Nänie

---

title: "Nänie" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["choral-compositions-by-johannes-brahms", "funerary-and-memorial-compositions", "1881-compositions", "musical-settings-of-poems-by-friedrich-schiller", "poetry-by-friedrich-schiller", "1800-poems"] description: "Choral composition by Johannes Brahms" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nänie" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Choral composition by Johannes Brahms ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical composition"]

Field	Value
name	Nänie
type	Choral composition
composer	Johannes Brahms
image	Brahms Johannes 1887.jpg
caption	The composer in 1887
opus	82
text	"Nänie" by Friedrich Schiller
language	German
composed
dedication	To Henriette Feuerbach, in memory of Anselm Feuerbach
performed	6 December 1881, Zürich
movements	1
scoring	SATB chorus and orchestra
::

| name = Nänie | type = Choral composition | composer = Johannes Brahms | image = Brahms Johannes 1887.jpg | image_upright = | alt = | caption = The composer in 1887 | opus = 82 | text = "Nänie" by Friedrich Schiller | language = German | composed = | dedication = To Henriette Feuerbach, in memory of Anselm Feuerbach | performed = 6 December 1881, Zürich | movements = 1 | scoring = SATB chorus and orchestra Nänie (the German form of Latin naenia, meaning "a funeral song" named after the Roman goddess Nenia) is a composition for SATB chorus and orchestra, Op. 82 by Johannes Brahms, which sets to music the poem "Nänie" by Friedrich Schiller. Brahms composed the piece in 1881, in memory of his deceased friend Anselm Feuerbach. It was first performed by the Tonhalle Gesellschaft Chorus Zürich on 6 December 1881, conducted by Brahms. Nänie is a lamentation on the inevitability of death; the first sentence, "Auch das Schöne muß sterben", translates to "Even beauty must die". Typical duration of a performance is approximately 15 minutes.

Poem

Schiller's lament is not for a specific person but the death of the abstract "beautiful" ("Das Schöne"). Schiller mentions three episodes from Greek mythology, but again mostly without names, assuming that the reader with knowledge will make the connections. The first episode refers to Orpheus who tries to rescue Eurydice from the underworld, the second refers to Aphrodite's mourning of her lover Adonis, the third refers to the failed effort of Thetis to save her son Achilles from death. ::data[format=table]

Auch das Schöne muß sterben! Das Menschen und Götter bezwinget,	Even beauty must die! That which subjugates gods and men
::

Setting by Brahms

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Naenie-theme.png" caption="Theme of the beginning, and use later"] ::

Brahms began his composition in spring 1880 as a response to the death of his friend, the painter Anselm Feuerbach. He chose the text referring to the frequent motifs from Greek mythology in the painter's work. Brahms completed the composition in the summer of 1881 and dedicated it to Henriette Feuerbach, the painter's stepmother. Written about a decade after Ein deutsches Requiem, it shows a similar approach of consolation of those who mourn a death.

Other compositions

Hermann Goetz also set the text to music in 1874 as Nenie, Op. 10.

References

References

1. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DN%3Aentry+group%3D9%3Aentry%3Dnenia "nenia"], [[Charlton T. Lewis]], Charles Short, ''A Latin Dictionary''
2. [https://media.carus-verlag.com/images-intern/medien/10/1039803/1039803x.pdf "''Nänie''"] work details, [[Carus-Verlag]], Autumn 2020, p. 4
3. {{IMSLP. Nenie, Op.10 (Goetz, Hermann)

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