. Fr. Engel, Gisbert Enzian, Richard Farber, Zdenko Antonín Václav Fibich, Gustav Flügel, Don Forsythe, Felix Gotthelf, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Albert Hartl, Hans Hermann, Julius Hey, Ferdinand von Hiller, Richard Hol, Otto R. Hübner, Ferdinand Hummel, Martin Jacobi, Peter Janssens, Louis Edgar Johns, Siegfried Garibaldi Kallenberg, Bruno Oscar Klein, Carl Krill, Friedrich Wilhelm Kücken, O. H. Lange, Johann Lewalter, Ernst Löwenberg, Gustav Mahler, Felix Mendelssohn, Julius Möllendorf, Tsuguji Murai, Carl Ernst Daniel Nicolai, Otto Ehrenfried Nicolai, Aleksandr Alekseyevich Olenin, Thorvald Otterström, Josef Overath, Rudolf Philipp, Guido Ranach, Ture Rangström, Karl Rankl, Franz Ries, Eduard Rohde, Alfred Rose, Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein, Louis Samson, Julius Schäffer, Ernst Schauss, Heinrich Schulz-Beuthen, Clara Schumann, née Wieck, Robert Schumann, Friedrich Siebmann, Johan August Söderman, Ernst Sperling, as Ernst Streben, Max Spicker, Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir, Julius Steenberg, Joseph Suder, Alfred Tofft, Václav Jan Křtitel Tomášek, Friedrich Hieronymus Truhn, Dmitry Andreyevich Usatov, Frank Valentin Van der Stucken, Max Wilhelm Karl Vogrich, Bruno Walter, Severin Warteresiewicz, Willem Willeke, Alexander Winterberger, Ernest Young.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), [adaptation] ; composed by Oskar Ulmer.
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• Also set in Japanese (日本語), a translation by Chuya Nakahara (1907 - 1937) ; composed by Tsuguji Murai.
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• Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by A. Vessel.
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• Also set in Swedish (Svenska), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Johan August Söderman.
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• Also set in Swedish (Svenska), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Johan August Söderman.
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Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 77

A frost descended in [the springtime]1 night,
It fell upon the lovely little [blue flowers]2,
They wilted, they withered.

A lad loved a maiden;
They fled secretly from their home,
Neither father nor mother knew it.

They ran far [into a foreign land]3,
They had neither good fortune nor a guiding star,
They perished, they died.

Upon their grave grow little blue flowers
That embrace each other faithfully, as do the two in the grave,
The frost does not wilt them, does not wither them.