WOLF, HUGO. AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT OF THE SONG, "GESELLE, WOLL'N WIR UNS IN KUTTEN HÜLLEN", FOR VOICE AND PIANO

written in black ink on four systems per page, each of three staves in black ink, additions and alterations in pencil and blue crayon, one system extended into the margin by the composer, printed staves, the number of the song in the collection changed from 13 to 14 3 pages, large folio, 13 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches, some smudges consistent with use by the printer

This song was written in Döbling on 5 December 1891, a period of intense work for Wolf. He had written two songs for the Italiensisches Liederbuch on the previous day. The poems are by Paul Heyse. Wolf thought highly of them, being “the most original and artistically consummate” of all the songs he had composed. Few would dispute this. Of this song, Frank Walker writes: …[it] stands somewhat apart from the rest of the Italian volume. It has been aptly descried as a scene out of Boccaccio’s Decameron. The appalling cynicism of “die Welt dem lassen, den sie mag ergötzen”, the caricature of the sanctimonious whine of the begging monk, the unctuousness of the proposal to take the sick girl’s “confession”—these show Wolf’s genius for characterization at its best. The song demands, however, an artist of the caliber of a Chaliapin for its interpretation”. Hugo Wolf (London, Dent, 1951), p.300.