----,.~ ~r:..'~ URRELIEDER without chorus? It seems ment that unfolds through a series of contrasting sections, and (•. ·.C5--1 unimaginable .. What.;vould.. remain ~f C:tt::rel~ede~s these allude only distantly to existing formal archetypes. Its ~ exuberance WIthout GegrufSt, 0 Komg, WIth Its harmony is filled with chromatic motions that lead the music boisterous outcries from Waldemar's vassals? How could through remote key areas. It is an overtly programmatic compo Gttrrelieder be truly macabre if the chorus "Der Hahn erhebt sition, based on a Richard Dehmel poem of the same title that den Kopf" was lopped off? Would we be uplifted by its ending franldy addresses the familiar Wagnerian topics of love and if the sunrise chorus of"Seht die Sonne" was missing? Although reconciliation blessed by the divinity of nature. In addition to these mighty choruses leave a memorable stamp on the these Wagnerian features, Verldiirte Nacht also has many Gurrelieder that we know in the present day, they were not part Brahmsian characteristics: Its chamber medium comes from the of Schoenberg's conception of the work when he began to stronghold of the musical conservatives of the day, and beneath compose it in the spring of 1900. Gurrelieder was then some the contrasts of its surface lies an intensely unified web of thing far more modest in scope and more traditional in form developing motives and interrelated themes. Its many irregular a cycle of nine songs for soprano alternating with tenor, phrase lengths mirror one of Brahms's most distinctive compo accompanied by piano. sitional characteristics. We can unravel the conditions under which Gurrelieder was These are the progressive musical elements that Schoenberg born-only to be changed from song cycle to massive cantata also brought into Gurrelieder. Only weeks after completing by going back to the turn of the twentieth century. When Verkliirte Nacht, Schoenberg learned that Vienna's Schoenberg began to compose Gurrelieder in March 1900, he Tonkiinstlerverein (of which he and Zemlinsky were members) was still virtually unknown even to Viennese audiences. None was sponsoring a competition for new song cycles-the dead of his works had then been published, and only a few-songs line looming only four months away on May 15, 1900. The and a string quartet in 0 major-had been performed. His genre of the song cycle at this time was in need of encourage career was still in the shadow of his mentor, the Viennese ment. The truly unified cycle of songs-as known from the composer and conductor Alexander Zemlinsky, whose music days of Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte or Schumann's Schoenberg until then had closely imitated. Dichterliebe-had grown rare by the late nineteenth century, Schoenberg's original voice as a composer began to emerge in when it was usually replaced by far looser song collections the string sextet Verkliirte Nacht, the work that he completed whose unifYing features were limited to a common poet or some just before beginning Gurrelieder. This proved to be a milestone common literary theme or tone. . for its composer, since here he began to pull free from the Schoenberg eagerly took up the challenge of writing a genu traditionalism that characterized Zemlinsky's musical outlook ine song cycle, a work that would be closely unified in both and to express his own musical personality and distinctive tastes. words and music and one that would continue-as had Verkliirte These appear most plainly in the unusual overall form and Nacht-to embody novel forms and expressive means and to intensely affective content of Verkliirte Nacht, which exceeded apply the progressive lessons learned from bot~ Brallms and the norm even in the late Romantic period. Rather than talce Wagner. For his texts, Schoenberg selected love poems from sides in the wars waged between the Brahmsians and Wagneri Gurrelieder by the,Danish poet Jens Peter Jacobsen (1847-85). ans of the day, Schoenberg showed in the sextet that these This is a cycle of nineteen poems written primarily in 1869 but masters did not represent irreconcilable opposites and could be not published until 1886, the year after the author's death. It allied under a new progressive banner. first appeared in a German translation, along with other Jacobsen The elements in Verkliirte Nacht suggesting "music of the poems, in 1897, and Zemlinsky was the first major German future" are plain enough: the piece is cast into one long move- composer to malce Jacobsen's poems into song texts. Otherwise, the collection was little known by German musicians when it was talcen up by Schoenberg in 1900. Bryan R. Simms is professor of music at the Outwardly, Jacobsen's Gurre poems retell a well~known and University of Southern California. He writes on ancient Danish legend concerning King Waldemar and his ill twentieth-century music and musical theory, and his fated love for Tove, set at a castle on the island of Gurre. book The Atonal Music of Arnold Schoenberg 1908- Jacobsen brings this traditional material squarely into the age of 1923 was recently published by the Oxford University Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, when God was dead and nature Press.
Tuscany .LJ.L ...... J.UL ....."J.L' ... J...... J.u ...... piano part in Schoenberg's manuscript Florence • Rome contains a few indications of instruments, Joan Gregoryk • July 4 -12,2005 but these are entered using a different "As a participatillg dlreclor III 1999 11111115 ex/rnordillmy fesllval, I alll writing implement from that used in the deliglzled 10 re/lI1'11 as COlldllctor." Joan Gregoryk, Founder and Director, Children's Chorus of Washington, and frequent Guest music itself and seem to have been made Conductor of Children's Chorus Festivals at a later time, after Schoenberg had de Anne Tomlinson • July 3 - 11, 2006 cided to transform the cycle into an or "Tize TtlscmlY Inlematiollal Clllidrell's cftOrtlS Festivall'TUvldes WOllderfll1 IIlllslcal experiellces while foslerlllg clIl/llml enrlcillllellt of Ilze Izlglzesl chestral composition. caliber." Anne Tomlinson, Director, Los Angeles Children's Chorus, According to the recollections of his and Children's Chorus Mistress, Los Angeles Opera Henry Leck • July 1 - 10, 2007 "Musien Mlltldl's festivals are pizenolllellal III all aspecls." Henry Leck, Pounder and Director, Indianapolis Children's Chorus Copenhagen International Children's Chorus Festival Copenhagen • Odense • HeIsinger Henry Leck • June 27 - July 4, 2005 ...-__,,,..-...., "I look forward 10 a 'repeal pelforlllallce' of success as inaugural conduclor of tire Copellizagen Inlematiollal Cllildrell's CllOrlls Festival." Henry Leek, Founder and Director, Indianapolis Children's Chorus Jean Ashworth Bartle • July 10 - 17, 2006 "Oil a scale Of 1 Ia 10, tile TIlscany IlIlematiollal Cizildrrm's ClzortlsFestival is atlll! Ikllow I will be able 10 say lite same abolll tile Copellizagen Inlernaliollal Cizildrett's CllOrlls Festival. " Jean Ashworth Bartle, Founder, Toronto Children's Chorus 1 800947 1991 Judith Willoughby • July 9 - 16, 2007 [email protected] "Clroral pet!orlllallces In Denlllark's magic~l setti"gs provide ""paralleled Musica Mundi Concert Tours Fi tSt t S 't apporlrmiliesjorlllllsicaislrari"g,gTUwllland inlerclIl/llralexcltange.11 aakfanoard 101 rs 454 10 condllelillg Mllsica Mllndi's "ewesl, 1I0Mbie festival for cllildren's cllOl'llses." L AI~ee 'C~'~022 Judith Willoug~b)\ Fou~ding (former) Music Di~ctor, Ternp~e Univer~ity Ph 650 9491991 0: Pax ~50 9491626 C1l1ldren's ChOIr, Assocmte Professor of Conductmg and MUSIC Education, • d' Northwestern University WWW.mUSlCamUnl.COm
10 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL 45 ISSUE 4 student Dika Newlin, Schoenberg com sions of ghosts and forebodings of his orchestra would be a more fitting accom pleted the cycle "half a week too late for own destruction, and his theme reappears paniment for the songs than the piano. the contest," and it was apparently never twisted over a minor triad that meets the And it seems lil(ely that by the time he submitted to the Tonkiinstlerverein. accompanimental tones in bitter disso- finished the ninth song he was drawn Zemlinsky recalled, "The songs were very beautiful and of an entirely new type, but we both had the impression that for these very reasons they had little chance for a competition prize." What was this "new Also unusual for a song cycle is the type" that Zemlinsky noted? Many exter nal features of the song cycle Gurrelieder large number of motivic and thematic were either unusual or unprecedented for their genre. One such was the alternation recurrences ftom song to song. of tenor and soprano voices-uncannily similar to Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde nances. into Jacobsen's drama, engaged in the composed eight years later, or Zemlinsky's The original Gurrelieder song cycle is plight of his tragic hero, Waldemar, and own Lyric Symphony of 1923. The link unquestionably a masterpiece-one that unable to breal( off the work without grap ing together of the last five songs harked could be profitably performed in the pling musically with Waldemar's fixation back nearly a century to the cyclic form present day except that there is still no on death and his ultimate absorption into used by Beethoven in An die ferne Geliebte. edition of it. Schoenberg made a fair copy nature. Schoenberg himself pointed to the origi of the cycle, probably to be submitted to But whatever the reasons, Schoenberg nality of the five-measure phrases that the Tonkiinstlerverein, and this was used immediately began to expand Gurrelieder begin the song "Nun sag' ich dir zum by Alban Berg when he prepared the pi to its present epic proportions. Over the ersten Mal." ano score for the entire cantata. Although next year he composed the remaining ten Also unusual for a song cycle is the the whereabouts of this manuscript is pres poems of Jacobsen's cycle, now with a large number of motivic and thematic ently unknown, the original cycle could large orchestra plainly in mind. He then recurrences from song to song. These be fairly easily and reliably reconstructed went back to the first nine songs, linked suggest the continuous structure of Wag using Schoenberg's draft manuscript, now them all together with orchestral inter nerian opera more than the closed-off located at the Arnold Schonberg Center ludes, and provided the first with an ex forms of the traditional song collection. in Vienna. pansive prelude. He transposed song To see how this thematic transformation We can only speculate on the reasons number 2 ("0, wenn des Mondes derives from and underscores the drama behind Schoenberg's decision to convert Strahlen") from its original key of EJ, implicit in Jacobsen's poems, compare the the song cycle into a cantata. These were major to Gh major, and he wove in addi /main themes of songs no. 3 and 7 (Figure probably both artistic and practical. After tional thematic recurrences, as though 1). In the first of these, Waldemar ecstati Schoenberg missed the May 15 deadline wishing to reinterpret the song cycle in cally spurs on his horse toward Gurre to set by the Tonkiinstlerverein for its com ever more operatic and Wagnerian terms. meet Tove. The theme is all fire and mo petition, there was no longer any need for Opera was plainly basic to tion as it gallops over a major triad. In the him to stop with Jacobsen's ninth poem. Schoenberg's ultimate plan for the work's latter song, Waldemar is assailed by vi- The composer evidently sensed that the large-scale design. The composer aban-
Song no. 3, m. 279 Sehr lebhaft J P OJ I mf Song no. 7, mm. 553-54 Langsam ~'''D ¥~--;;Ikt4 ;0 ~
Figure 1. Transformation of Waldemar's motive
CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 4S ISSUE 4 11 doned Jacobsen's numbering system and titles that the composer preserves. they return to their graves after their imposed a large three-part form on the The mighty choruses of Part 3 were nightly ride. Here Schoenberg's own mu nineteen pieces, with music running con Schoenberg's first choral compositions, sical personality emerges, especially in the tinuously through each part. Part 1 con- although by 1900 he was familiar with contrapuntal and nearly atonal conclu sion on the line "0, konnten in Frieden ' wir schlafen!" ["Oh that we could sleep in peace"]. The final chorus is the trium- O era was painI Iy basic to phant "Seht die Sonne," for double mixed P chorus, in which nature awakens to be- Schoenber(Ts ultimateplanfor the works hold the glorious rising of the sun. D Schoenberg links the music at this con- _large-£cale=deiigtl.. . ~~~=-,-_.~l~t~=!:~~pt;ns~a:rt~~-;~~e~~~~;~~~_'_ the choral medium through his work as sages share motivic similarities and a char tains the nine songs of the original cycle conductor of several amateur choruses in acteristic central harmony made as their plus a tenth poem, the "Song of the Wood and around Vienna. The first of three tonic triads-EP major at the opening and Dove"; Part 2 is brief and transitional, choruses in Gurrelieder is "GegrillSt, 0 C major at the conclusion-are embel consisting of only a single song; and Part Konig," sung by three four-part male cho- lished by a major sixth. Nature thus frames 3 (the "opera" proper) encompasses the ruses representing Waldemar's ghostly'vas- all of Gurrelieder, from its opening in EP remaining eight poems. Although no sals. Their exuberant singing plainly recalls major, the key of the Rhine River in longer using Jacobsen's numbering, the chorus of Hagen's vassals in Act 2, Wagner's Das Rheingold-to its ending in Schoenberg keeps the poet's subheadings Scene 3, from Wagner's Gotterdiim- C major, Richard Strauss's key of nature in Part 3. Poems 12-18 in Jacobsen were merung~music that was certainly in in the opening of his tone poem Also given the collective heading Der wilde Schoenberg's ear when he wrote the cho- sprach Zarathustra. jagd [The Wild Hunt] and poem 19 was ruses for Gurrelieder. The vassals' high Afrer Schoenberg completed the draft subtitled Des Sommerwindes wilde jagd spirits disappear in their second chorus, of the revised Gurrelieder in 1901, he be [The Wild Hunt of the Summer Wind], "Der Hahn erhebt den Kopf," sung as gan its orchestration. But his work on it
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12 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 4 was soon abandoned: "1 lost interest in Gurrelieder and gave up plans to com plete it," he later wrote. Gurrelieder came Gurrelieder came back to life only back to life only after Schoenberg had begun writing atonal music in 1908 and after Schoenberg had begun writing 1909. He wanted to present his first atonal compositions to the public on programs atonal music in 1908 and 1909. that also contained his earlier romantic works, to remind his listeners that the period. The Gurrelieder song cycle repre atonal pieces came from "no lack of in musically important. The later version sents the intimate and inward side of that vention or technical ability," as he wrote filled with operatic grandiloquence-rep same spirit. in 1910. With this objective in mind, he resents the expansive, transcendental side arranged for a performance of Part 1 of of Schoenberg's musical personality, one Gurrelieder-nearly synonymous with the that was closely attuned to the German original song cycle-in Vienna on Janu spirit in music at the end of the Romantic ary 14, 1910, accompanied by piano with the larger interludes arranged (apparently by Anton Webern) for pianos using up to eight hands. The romantic fragment of Gurrelieder was juxtaposed on this pro gram with Schoenberg's atonal Three StUet«t8tp S~ Pieces for Piano, Op. 11, and George Dowson's songs, Op. 15. Predictably, 76ee~Je~S~ Gurrelieder-not the atonal works-at tracted the greatest attention. According , ~ ~ # ~ to Hans Nachod, who sang Waldemar's ~",Q'" .pil-c§' ~ CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 4 13