Am Waldessaume, Op. 20, No. 1

Cyrill Kistler’s Am Waldessaume is a German secular part-song for SATB choir. The music opens with gentle, imitative vocal lines, painting a scene of peaceful repose beneath an old oak tree. The first stanza’s text speaks of a dreamer listening to birdsong and recalling sweet memories of love and spring, a mood that gently permeates the opening. The composer uses the interplay of the four voices to evoke a sense of wistful reminiscence and burgeoning longing. The music swells subtly as the text progresses to memories of childhood tales and a growing, yet unacknowledged, yearning, leading to an emotional climax of 'hot tears'.