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Bilingual Bedtime/German songs
ErzählliedStory song

Schneeflöckchen, Weißröckchen.

Schneeflöckchen vom Himmel

The melody of Schneeflöckchen, Weißröckchen on a staff, as engraved in the book
Historische Fassung · Historical version
Download the tune

The melody as written on the staff, so you can learn the tune before you sing.

Verse 1

  1. Schneeflöckchen vom Himmelshnay-flerk-khuhn fom him-muhlLittle snowflake from the sky
  2. Da kommst Du geschneit,dah komst doo guh-shnait,there you come snowing down,
  3. Du warst in der Wolke,doo vahrst in dair vol-kuh,you were up in the cloud,
  4. Dein Weg ist gar weit;dain vayk ist gahr vait;your way is very long;

Verse 2

  1. Ach setz' dich ans Fenster,ahkh zehts dikh ahns fehn-ster,Oh, sit yourself down at the window,
  2. Du niedlicher Stern,doo need-likh-er shtehrn,you dainty little star,
  3. Gibst Blätter und Blumen,gipst bleht-ter oont bloo-muhn,you give leaves and flowers,
  4. Wir sehen dich gern!veer zay-uhn dikh gehrn!we love to see you!

Verse 3

  1. Schneeflöckchen, ach deckeshnay-flerk-khuhn, ahkh deh-kuhLittle snowflake, oh cover
  2. Die Saaten geschwind,dee zah-tuhn guh-shvint,the sown fields quickly,
  3. Sie frieren, du wärmst sie,zee free-ruhn, doo vehrmst zee,they are freezing, you warm them,
  4. So bittet das Kind.zoh bit-tuht dahs kint.so the child asks.

Verse 4

  1. Schneeflöckchen, Weißröckchen,shnay-flerk-khuhn, vais-rerk-khuhn,Little snowflake, little white coat,
  2. So kommet doch all',zoh kom-muht dokh ahl,do come, all of you,
  3. Dann wird bald ein Schneemann,dahn virt bahlt ain shnay-mahn,then there will soon be a snowman,
  4. Dann werf ich den Ball.dahn vehrf ikh dayn bahl.then I will throw the ball.

About this song

Hedwig Haberkern, a Breslau writer for young children, wrote this in 1869 for her story of the snow cloud. Her opening is Schneeflöckchen vom Himmel; families today sing Schneeflöckchen, Weißröckchen. Weißröckchen is her Silesian word for a snowflake, its little white coat, saved for her last verse.

Where it comes from

The words: Hedwig Haberkern geb. Stenzel, Tante Hedwigs Geschichten für kleine Kinder. Ein Buch für erzählende Mütter, Kindergärtnerinnen und kleine Leser, Dritte vermehrte Auflage (Verlag von Priebatsch's Buchhandlung, Breslau, [1910]), 'Geschichte von der Schneewolke', S. 13.

The tune: Haberkern's own page engraves no staff: under the last stanza it prints only the direction '(Melodie: Wir Kinder, wir haben der Freuden so viel.)', Overbeck's poem of 1777, which is not the tune anyone sings today. The tune written out here is therefore taken from the <score> block in the Melodie section of the de.wikipedia article 'Schneeflöckchen, Weißröckchen', fetched as wikitext through the API: C major, 3/4, an upbeat of two eighths and eight bars, 26 notes of which four are slurred two-note pairs, so 22 syllables. Cross-checked by measurement, not by eye, against the sheet de.wikipedia links for this song, the engraving at liederprojekt.org of Carus-Verlag and SWR2 (Notenbilder_2019/PNG_8c_1200px/30282.png), which is the same tune in D major over two systems. The five staff lines and every notehead in that PNG were located by pixel row, so each note could be named off the staff: brought to the same tonic the two agree on all 26 notes in order, on all four slurred pairs, on both interior half notes and on the closing half, and liederprojekt breaks its system in the same place, between 'ge' and 'schneit'. The reference's own C major is kept, since C is the bottom of the book's C to G range; range c' to c'', one octave. A third candidate was parsed and rejected: the MIDI at ingeb.org/Lieder/schneefl.mid carries a different tune under the variant words 'Schneeflöcklein, Weißröcklein, jetzt kommst du geschneit', and de.wikipedia records that this song went to several melodies before 1945. Haberkern's verse 1 scans 6-5-6-5, exactly like the modern words the tune was printed with, so it sits on the staff unchanged

From the book

Bilingual Bedtime

Thirty-Seven German Songs for Children

Buy paperbackBuy KindleBuy hardcoverAbout this edition
Winter, adeAll 37 songsEs war eine Mutter
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