The Knight and the Maiden

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 782, 16 July 1954, Page 21

The Knight and the Maiden

"HE MAGELONE ROMANCES, a song-cycle in 15 parts, is the only major work for solo voice that Brahms wrote and ranks among his finest creations, It will be sung in English by Winston Sharp (baritone), of Christchurch, accompanied by Ernest Jenner at the piano, in a series of three programmes to be heard shortly from YC and YZ stations. The first broadcast will be from 3YC at 7.38 p.m. on Tuesday, July 20. The song-cycle is based on the Magelone of Ludwig Tieck, a contemporary of Goethe. Brahms first read this legendary tale when a small boy at Winsen, under the title of The Beautiful Magelone and the Knight Peter. The songs themselves were written over a long period, from 1861 to 1869, and Brahms dedicated the work to his friend Julius Stockhausen. It is numbered Opus 33 and comes into the beginning of his third or major period as a composer, between the composition of the Requiem and his resignation from his last permanent post as conductor of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, in the spring of 1875. The songs have been said to stand entirely by themselves in the history of songwriting. The story tells of the knight Pierre and his love for the fair Magelone. The first song is by a minstrel, who tells of the chivalrous deeds and gallant treatment of fair ladies which are a knight’s stock-in-trade. The tale continues with a description of the knight Pierre setting out on his journey with the cry, "Ho! Broadsword and spear are meet for the foe!" He meets the beautiful Magelone, ‘falls in love, and after: a while elopes with her. Soon afterwards they are separated, and before their final reunion Pierre twice finds himself. alone at sea in an open boat. The first voyage is stormy, and he arrives at the court of a Sultan whose daughter Sulima exercises her charms upon him. In the second voyage he encounters fair weather and is at last borne safely back to his Magelone. The broadcasts will be repeated in August and September from the other YC. stations and the YZ stations.