Randol Schoenberg's video: Schlaf Kindlein Schlaf by Eric Zeisl from the opera Hiob

Schlaf Kindlein Schlaf from the opera Job — Eric Zeisl Tamara Bevard, soloist Iain Farrington, piano The opera Job tells the story of the Talmud teacher Mendel Singer, whose family finds nothing but misfortune both in Russia and then in America. In this tender song, Mendel’s wife Miriam sings a lullaby to her crippled son Menuchim. In Vienna, Zeisl had composed dozens of art songs, but never returned to that idiom after he fled. Instead, he incorporated his lyrical technique into larger works. This haunting lullaby, with its arabesque flourishes, is an early example of Zeisl’s attempt to develop a new Jewish aesthetic out of his classical Austrian romantic style. Schlaf Kindlein Schlaf from the opera Job Sleep child sleep! Don’t stir, relax yourself! If you feel good today, It was only with effort and affliction! It is just the same to lie still in deep sleep! Sleep child sleep! Don’t stir, relax yourself! Poor or rich in the morning, Is all the same, makes no difference! Lie still in the realm of sleep! Sleep child sleep! Don’t stir, relax yourself! Whether God loves you, Or has forsaken your soul, You never knew! God give you quiet and peace!