Do you feel this romanticizing melancholy of Autumn?

Simone_in_Wiltshire

As you maybe know, I'm German. I noticed in my first Autumn in England that Winter is almost as green as Spring.
In Germany, most areas turn very grey and dark in November. Trees have no leaves and are just dark stems. The grass is no longer green, and is covered with leaves and ideally, it rains all the time. The world changes to black and white (or grey) literally.

I like to read other people blogs and have got a good collection of German and English speaking blogs.
I noticed again this year a general mood of romanticizing melancholy in German blogs. November is the classical month when the German soul becomes "schwermütig" what my online dictionary translates with lugubrious, haunting, heavy-hearted, melancholy, gloomy, melancholic, soulful. They romanticise and philosophise about life and sense of life to cope with the sadness that overcomes them in November.

I have never noticed this here, but I might be wrong.

pansyface

I don’t speak a word of German, though my OH could follow a conversation.

I just spoke this word to him, schwermütig, with my execrable accent, out of the blue, and he sat up in bed as if he’d been poked in the eye with a sharp stick.

We asked each other if we feel schwermütig about autumn, and agreed that we do, but came to the conclusion that we cover it up behind our stiff British upper lips.

🙂

Simone_in_Wiltshire

Many thanks, @pansyface. Would you both turn on heavy music like Wagner? I always had the impression in Germany that November is the month when opera houses and philharmonic orchestras make most of the money with playing the darkest pieces of Wagner and Beethoven. I'm getting sarcastic, sorry.

The November melancholy in Germany is an aftermath of the events around Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna with its territorial redesign of the middle part of Europe. The basics were laid for what later became the German Reich as a state out of many single states. It was Wagner who was in the center of this German mood of sadness and romanticism.

tui34

Guten morgen Simone.

Although I live in a sunny region that feeling of melancholy certainly reigns at this time of the year.  After a "golden" october, the atmosphere descends to grey skies and a stillness in the air.  We've just had about two weeks of continuous grey skies.  When we have wind, the following day is usually sunny - or almost.  We are lucky not to have the low temperatures that you have "up there" !!  Dropping slowly, we had 10°C this morning, the sun is up and hopefully a high this afternoon of between 18°C and 20°C.  

Yes, autumn is a melancholy time.

Simone_in_Wiltshire

Many thanks, @tui34.

November is the time I look on timeanddate for the positive outlook, and found this interesting new aspect: The day when the sun comes out at 7:07, we have already 1 hour more daylight.

Today, the sunrise is 7:07
5.11     07:07  (115°)    16:33  (245°)  daylight time:  9:25:20

To have the equal morning light, this would be in 15 weeks and 5 days or 3,5 months
22.2.    07:07  (106°)    17:34 (255°)  daylight time:  10:26:26

On the other side, the day with the equal day time and degree of sun position, this is in exactly 3 months time.
6.2.    07:37 (115°)    17:04  (246°)  daylight time:   9:27:01

Posy

What a great question! The best place to go for an answer is British poetry where you will find sweet melancholy, season of mists and fruitfulness, right through to gloom and doom, as in 'November'. There's kicking through the fallen leaves and lamentations for summer ease; the joy of crisp, bright mornings and grumbles about darkness of weather and soul. It's all there to be enjoyed or regretted, according to your outlook. I love autumn, it's my favourite time of year and I'm so glad people who can write have recorded its many- facetted (sp?) nature!

pansyface

Wagner is too much of a shared experience, to my mind. You can’t sit in a corner on a wet November afternoon and listen to the flight of the Valkyries without leaping up and joining in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQM97_iNXhk


No, what I go for is something introspective and thoroughly miserable like the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata.

And now, with the wonders of modern technology, you can listen to the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata for a whole two hours (ads allowing).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4BweGgWvo0

raisingirl

OH lived his early life in the southern hemisphere. He always gets the November blues when the clocks go back. It affects me less, having an already melancholic Irish turn of mind that expects rain, even in Summer.

Certainly, there are some very melancholy English pieces of music about autumn

The summer sun is fading as the year grows old
And darker days are drawing near
The winter winds will be much colder
Now you're not here.
I watch the birds fly south across the autumn sky
And one by one they disappear
I wish that I was flying with them
Now you're not here

Like the sun through the trees you came to love me
Like a leaf on a breeze you blew away

Through autumn's golden gown we used to kick our way
You always loved this time of year
Those fallen leaves lie undisturbed now

'Cause you're not here

Like the sun through the trees you came to love me
Like a leaf on a breeze you blew away

A gentle rain falls softly on my weary eyes
As if to hide a lonely tear
My life will be forever autumn

'Cause you're not here

Justin Hayward

Allotment Boy

Thanks for posting that. @raisingirl

Nanny Beach

How can you "romanticise melancholy, the 2,words are almost polar opposites. I don't think it is as green here in winter,as spring. The trees here have lost their leaves, the same as they would in Germany. I don't think it's anything to do with a British "stiff upper lip". Unless you suffer from SAD, it's acceptance,you cannot do anything about the season/weather. I appreciate and love taking the dogs/grandkids walking in the forests,woods on frosty sunny days. I personally hate snow,yet a lot of people love it,and think its beautiful. First off, when the clocks go back,I dislike the darker evenings,then I enjoy walking the dogs when the street lights are on,and lights in peoples houses casting a warm glow,and don't even get me started about the smell of the log burners!

Simone_in_Wiltshire

Wonderful @raisingirl I will copy once I’m on my laptop. 

The moonlight sonata is one of those we have in mind in Autumn @pansyface. On the way back from shopping I listened to Alan T’s choice on Classic FM and thought that we also listen preferable to certain music in different seasons. The Lark Ascending in a warm summer night is depressing  but sitting in a car in November on a grey rainy day definitely does something with me.