Drum komme, wem der Mai gefällt

A 4-part choral movement by me from 1997 to a melody by Heinz Lau.

A May Song in Winter? Come on, guys, I'm so sick of winter. Enjoy the beautiful sounds of this dazzling sample set, the beautiful melody and maybe even my 4-part arrangement!

Who was Heinz Lau?

Heinz Lau (* 9 September 1925 in Stettin; † 21 June 1975 in West Berlin) was a German composer and university teacher.

Born the son of a merchant in Stettin, he attended the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Middle School in Stettin. In 1942 he went to the teacher training college in Lunden, but became an anti-aircraft gunner as early as 1943, then joined the Reich Labour Service and subsequently became a soldier. He was wounded and eventually became an American prisoner of war in Bavaria.
After the war, his hometown of Stettin had been annexed to Poland, he studied at the Hamburg Musikhochschule from 1948, then at the Nordwestdeutsche Musikakademie Detmold from 1953 to 1955 and with Paul Hindemith at the University of Zurich from 1955.

From 1963 he taught improvisation and composition at the Pädagogische Hochschule Berlin, first as a lecturer, then from 1971 as a professor.
He composed numerous instrumental pieces, chamber music, songs and choral works, including a Christmas story first performed in Hamburg in 1952. In the Ars Musica choir books, some of Lau's compositions can be found as representatives of contemporary choral music at the time the songbooks were written.

Die Luft iſt blau, das Thal iſt grün,
Die kleinen Maienklocken blühn,
Und Schlüſſelblumen drunter;
Der Wieſengrund
Iſt ſchon ſo bunt,
Und malt ſich täglich bunter.
Drum komme, wem der Mai gefällt,
Und freue ſich der ſchönen Welt
Und Gottes Vatergüte,
Die ſolche Pracht
Hervorgebracht,
Den Baum und ſeine Blüte.
- Text von Ludwig Hölty