Dem Fernen

Prince Albert was a keen composer and wrote a number of love songs for Queen Victoria. Dem Fernen (From afar), a song with piano accompaniment on sending nocturnal thoughts to a distant loved one, which he wrote during the couple's engagement, was annotated by Queen Victoria: ‘Composed by dear Albert at Windsor Castle & sent to me by him Jan. 5. 1840.’ Her Journal records: ‘Received a delightful letter from dearest Albert, from Gotha, [with] a little song he had composed here, which I had heard him sing, but which he had not then written out properly’ (5 January 1840). The day after her proposal to Prince Albert in October 1839, the Queen wrote: ‘… he sang to me some of his own compositions, which are beautiful, & he has a very fine voice. I also sang to him’ (Journal, 16 October 1839). Athe time of the composition of Dem Fernen, Albert was in Germany, preparing to move to England for his marriage to the Queen.

'Dem Fernen' translates as 'From afar'. Translated, the first verse is:

Their engagement and marriage were a powerful inspiration to the composer-prince, who embarked on a setting for a vocal duet of verses by his brother Ernest, Liebe hat uns nun vereint. The Prince’s early compositions were privately printed, and he continued composing into the 1850s. W.G. Cusins, Master of the Queen’s Musick, edited the collected works in 1882.