Leck mich im Arsch
Leck mich im Arsch (literally "Lick me in the arse") is a canon in B-flat major composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, K. 231 (K. 382c), with lyrics in German. It was one of a set of at least six canons probably written in Vienna in 1782.[1] Sung by six voices as a three-part round, it is thought to be a party piece for his friends.
English translation
A literal translation of the song's title and lyrics into English would be "Lick me in the arse". A more idiomatic translation would be "Kiss my arse!"[2]
Publication and modern discovery
Mozart died in 1791 and his widow, Constanze Mozart, sent the manuscripts of the canons to publishers Breitkopf & Härtel in 1799, saying that they would need to be adapted for publication. The publisher changed the title and lyrics of this canon to the more acceptable "Laßt froh uns sein" ("Let us be glad!"), similar to the traditional German Christmas carol, "Lasst uns froh und munter sein". Of Mozart's original text, only the first words were documented in Breitkopf publishers' catalogue of his works.[3]
A new text version, which may have been the authentic one, came to light in 1991. Handwritten texts to this and several other similar canons were found added to a printed score of the work in an historical printed edition acquired by Harvard University's Music Library. They had evidently been added to the book by a later hand. However, since in six of the pieces these entries matched texts that had, in the meantime, independently come to light in original manuscripts, it was hypothesised that the remaining three may, too, have been original, including texts for K. 231 ("Leck mich im Arsch" itself), and another Mozart work, "Leck mir den Arsch fein recht schön sauber" ("Lick my arse nice and clean", K. 233; K. 382d in the revised numbering).[4] Later research has indicated that the latter composition is probably the work of Wenzel Trnka (1739–91).[5][6][7][8]
Lyrics
The original incipit attested in the earliest Breitkopf catalogue consisted only of the words Leck mich im Arsch.[3] The text rediscovered in 1991 consists only of the repeated phrases:[9]
(MIDI file, 9 KB, 2:16) |
Leck mich im A… g'schwindi, g'schwindi!
Leck im A… mich g'schwindi.
Leck mich, leck mich,
g'schwindi
etc. etc. etc.
(where A… obviously stands for Arsch; g'schwindi means 'quickly').
The bowdlerized text of the early printed editions reads:
|
Laßt uns froh sein! |
Let us be glad! |
Another semi-bowdlerized adaptation is found in the recordings of The Complete Mozart edition by Brilliant:[10][11]
|
Leck mich im Arsch! |
Kiss my arse! |
This is a clear allusion to the line
… er kann mich im Arsche lecken!
attributed to the late medieval German knight Götz von Berlichingen, known best as the title hero of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's drama.
This version contains a slight error about the Goethe source: the line occurs in the third act.[12][13]
See also
- Difficile lectu (Mozart) – a canon with a disguised Latin version of the same text
- Leck mir den Arsch fein recht schön sauber (English: Lick me in the ass fine well and clean)
- Bona nox – "Good night", a multilingual scatological canon
- Mozart and scatology
- Leck mich im Arsch (Insane Clown Posse single)
Notes
- ^ Cliff Eisen, Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians online, (subscription required)
- ^ Schemann, Hans (1997). English-German Dictionary of Idioms. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-17254-3.
- ^ a b Preface to the Neue Mozart Ausgabe Vol. III/10, p. X.
- ^ Kozinn, Allan (2 March 1991). "Three Naughty Mozart Texts Are Found". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 September 2007.
- ^ Plath, Wolfgang (1988). Opera incerta. Echtheitsfragen als Problem musikwissenschaftlicher Gesamtausgaben. Kolloquium Mainz 1988. ISBN 3-515-05996-2.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Silke Leopold (ed.) (2005). Mozart-Handbuch. Stuttgart: Metzler. pp. 640, 653, 689. ISBN 3-476-02077-0.
{{cite book}}:|author=has generic name (help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Dietrich Berke, Wolfgang Rehm, Miriam Pfadt (2007). "Endbericht" (PDF). Neue Mozart Ausgabe (in German). Bärenreiter. Retrieved 10 September 2007.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Catherine Carl, Dan Manley, Dennis Pajot, Steve Ralsten, Gary Smith. "Koechel List". Mozart Forum. Retrieved 10 September 2007.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Denis Pajot: K. 233 and K. 234 Mozart's "Kiss my Ass" Canons. Mozart Forum
- ^ Brilliant Classics (2006). "Mozart Edition, Complete Works". Foreignmediagroup.com. Retrieved 12 September 2007.
- ^ integralemozart.info (2007). "Mozart Complete Edition (Brilliant), Volume 8: CD 1, Canons" (PDF) (in German and Italian). Integrale Mozart. Retrieved 12 September 2007. [dead link]
- ^ Wikisource. "Götz von Berlichingen/3. Akt (unexpurgated))" (in German). Wikisource. Archived from the original on 18 September 2007. Retrieved 12 September 2007.
- ^ Project Gutenberg. "Götz von Berlichingen/3. Akt (expurgated)" (in German). Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 12 September 2007}.
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References
- Eisen, Cliff, et al.: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart", Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed 9 September 2007), (subscription required)
- Zaslaw, Neal (2006) The Non-Canonic Status of Mozart’s Canons Eighteenth-Century Music (2006), 3: 109–23 Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/S1478570606000510
External links
- Leck mich im Arsch: Score and critical report (in German) in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
- 30-second preview on the iTunes store, performed by the Chorus Viennensis & Uwe Christian Harrer
