Sie sagen zu mir schließ auf diese Tür die Neugier wird zum Schrei was wohl dahinter sei hinter dieser Tür steht ein Klavier die Tasten sind staubig die Saiten sind verstimmt hinter dieser Tür sitzt sie am Klavier doch sie spielt nicht mehr ach das ist so lang her Dort am Klavier lauschte ich ihr und wenn ihr Spiel begann hielt ich den Atem an Sie sagte zu mir ich bleib immer bei dir doch es hatte nur den Schein sie spielte für mich allein ich goss ihr Blut ins Feuer meiner Wut ich verschloss die Tür man fragte nach ihr Dort am Klavier lauschte ich ihr und wenn ihr Spiel begann hielt ich den Atem an Dort am Klavier stand ich bei ihr es hatte den Schein sie spielte für mich allein Geöffnet ist die Tür ei wie sie schreien ich höre die Mutter flehen der Vater schlägt auf mich ein man löst sie vom Klavier und niemand glaubt mir hier das ich todkrank von Kummer und Gestank Dort am Klavier lauschte ich ihr und wenn ihr Spiel begann hielt ich den Atem an Dort am Klavier lauschte sie mir und als mein Spiel begann hielt sie den Atem an |
They say to me unlock this door the curiosity becomes a scream what certainly could be behind it behind this door stands a piano the keys are dusty the strings are out of tune behind this door she sits at the piano but she doesn't play anymore oh, that was so long ago There, at the piano I listened to her and when her playing began I held my breath She said to me I'll always stay with you but it only seemed that she played for me alone I poured her blood into the fire of my rage I locked the door they asked for her There, at the piano I listened to her and when her playing began I held my breath There, at the piano I stood beside her it seemed she played for me alone The door is open oh, how they scream I hear the mother pleading the father is beating me they take her from the piano and no one believes me here that I am deathly ill from sorrow and the stench There, at the piano I listened to her and when her playing began I held my breath There, at the piano she listened to me and when my playing began she held her breath |
One of Rammstein’s few slow songs, Klavier is about a man who loved the way his girlfriend played the piano so much he locked her away in the attic. One day her parents and the police make the man open the door and they see their beautiful daughter tied to the piano dead.
I don’t know where I heard this or if it was so long ago I have false memories of hearing about this interpretation from somewhere else, but my understanding of this song for so long was a bit different. Okay wildly different.
I interpret the impression of “man kills lover thinking they cheated, body found in closet with piano, cops remove, parents of woman angry at killer” as a red herring.
I see the singer as an adult but reminiscing of their past an adolescent boy in the past they think on. That the piano player was a woman who was teaching piano lessons hired by the parents, but the Pianist was sexually and romantically grooming the singer.
That they are still in the stage years now of coming to terms with the sexual abuse they had but still romanticizing their own abuser as they shaped their entire lived experience and framework around sex and romance. “She still sits but doesn’t play” being that mentally she is still inside his mind and he cant let go. A process he still haven’t evolved from as even his parents deny he is a victim at all.
The playing is the grooming and sexual acts, the piano keys now being out of tune as the underlining trauma of sexual abuse. The fact that at first the player “plays” and the recipient merely “holds their breath” as being the inexperience and unable to consent freezing up. Or worse, more forceful sexual advance (considering the merely I vs Her pronoun swapped version of this chorus is mainstream interpreted to imply passionate/angry strangling to death)
I interpreted the mom and dad as the *singers* mom and dad, being upset in context to their son and in some way denying their trauma the way the singer even barely begins to grasp.
There is a vague reference to a “they” but otherwise only a mom and dad. It would be odd to have a police manhunt with the parents of the missing accompanied the police for a warrant or other search that results in a body for them to immediately assault the criminal suspect.
I interpreted that scene as actually being just the parents, and maybe they only discover a still living boy and the pianist in the middle of the act. And they are primarily upset with or angry at their own son for it.