|
Guest
|
The Epic of Carl Heinrich Graun (1703/4-1759)
As the clouds of night were dispersed by light
and as Rosie fingered Dawn,
in a Saxon town, home to August Graun
(or in English, Awgust Grawn),
on this early morn was an infant born
of this tax collector's wife,
to augment the noise of her first two boys;
thus began Carl Heinrich's life.
From their early days it was clear their ways
followed music's guiding star;
even in the crib, like the Brothers Gibb,
you could tell that they'd go far.
If August the first was not the worst,
and the second, Johann, better,
it was number three who was meant to be
the musical go-getter.
He soon proved no fool at the music school
and became a skilled sight-reader;
in the music store he would force the door
and say "Take me to your Lieder."
When he'd found his voice he then made a choice:
not content with singing covers,
he composed motets and sublime duets
and wrote serenades for lovers.
Even in the womb he craved Elbe room,
always thirsting for a Spree.
"If I make it there, I'll get anywhere
in some Berlin coterie."
Seeking wealth and fame, out to make his name,
he would scale Euterpe's height;
with his fine hairdos and shinolaed shoes
he could outshine Samuel Scheidt.
He put up with dukes and with countly kooks
at the courts of Saxony,
but a margravine with some margarine
was good for badinerie.
He became hot stuff as an opera buff,
got a job with Fred the Great,
with a princely pay of 2,000K --
that was twice the going rate.
He did not desist as an operatist
even though he'd reached the top;
he worked even more, wrote them by the score,
with librettos all in Wop.
Did he leave the church in the so-called lurch?
No, he also wrote for God,
oratorios, one or two of those,
and of Jesu on his tod.
Midst this busy life, he could wield a knife,
teaching lessons to castrati.
Yet the family name never gained the fame
of a Bach or a Scarlatti.
It may seem a waste, but with changing taste
some can lose their old renown;
reputations fade, works are never played.
Let's remember C. H. Graun.
James Hogg
from an original idea by Roland Hutchinson
with additional material from Grove
Music by Norma Dessun |
|
|
