I first had the opportunity to sing Franz Schubert’s lovely “Litanei auf das Fest Aller Seelen” (Litany for the Feast of All Souls) in a concert with a Hallowe’en theme. Weird, huh? Well, actually not. I’m going to take a little time here to explain this Roman Catholic holiday, an occasion that’s not at all well known today. There are actually three holidays in a row right at the beginning of winter: Halloween, or “All Hallows’ Eve,” “All Hallows’ (or “All Saints'”) Day,” Nov. 1, and then “All Souls’ Day,” Nov. 2. These three days together form “Hallowmas Season.” I’d encourage you to follow the link above to my other article if you want more information. Basically, though, what it boils down to is that the Roman Catholic church, and to some extent other denominations, took advantage of existing traditions in pagan cultures and put a Christianized spin on them. As winter approached it was natural to think of the death of loved ones as the year itself was dying. The saints (those who, according to RC doctrine, were especially holy) got their day first on Nov. 1, and then everyone else (“all souls”) came in on Nov. 2.
The text that Schubert used is a poem by a rather minor Germany literary figure, Johann George Jacobi, who died in 1814. During his lifetime he was derided as being a poet who appealed mostly to women. Heavens! What an insult! But he also started a literary magazine that more famous writers, among them Goethe, were quite willing to contribute to even as they looked down their noses at its publisher. The book of poems that included “Litanei” was published in 1816, and someone suggested to Schubert that the verses would work well in a song setting.
The original poem has nine verses, with the first, generalized verse repeating at the ninth. No one sings all nine of them, though. Schubert himself didn’t actually specify which verses he preferred; the earliest performances used verses one, three and six, for no particular reason that I can find. The great German lyric baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, famous for his Schubert performances, felt that only two verses should be sung.
In the interests of thoroughness, here is a summary of the poem as a whole:
1. Rest in peace all souls, with your sweet dreams and your anxious torments ended, whether you lived to old age or died very young.
2. Rest in peace, all those who never found a friend, whose desire for companionship was never understood.
3. Rest in peace, all maiden souls whose tears cannot be counted, who were abandoned by a faithless friend and cast out by the world.
4. Rest in peace, young bridegroom whose bride lovingly laid him in the grave and who now comes secretly to visit him, bringing a candle.
5. Rest in peace, all those who have stood and fought for the truth and become martyrs, even though they did not seek any glory in their deaths.
6. Rest in peace, all those who denied themselves any earthly comfort, lying on thorns at night and denying themselves any sight of the sun, so that they might see God in Heaven. (This verse would seem to describe some type of ascetic or hermit, who denied him- or herself even a glimpse of the sun and who slept on thorns instead of a bed.)
7. Rest in peace, all those who sought pleasure in life’s rose garden and its cup of delight but then saw it turn to bitterness.
8. Rest in peace, all those who knew no peace but instead were sent into battle in a darkening world.
9. Verse one repeats.
Because of copyright restrictions, I am unable to include a full translation. If you’d like to access that material, follow this link to a great online resource called The LiederNet Archive: “Ruhn in Frieden alle Seelen.”
And here are a couple of lovely performances. First, one by Fischer-Dieskau, in which he does, indeed, perform only two of the verses, #1 and #6. Also note the date on which the video was posted:
And a lovely choral version:
© Debi Simons
