Schließe mir die Augen beide

"Schließe mir die Augen beide" is a poem by Theodor Storm from his 1851 collection Sommergeschichten und Lieder (Summer Stories and Songs).^[1]

It was twice set to music by Alban Berg. Berg composed his first setting in 1907, dedicating it to his future wife, Helene Nahowski [de]. The second version was composed in 1925 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Universal Edition music publisher. This second setting was Berg's first full-fledged 12 tone composition, and he re-used its tone row, or rather its secondary set,^[2] in the first movement of the Lyric Suite for string quartet of 1926.

The text is as follows:

• Schließe mir die Augen beide (Berg, 1900 and 1925): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• "Analysis of Berg's setting"
• Text and translations
• 1907 version (audio) on YouTube, Jessye Norman, Geoffrey Parsons (1988)
• 1925 version (audio) on YouTube, Jessye Norman, Geoffrey Parsons (1988)