VWV 36 · Solo Vocal · 2026 ·
The Lamp I Kept for You
Intermezzo — Cycle: Das Verlöschen VI
Choc de Classica · Classica- Catalogue
- VWV 36
- Key
- A-flat major
- Form
- Intermezzo
- Scoring
- Baritone & piano
- Composed
- 2026
- Duration
- 6:15
First performed Wigmore Hall, London · 14 November 2026 — Nikolai Voss, baritone · Clara Henningsen, piano
Commissioned by Wigmore Hall
To all who keep a light burning
The interior heart of the cycle, and its one warm flat-side oasis. In the manner of late Brahms — autumnal, harmonically saturated — the singer pauses to remember a lamp once lit for someone now gone. The lamp motif appears here in full inversion, the flame turned downward into memory; it is the structural hinge of the whole work, the moment the cycle stops describing loss and begins to enact it.
From Das Verlöschen · NV-014
On the cycle's thematic unity: The Lamp Motif →
Performance materials +
- Forces
- Baritone & piano
- Tessitura
- Baritone (G2–F4); soprano (C4–B5) where indicated
- Materials
- Voice & piano score
- Availability
- On sale · Voss Editions
- Grade
- Intermediate–Advanced — recital
- ISMN
- 979-0-706036-252-1
Text
Reading view →Das Verlöschen, No. 6 · Sung in German
Text by Nikolai Voss
Im Fenster stand für dich ein Licht,
die ganzen langen Jahre.
Du kamst nicht heim. Ich sah es nicht
verlöschen, Haar um Haare.
A light stood in the window once for you,
through all the long years gone.
You never came. I did not see it through —
it guttered on and on.
Nun kehr' die Flamme sich nach innen,
ein Licht, das niemand sieht.
Es brennt für ein Erinnern,
das langsam mit ihm flieht.
Now the flame turns inward, low and small,
a light that no one sees.
It burns for a remembering, that's all —
and fades by slow degrees.
