Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser
"Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" was a personal anthem to Francis II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and later of the Austrian Empire, with lyrics by Lorenz Leopold Haschka and music by Joseph Haydn. It is sometimes called the "Kaiserhymne". Haydn's tune has since been widely employed in other contexts: in works of classical music, in Christian hymns, in alma maters, and as the tune of the "Deutschlandlied", the national anthem of Germany.
Words and music
The sound file given to the right uses the harmony Haydn employed for the string quartet version of his song, which he prepared later in 1797.\version "2.18.2"
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The lyrics are as follows:
Lange lebe Franz der Kaiser, in des Glückes hellstem Glanz!
Ihm erblühen Lorbeerreiser, wo er geht, zum Ehrenkranz!
Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, unsern guten Kaiser Franz!
Long live Francis the Emperor in the brightest splendor of bliss!
May laurel branches bloom for him, wherever he goes, as a wreath of honor.
God save Francis the Emperor, our good Emperor Francis!
History
The song was written when Austria was seriously threatened by Revolutionary France and patriotic sentiments ran high. The story of the song's genesis was narrated in 1847 by Anton Schmid, who was Custodian of the Austrian National Library in Vienna:Saurau himself later wrote:
I had a text fashioned by the worthy poet Haschka; and to have it set to music, I turned to our immortal compatriot Haydn, who, I felt, was the only man capable of creating something that could be placed at the side of... "God Save the King".
"Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" was first performed on the Emperor's birthday, 12 February 1797. It proved popular, and came to serve unofficially as Austria's first national anthem.
Composition
As elsewhere in Haydn's music, it has been conjectured that Haydn took part of his material from folk songs he knew. This hypothesis has never achieved unanimous agreement, the alternative being that Haydn's original tune was adapted by the people in various versions as folk songs. For discussion, see Haydn and folk music.One claimed folk source of "Gott erhalte" is a Croatian song, known in Međimurje and northern regions of Croatia under the name "Stal se jesem". The version below was collected by a field worker in the Croatian-speaking Austrian village of Schandorf.
Irrespective of the original source, Haydn's own compositional efforts went through multiple drafts, discussed by Rosemary Hughes in her biography of the composer. Hughes reproduces the draft fragment given below and writes: "His sketches, preserved in the Vienna National Library, show the self-denial and economy with which he struggled to achieve seemingly inevitable climax, pruning the earlier and more obviously interesting version of the fifth and sixth lines, which would have anticipated, and so lessened, its overwhelming effect."
The original version of the song included a single line for voice with a rather crude piano accompaniment, with no dynamic indications and what Jones calls "an unevenness of keyboard sonority". This version was printed in many copies and sent to theatres and opera houses across the Austrian territories with instructions for performance. The Vienna premiere took place in the Burgtheater on 12 February 1797, the day the song was officially released. The Emperor was present, attending a performance of Dittersdorf's opera Doktor und Apotheker and Joseph Weigl's ballet Alonzo und Cora. The occasion celebrated his 29th birthday.
Not long after, Haydn later wrote three additional versions of his song:
- He first wrote a version for orchestra, called "much more refined" by Jones.
- During 1797, Haydn was working on a commission for six string quartets from Count Joseph Erdödy. He conceived the idea of composing a slow movement for one of the quartets consisting of the Emperor's hymn as theme, followed by four variations, each involving the melody played by one member of the quartet. The finished quartet, now often called the "Emperor" quartet, was published as the third of the Opus 76 quartets, dedicated to Count Erdödy. It is perhaps Haydn's most famous work in this genre.
- The last version Haydn wrote was a piano reduction of the quartet movement, published by Artaria in 1799. The publisher printed it with the original cruder piano version of the theme, though a modern edition corrects this error.
Haydn's own view of the song
The Kayser Lied was still played three times a day, though, but on 26 May at half-past midday the Song was played for the last time and that 3 times over, with such expression and taste, well! that our good Papa was astonished about it himself and said he hadn't played the Song like that for a long time and was very pleased about it and felt well altogether till evening at 5 o'clock then our good Papa began to lament that he didn't feel well...
Elssler goes on to narrate the composer's final decline and death, which occurred on 31 May.
Later uses of the tune in classical music
Later composers in the Western classical canon have repeatedly quoted or otherwise employed Haydn's tune, as is demonstrated by the following chronological list. As the tune was widely known, the uses by other composers were heard as quotations and served as an emblem of Austria, of Austrian patriotism, or of the Austrian monarchy.- Ludwig van Beethoven quotes the last four bars in "Es ist vollbracht", WoO 97, the finale of Georg Friedrich Treitschke's singspiel Die Ehrenpforten. The work celebrates the end of the Napoleon Wars, essentially the same conflict that gave rise to Haydn's original hymn. It is seldom performed today.
- Franz Schubert used the tune in his Stabat Mater, although he revised this in future editions.
- Carl Czerny wrote Variations on "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" for piano and orchestra or piano and string quartet, his Op. 73
- Gioachino Rossini used the tune in his opera Il viaggio a Reims.
- Niccolò Paganini wrote a set of variations on this tune for violin and orchestra in 1828, under the title Maestosa Sonata Sentimentale
- Gaetano Donizetti used the tune in his opera Maria Stuarda, at act 3, scene 8, "Deh! Tu di un'umile preghiera..."
- Clara Schumann used the tune as the basis for her "Souvenir de Vienne", Op. 9 for solo piano.
- Bedřich Smetana used the tune in his Festive Symphony, which the composer intended to dedicate to the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria.
- Henryk Wieniawski wrote a set of variations on the tune for unaccompanied violin.
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky arranged the work for orchestra in 1874, apparently in connection with a visit to Russia by the Austrian Emperor. The arrangement was published only in 1970.
- Anton Bruckner wrote his Improvisationskizze Ischl 1890 to be played on the organ during the wedding of Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria.
- Béla Bartók employed the theme in his symphonic poem Kossuth ; in this patriotic work about the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1848 the theme serves as an emblem for the Austrian enemy.
Use in national anthems, alma maters, and hymns
Austria-Hungary
After the death of Francis in 1835, the tune was given new lyrics that praised his successor, Ferdinand: "Segen Öst'reichs hohem Sohne / Unserm Kaiser Ferdinand!". After Ferdinand's abdication in 1848, the original lyrics were used again because his successor was also named Francis. However, in 1854, yet again new lyrics were selected: "Gott erhalte, Gott beschütze / Unsern Kaiser, unser Land!".There were versions of the hymn in several languages of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
At the end of the First World War in 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was abolished and divided into multiple states, one of them being the residual state of Austria, which was a republic and had no emperor. The tune ceased to be used for official purposes. When the last Emperor, Charles I, died in 1922, monarchists created an original stanza for his son Otto von Habsburg. Since the emperor was in fact never restored, this version never attained official standing.
The hymn was revived in 1929 with completely new lyrics, known as Sei gesegnet ohne Ende, which remained the national anthem of Austria until the Anschluss. The first stanza of the hymn's 1854 version was sung in 1989 during the funeral of Empress Zita of Austria and again in 2011 during the funeral of her son Otto von Habsburg.
Germany
Long after Haydn's death, his melody was used as the tune for Hoffmann von Fallersleben's poem "Das Lied der Deutschen". The third stanza, sung to the melody, is the national anthem of Germany, the "Deutschlandlied".Hymns
In the ordinary nomenclature of hymn tunes, the melody of "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" is classified as 87.87D trochaic metre. When employed in a hymn it is sometimes known as Austria. It has been paired with various lyrics.- Lyrics by John Newton which begin "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken/Zion, city of our God." See Olney Hymns, and ,
- Praise the Lord! O Heav'ns adore Him.
- The Catholic hymn Tantum Ergo used at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
- Lyrics by Samuel Longfellow which begin "Light of ages and of nations"
- Afrikaners Landgenote
School hymns
- Adrian College
- College of Charleston
- Columbia University, "Stand Columbia"
- Illinois State University
- University of Pittsburgh
- The University of the South, "God of light, whose face beholding..."
- Manhattan College
- Fishburne Military School, "Fishburne Hymn"
- Bryan Adams High School, Dallas, Texas
Lyrics
Original lyrics (1797)
During Haydn's lifetime, his friend the musicologist Charles Burney, made an English translation of the first verse which is more felicitous if less literal than the one given above:God preserve the Emp'ror Francis
Sov'reign ever good and great;
Save, o save him from mischances
In Prosperity and State!
May his Laurels ever blooming
Be by Patriot Virtue fed;
May his worth the world illumine
And bring back the Sheep misled!
God preserve our Emp'ror Francis!
Sov'reign ever good and great.
Burney's penultimate couplet about sheep has no counterpart in the original German and appears to be Burney's own contribution.
For translations into several of the languages that were spoken in the Austrian Empire, see Translations of Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser.
1826 lyrics
| German | English translation |
Unsern guten Kaiser Franz, Hoch als Herrscher, hoch als Weiser, Steht er in des Ruhmes Glanz; Liebe windet Lorbeerreiser Ihm zum ewig grünen Kranz. Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, Unsern guten Kaiser Franz! Über blühende Gefilde Reicht sein Zepter weit und breit; Säulen seines Throns sind Milde, Biedersinn und Redlichkeit, Und von seinem Wappenschilde Strahlet die Gerechtigkeit. Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, Unsern guten Kaiser Franz! Sich mit Tugenden zu schmücken, Achtet er der Sorgen werth, Nicht um Völker zu erdrücken Flammt in seiner Hand das Schwert: Sie zu segnen, zu beglücken, Ist der Preis, den er begehrt, Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, Unsern guten Kaiser Franz! Er zerbrach der Knechtschaft Bande, Hob zur Freiheit uns empor! Früh’ erleb’ er deutscher Lande, Deutscher Völker höchsten Flor, Und vernehme noch am Rande Später Gruft der Enkel Chor: Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, Unsern guten Kaiser Franz! | Our good Emperor Francis, High as a ruler, high as a sage, He stands in fame’s glory; Love twists laurel branches Into an evergreen wreath for him. God save Francis the Emperor, Our good Emperor Francis! Over flourishing realms his scepter extends far and wide; The pillars of his throne are gentleness, Rectitude and probity, And from his heraldic shield Justice shines. God save Francis the Emperor, Our good Emperor Francis! To adorn himself with virtues He deems all worthy of concerns Not to repress peoples The sword in his hand flames: To bless them, to delight them Is the prize he desires, God save Francis the Emperor, Our good Emperor Francis! He shattered the fetters of bondage Lifted us aloft to freedom! Soon may he witness Highest bloom of German lands and German peoples And may he still hear at the edge Of a late tomb the grandchildren’s chorus: God save Francis the Emperor, Our good Emperor Francis! |
1854 version
1922 lyrics
After the last Emperor, Charles I, died in 1922, monarchists created an original stanza for his son Otto von Habsburg. Since Austria had deposed its emperor in 1918 and become a republic, this version never had official standing.| German | English translation |
Weilst Du, Hoffnung Österreichs. Otto, treu in festen Banden Steh'n zu Dir wir felsengleich. Dir, mein Kaiser, sei beschieden Alter Ruhm und neues Glück! |: Bring den Völkern endlich Frieden, Kehr zur Heimat bald zurück! :| | You are staying, Austria's hope. Otto, faithful in tight ties We stand by you like rock. To you, my Emperor, let there be granted Old glory and new luck! |: Bring the peoples peace at last, Return to the homeland soon! :| |