Leck mich im Arsch

For the Insane Clown Posse recording, see Leck mich im Arsch (Insane Clown Posse single).

"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. 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 the British "Kiss my arse!" or American "Kiss my ass!"

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 the catalogue of his works produced by Breitkopf & Härtel.

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). Later research has indicated that the latter composition is probably the work of Wenzel Trnka (1739–91).

Lyrics

The original incipit attested in the earliest Breitkopf catalogue consisted only of the words "Leck mich im Arsch". The text rediscovered in 1991 consists only of the repeated phrases:

(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! Murren ist vergebens! Knurren, Brummen ist vergebens, ist das wahre Kreuz des Lebens, das Brummen ist vergebens, Knurren, Brummen ist vergebens, vergebens! Drum laßt uns froh und fröhlich, froh sein!

Let us be glad! Grumbling is in vain! Growling, droning is in vain, is the true bane of life, Droning is in vain, Growling, droning is in vain, in vain! Thus let us be cheerful and merry, be glad!

Another semi-bowdlerized adaptation is found in the recordings of The Complete Mozart edition by Brilliant Classics:

Leck mich im Arsch! Goethe, Goethe! Götz von Berlichingen! Zweiter Akt; Die Szene kennt ihr ja! Rufen wir nur ganz summarisch: Hier wird Mozart literarisch!

Kiss my arse! Goethe, Goethe! Götz von Berlichingen! Second act; You know the scene too well! Let us now shout the summary: Mozart here gets literary!

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.

See also

• "Difficile lectu" – a canon with a disguised Latin version of the same text
• "Leck mir den Arsch fein recht schön sauber" (English: "Lick my arse fine well and clean")
• "Bona nox" – "Good night", a multilingual scatological canon
• Mozart and scatology

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

Listen to this article (info/dl)

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More spoken articles

• Leck mich im Arsch: Score and critical report (German) in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
• 30-second preview on the iTunes store, performed by the Chorus Viennensis and Uwe Christian Harrer