Schmetterling und Rose
Award winning at “females featured” competition 2025
Composer Mona Rasenberger based this work on Heinrich Heine’s poem Der Schmetterling ist in die Rose verliebt (The Butterfly is in Love with the Rose). She positions the central question-and-answer dialogue at the core of the piece: “The butterfly is in love! – With whom, then? – With the rose!”
The composition opens with the fluttering wings of the butterfly as it glides along on delicate vocalises. In the middle of the poem, a very human element comes to light when we learn about a newly smitten couple. Curiosity takes over, prompting a flurry of whispering (“But who is the rose in love with? I’d like so much to know!”). Yet, the rose refuses to commit (“But I love you all”); the whispers subside, and the butterfly drifts off as delicately as it arrived.
A dynamic, rhythmically complex work for female voices.
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Composer
Mona Rasenberger
| 1962
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Songwriter / Librettist
Heinrich Heine
| 1797-1856Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) is regarded as one of the most important German poets of the 19th century. He was born in Düsseldorf and is best known for his lyric poetry, which combines Romanticism with sharp social criticism. Many of his works deal with love, nature and freedom. Because of his political views, Heine lived in exile in Paris for many years.
He also occupies a prominent place in the history of music. His lyrical texts were set to music by numerous composers and had a particularly profound influence on the Romantic art song. Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Hugo Wolf, in particular, created musical works of enduring significance based on Heine’s poems. The poetic combination of linguistic simplicity, emotional depth and often ironic ambiguity offered composers a wide range of possibilities for musical interpretation. As a result, Heine’s poetry became a central part of the Romantic art-song repertoire and continues to influence vocal music to this day.
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