Carl Ernesti
Little is known today about Carl Ernesti beyond the fact that he played as a horn player in the Munich Court Orchestra from 1840 to 1873. He studied with Sebastian Rauch, who served as principal horn of the Munich Court Orchestra until 1828; in 1815 Carl Maria von Weber revised his Concertino for horn for him.
Ernesti's 1849 setting of the poem "Des deutschen Schiffers Heimath" ("The German Sailor's Home") by the Dessau poet Gustav Rasmus was not the first: more than ten years earlier, in 1837, the Dresden music publisher C. F. Meser had issued the "Vier Gesänge" ("Four Songs") op. 30 by Carl Gottlieb Reißiger (1798–1859). Scored for soprano, horn and piano, this print likewise sets Rasmus's text as No. 2.
It may be assumed that Ernesti knew this print: according to its title, he scored his own composition for tenor and gave it a slightly altered title, "Des deutschen Schiffers Heimweh" ("The German Sailor's Homesickness"). In the part designation, however, he names the vocal part simply "Singstimme" (voice).
Des deutschen Schiffers Heimweh for Voice (Tenor), Horn and Piano
This work is published here for the first time.
Vocal range = f' – g''
Des deutschen Schiffers Heimweh
The clouds drift by so quietly
in the friendly sunbeam,
ah, could I but sail with them
to my native valley –
Far off, by the blue waters,
a green shore beckons yonder,
with mighty, dark-leaved oaks —
that is my fatherland.
There ring out vigorous songs
from free and joyful hearts,
there the singers' strings resound,
alive with the joy of song.
What stirs within my breast?
Why is my heart so heavy?
Ah, that upon that distant shore
I were in my German homeland!
