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Bilingual Bedtime/German songs
ErzählliedStory song

Winter, ade.

The melody of Winter, ade on a staff, as engraved in the book
Download the tune

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

Verse 1

  1. Winter, ade!vin-ter, ah-day!Winter, farewell!
  2. Scheiden tut weh.shai-duhn toot vay.Parting hurts.
  3. Aber dein Scheiden macht,ah-ber dain shai-duhn mahkht,But your parting makes it so
  4. dass jetzt mein Herze lacht.dahs yehtst main hehr-tsuh lahkht.that now my heart is laughing.
  5. Winter, ade!vin-ter, ah-day!Winter, farewell!
  6. Scheiden tut weh.shai-duhn toot vay.Parting hurts.

Verse 2

  1. Winter, ade!vin-ter, ah-day!Winter, farewell!
  2. Scheiden tut weh.shai-duhn toot vay.Parting hurts.
  3. Gerne vergess' ich dein,gehr-nuh fer-gehs ikh dain,Gladly I forget you,
  4. kannst immer ferne sein.kahnst im-mer fehr-nuh zain.you can stay far away for good.
  5. Winter, ade!vin-ter, ah-day!Winter, farewell!
  6. Scheiden tut weh.shai-duhn toot vay.Parting hurts.

Verse 3

  1. Winter, ade!vin-ter, ah-day!Winter, farewell!
  2. Scheiden tut weh.shai-duhn toot vay.Parting hurts.
  3. Gehst du nicht bald nach Haus,gayst doo nikht bahlt nahkh hows,If you do not go home soon,
  4. lacht dich der Kuckuck aus.lahkht dikh dair koo-kook ows.the cuckoo will laugh at you.
  5. Winter, ade!vin-ter, ah-day!Winter, farewell!
  6. Scheiden tut weh.shai-duhn toot vay.Parting hurts.

About this song

Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote the words in 1835 and printed all three verses in 1843 over a Thuringian folk tune once sung near Würzburg as Schätzchen, ade. It is a song for waving the winter off. Ade is the old German goodbye, from the French adieu, and the cuckoo of verse 3 is the bird that means spring has won.

Where it comes from

The words: Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Fünfzig Kinderlieder, Nach Original- und bekannten Weisen mit Clavierbegleitung von Ernst Richter (Haendcke und Lehmkuhl, Hamburg, 1884), Nr. 32 Winters Abschied, S. 36.

The tune: The source print engraves the tune over the words, so the reference is the source's own staff: Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Fünfzig Kinderlieder, Nr. 32 Winters Abschied, S. 36, headed Mäßig bewegt and Thüringische Volksweise, in the 1884 Haendcke und Lehmkuhl printing with Ernst Richter's keyboard setting. G major, 3/4, twelve bars, range G4 to D5, key kept as printed. Cross-checked note for note against two further readings, both agreeing: the same plate in the first edition to carry the melody, Hoffmann von Fallersleben and Ernst Richter, Funfzig Kinderlieder (Mayer u. Wigand, Leipzig 1843), Nr. 32, S. 36, scanned by the MDZ as bsb11138608 image 42 and printed far more cleanly; and the score block in the Melodie section of the de.wikipedia article Winter, ade! Scheiden tut weh, which sets the same twelve bars in 3/8 with the values halved. The two beamed pairs are the print's own melismas, on den in line 3 and ze in line 4, so 30 notes carry 28 sung syllables

From the book

Bilingual Bedtime

Thirty-Seven German Songs for Children

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