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The Sound World of Othmar Schoeck's Penthesilea Tegan Love and War: The Sound World of Othmar Schoeck’s Penthesilea Tegan Ridge Penthesilea there, with haughty Grace, Leads to the War an Amazonian race: In their right Hands a pointed Dart they wield; Their left, for Ward1, sustains the Lunar Shield. Athwart her Breast a golden Belt she throws; Amidst the Press, alone, provokes a thousand Foes, And dares her maiden Arms to manly Force oppose. - Virgil, The Aeneid, translated by John Dryden2 Over the past two millennia, the Amazonian Queen, Penthesilea, has been a point of intrigue, her dualistic femininity and battle prowess depicted by near countless writers, composers, painters, and craftspersons. Virgil’s The Aeneid introduces Penthesilea and the Amazons’ imposing army as battle-ready with spear and shield wielded by “maiden arms”, capable of combating “manly forces”, juxtaposing their womanhood with their daunting military presence.3 Their skills in war are necessary; in order to maintain a healthy-sized population, the Amazons periodically invade neighbouring lands and abduct men for the purpose of procreation. Defeat could mean a shrinking tribe. Theirs is thus a myth of sexualized combat; one which blurs boundaries between love and war. Today, the Amazon stands as a figure of a proud, sometimes violent femininity: a ferocious warrior’s spirit housed in flowing robes, grace and fury in a single, wondrous being. The story of Penthesilea embodies the tragedy of attempting to house such competing desires. First told in the now-lost Aethiopis, an epic work ascribed to Arctinus of Miletus, Penthesilea’s myth tells of her arrival at Troy and encounter with the near-invincible Greek warrior, Achilles. In the extant fragments of the Aethiopis, a mere two sentences describe the 1 Here, “ward” means protection. 2 Virgil, trans. John Dryden, “Amazon,” A Collection of the Most Natural and Sublime Thoughts, viz. Allusions, Similes, Descriptions of Characters, of Persons, and Things; That Are in the Best English Poets, (London: S. Buckley, 1710), 7. Digitized by Google. 3 Virgil, Amazon. Love and War tragedy: “The Amazon Penthesileia, the daughter of Ares and of Thracian race, comes to aid the Trojans, and after showing great prowess, is killed by Achilles and buried by the Trojans. Achilles then slays Thersites for abusing and reviling him for his supposed love for Penthesileia.”4 In this fragment, Penthesilea is secondary to Achilles. The story is structured about his killing of her and “supposed love” for her. However, due to the text’s brevity, artists and writers have been able to interpret and re-imagine the tale as they saw fit. Heinrich von Kleist’s 1808 play, Penthesilea, does just that. In Kleist’s version of the myth, the warrior Queen steps into the narrative spotlight. It is a love-mad Penthesilea who, besotted with the demigod Achilles, relentlessly pursues and kills him, then devours him alongside her war-dogs. It is this telling that Othmar Schoeck employed as source material for his 1927 opera, Penthesilea. Literary scholars and musicologists discussing Schoeck’s Penthesilea have generally concerned themselves with the setting of Kleist’s text rather than an examination of the music. This is understandable; Schoeck was adamant about using material only from Kleist; the libretto was created by editing Kleist’s text down to a manageable number of lines.5 Only one attempt at describing the sound world of Penthesilea exists: Richard Eidenbenz’ 1929 Ueber Harmonik und tonale Einheit in Othmar Schoecks ‚Penthesilea‘, to which musicologists and biographers frequently refer. While his Riemannian approach is arguably outdated, Eidenbenz’ analysis has proven instrumental for later scholars, particularly Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen, in parsing the piano reduction. Other academics, such as Chris Walton, offer a historical and biographical account of Schoeck’s music drama. Despite differences in their respective approaches, all three 4Arctinus of Miletus, in Homer and Hesiod, Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, ed. Hugh G. Evelyn- White, July 5, 2008. Online version: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/348/348-h/348-h.htm 5 Chris Walton, Othmar Schoeck: Life and Works. (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2009), 131. Walton’s biography evinces that this was a strenuous endeavour. Three individuals – Hans Corrodi, Schoeck, and Schoeck’s cousin Leon Oswald all contributed to the generation of the libretto. 2 Love and War academics convincingly demonstrate that Schoeck thought of the contrast between pitches and tonal areas while constructing his music drama.6 Specifically, the three discuss the usage of the tritone, F#-C, and their association with the characters of Penthesilea and Achilles, respectively. Other scholars, such as Amy Emm, do not address pitch content, preferring instead to relate the libretto’s text to more general musical impressions. While many note the aural presence of a “love duet” between rehearsals 97-105 (R97-105), Emm’s close reading of Kleist leads her to further identify Penthesilea’s dying aria (R219-222).7 She argues that the purpose of the original text mirrors that of a simile aria. In this passage, Penthesilea sings about the fashioning her misery into a knife, with which we can assume she ‘kills’ herself.8 I further suggest that Schoeck was thinking of an aria-like text setting during the aria. For the most part, Schoeck’s Penthesilea avoids clear cut delineations between spoken sections, recitative, and sung sections, often switching between different vocal styles within the span of a few lines. The love duet and aria, by contrast, are two uninterrupted ‘songs’, arguably the only two in the opera. Though Emm’s suggestion is based on a close reading of the libretto, it is undeniable that these two passages aurally stand out from much of the sound world of the opera. Emm thus argues that it is the aural effect of contrasting styles, of juxtaposing the sentimentality of the duet and aria 6 This association of pitches C and F# with Achilles and Penthesilea is further discussed below in the section “I: Overall Structure & Harmonic Materials.” See also: Walton, Schoeck, 152; Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen, „Das "Wesentliche des Kleist'schen Dramas"? Zur musikdramatischen Konzeption von Othmar Schoecks Operneinakter "Penthesilea", “Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, 59. Jahrg., H. 4. (Franz Steiner Verlag, 2002), 267-297. https://www.jstor.org/stable/930940 7 Othmar Schoeck, “Penthesilea“, Klavierauszug von Karl Krebs (Baerenreiter, 1984), 86-92, 225-230. 8 This is confirmed examining the relationship between stage directions and text at R219, p. 225. Before Penthesilea begins to sing, stage directions specify that she positions herself “als ob sie Dolche hielten” (“as if she were holding [a] dagger”). At the high point of the aria, Penthesilea sings “und diesem Dolch jetzt reich ich in meine Brust” (“and now I will [stab myself in the chest]”). Schoeck does not include any direction regarding the acting out of sung line, however. This is left to be interpreted by the performers. 3 Love and War with the brash sounds of war, that defines the work and generates tension.9 I share this reading. Substantiating Emm’s claim, I suggest that two competing compositional styles are at play in Schoeck’s Penthesilea, reflective of the duality of the Amazon and, notably, Kleist’s unstable protagonist. The more modern of the two styles, which I dub the “war style”, employs twentieth- century instrumentation and post-tonal compositional techniques, specifically, polychords and disjunct melodies; its complement, the “love style”, makes use of late Romantic string-based instrumentation and more familiar tertian chords. I. Comments on Overall Structure & Harmonic Materials Schoeck’s opera opens on the Amazons at Troy embroiled in battle with the Greek army. Penthesilea, in violent, passionate pursuit of Achilles, recklessly engages in combat with the demigod, falls from her horse, and loses consciousness. The Amazons return her to their camp, Achilles follows. In order to appease Amazonian law which states one must defeat their ‘lover’ in battle, Penthesilea’s companion Prothoe convinces Achilles to deceive the Queen into believing that she has defeated him. Achilles consents, the ruse is maintained, and the two profess their love – that is, until the horns and shouts of the Greek army are heard. Pressured by the approaching troops, Penthesilea and Achilles urge each other to follow them to their respective homes. Attempting to control the fearsome Queen, Achilles tells her that she is, in fact, his prisoner. Penthesilea is enraged. After Achilles has departed with the Greek troops, Penthesilea curses the miserable situation. Shortly thereafter, a Greek messenger arrives at the 9 Amy Emm, “‘Jetzt trösten, jetzt verletzen seine Klänge‘: Kleist’s Agonism in Music,“ Heinrich von Kleist: Style and Concept : Explorations of Literary Dissonance. Edited by Dieter Sevin and Christoph Zeller (Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2013), 320. Emm’s identification of the aria is not built on musical elements, but by comparing the function of the passage to the function of simile arias. Both employ similes to express emotional content. This is further discussed on p. 5. 4 Love and War Amazon camp: Achilles wishes to challenge Penthesilea to battle. In her frenzied state, Penthesilea decides to absolutely annihilate Achilles. She over-prepares, calling for dogs and elephants and the ‘horrible pomp of war’, and departs to meet an unarmed Achilles. Penthesilea kills him and devours him alongside her
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