VIENNA BOYS CHOIR Wiener Sängerknaben

Program Notes – page 13
Contemporary Vienna
Der Traum der Armen (The Dream of the Poor) (2001)
Bernhard Philipp Eder (b. 1984)
Text: Karl Simrock (1802 – 1876), after Ulrich von Liechtenstein (1200 – 1275)
Bernhard Philipp Eder was born in Vienna. He discovered his passion for music early on; he studied
piano as a child and attended Vienna's Musikgymnasium. Eder was determined to become a composer;
he took private lessons, and enrolled in the Vienna Conservatory. In 2005, Eder started studying at
Vienna's University for Music;; in 2006, he received first prize at the competition “Salieri today”.
Ulrich von Liechtenstein (1200 – 1275) was a medieval minnesinger and a powerful politician. His
family took its name from their castle near Judenburg in Styria; there is no connection to the
principality of Liechtenstein. His political positions include that of steward or seneschal and later of
marshal and judge of Styria. Ulrich, who owned three castles, wrote a collection of poems called
Frauendienst (Service of the Lady), in which a knight performs great deeds for – married –
noblewomen, relations strictly Platonic in keeping with medieval court rules. The hero, who is called
Ulrich, travels from Venice to Vienna dressed of all possible guises as Venus. Venus competes in
jousts; he breaks 307 lances and defeats all challengers. The Lady however, is not impressed; she asks
for more deeds and even requests a mutilation. Ulrich goes on another quest, this time dressed as King
Arthur. In Brian Helgeland's 2001 movie, A Knight's Tale, the main character, William Thatcher,
played by Heath Ledger, adopts the name of Ulrich von Liechtenstein.
Bernhard Eder uses the first three verses of Karl Simrock's 19th century adaptation of the medieval
text; Ulrich's original has five verses. The poem celebrates the ideal of minne, courtly love, perhaps
not so ideal, as the singer will never “get the girl”. He has to be content with her greeting, from afar.
Text:
In dem Walde süsse Töne
Singen kleine Vögelein;
An der Haide blühen schöne
Blumen in des Maien Schein.
Also blüht mein hoher Mut
Wenn er denkt an ihre Güte,
Die mir reich macht mein Gemüte
Wie der Traum den Armen tut.
Hoffnung hat auf hohe Dinge
Die Erwartung mir gestellt,
Dass mir noch an ihr gelinge,
Süsses Los mir einst noch fällt.
Der Erwartung freu ich mich:
Gebe Gott, dass ichs beende,
Dass sie mir den Wahn nicht wende,
Der mich freut so inniglich.
Program Notes continued on the next page