Of the forty art songs Helen Hopekirk composed on German texts, more than a third are based on the writings of Romantic poet Heinrich Heine (1797-1856).  Her Nordsee Lieder (Songs of the North Sea) is a setting of the six poems from Nachts in der Kajüte (At Night in the Cabin), a section of Heine’s lengthy poem collection entitled Der Nordsee.  The poems convey the misgivings, musings, and ecstasies of a young wayfarer who finds innumerable metaphors for his distant beloved in images of sea, sky, and earth. 

Composed in Paris around 1895, Nordsee Lieder is Hopekirk’s only song cycle.  The opening measures of the first song, Das Meer hat seine Perlen, feature a melodic and harmonic motive that reappears in each subsequent piece.  Initially stated in the pianist’s right hand, the motive amounts to a falling four-note scale in which the last tone resolves to either the dominant or tonic pitch of the song’s key.

Although an early version of Das Meer hat seine Perlen was issued by Augener in 1894 and enjoyed some popularity with singers, the full Nordsee cycle remained unpublished at Hopekirk’s death in 1945.  Gary Steigerwalt constructed a performance edition of the work from manuscript scores preserved in the Helen Hopekirk Collection of the Music Division of the Library of Congress.

Click on the following links to hear soprano Melinda Spratlan and pianist Gary Steigerwalt perform each song from the cycle:

1.  Das Meer hat seine Perlen

2.  An die blaue Himmelsdecke

3.  Aus den Himmelsaugen droben

4.  Eingewiegt von Meereswellen

5.  An die bretterne Schiffswand

6.  Es träumte mir von einer weiten Heide