Ned Rorem's Poems of Love and the Rain

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UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

Date:______

I, ______, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: in:

It is entitled:

This work and its defense approved by:

Chair: ______

Ned Rorem’s Poems of Love and the Rain and Paul Hindemith’s Hin und zurück: an Analysis of Two Twentieth-century Vocal Works With an Emphasis On the Use of Mirror Form

A document submitted to the

Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati

in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS

in the Performance Studies Division

of the College-Conservatory of Music

2007

Kathleen M. Maurer

B. M., Butler University, 1977

M.M., Bowling Green State University, 1979

Committee Chair: Professor Mary Henderson Stucky

ABSTRACT

Ned Rorem’s Poems of Love and the Rain and Paul Hindemith’s Hin und zurück: an Analysis of Two Twentieth-century Vocal Works With an Emphasis On the Use of Mirror Form

Kathleen M. Maurer

This study centers on the use of mirror form in two twentieth-century vocal

works—Ned Rorem’s song cycle Poems of Love and the Rain and Paul Hindemith’s

chamber opera Hin und zurück. An historical introduction (Chapter I) discusses the use of mirror form in vocal, instrumental, and piano works from the fourteenth century to the present. The study includes biographies of Rorem, Hindemith, and librettist Marcellus

Schiffer, and it presents background information about both works with reference to performers, performances, and recordings.

Rorem chose mirror form—sometimes called an arch form or a palindrome—in

order to present two contrasting settings of the same poems within a single work;

Hindemith’s choice reflects his interest in creating a comedy based on silent film

techniques of 1920s Germany. Compositional elements specific to Rorem’s song cycle

examined in this study (Chapter II) include the poetry and authors, rain imagery, and

pacing. The discussion of Hindemith’s opera (Chapter III) includes the influence of

Expressionism and various comic elements, including characters, text, stage directions,

and instrumentation. Chapters II and III present a comparison of the halves of each

composition and analyze the overall structure, use of unifying motives, and tonal

organization in both works.

iii

Chapter IV draws conclusions by comparing and contrasting Rorem’s and

Hindemith’s implementation of mirror form and their compositional techniques.

Appendices A–D contain photos of and letters from Ned Rorem, lists of Rorem’s song cycles and Hindemith’s stage works, and a list of performances of Hin und zurück.

Author Kathleen Maurer provides a complete literal translation of Hindemith’s opera, including stage directions (Appendix E), to assist the reader in understanding the nuances of the German language, including the comedy inherent in the libretto. The importance of the mirror form from the performer’s standpoint is examined, and its effect upon the performance. Maurer concludes that both Rorem and Hindemith were successful in achieving their compositional goals.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to acknowledge and thank my doctoral advisor and document

committee chair, Professor Mary Henderson-Stucky, for her guidance and assistance in

the preparation of this document, and for her invaluable support during my doctoral

studies. I would also like to thank committee members Dr. Miguel Roig-Francoli and

Professor Kenneth Shaw for their input and assistance. I would like to acknowledge

Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. for granting permission to reprint musical excerpts from Ned

Rorem’s Poems of Love and the Rain, and Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG and European

American Music Distributors LLC for granting permission to use the German text and

musical excerpts from Paul Hindemith’s Hin und zurück and for providing a perusal

score. Special thanks go to Dr. Eleanor Trawick for the many hours she spent discussing

the theoretical analysis of these two works with me, and for her editorial expertise. I

would also like to thank Dr. Anna Priebe for her editorial assistance. I am especially

grateful to my husband, David, and daughter, Lisa, for their support and encouragement

during my years of research and writing, and to my parents, Arthur and Joan Leamer, for

their constant support. I would like to thank my pianist, Ji-Young Jeoung, for her

insightful study of the score of Poems of Love and the Rain with me in preparation for

our performance. My thanks go above all to Ned Rorem, for taking the time to answer all

my letters, for his kind and complimentary words about my writing and my performance of his song cycle, and for his wonderful composition.

CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES...... ix

CHAPTER I: MIRROR FORM...... 1

CHAPTER II: NED ROREM AND POEMS OF LOVE AND THE RAIN...... 13

Biography...... 13

Poems of Love and the Rain...... 15

Poetry and Authors...... 18

Unifying Motives...... 20

Rain Imagery...... 24

Pacing...... 32

Mirror Form...... 33

Conclusions...... 69

The Effect of Mirror Form on the Performance...... 72

CHAPTER III: PAUL HINDEMITH AND HIN UND ZURÜCK...... 76

Biography...... 76

Hin und zurück...... 79

Hindemith and Expressionism...... 84

Marcellus Schiffer—Biography...... 85

Comic Elements...... 88

Mirror Form...... 97

Conclusions...... 120

Effect of Mirror Form on the Performance...... 123

vii

CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION...... 125

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 135

APPENDIX A: PHOTOGRAPHS AND LETTERS...... 141

APPENDIX B: SONG CYCLES BY NED ROREM...... 147

APPENDIX C: STAGE WORKS BY PAUL HINDEMITH...... 149

APPENDIX D: PERFORMANCES OF HIN UND ZURÜCK...... 151

APPENDIX E: HIN UND ZURÜCK TEXT AND STAGE DIRECTIONS...... 153

viii

FIGURES

1. Seven movements of Cantata No. 63...... 2

2. Seven-part form of the da capo Chorus in Cantata No. 63...... 3

3. Table of Contents from the score of Poems of Love and the Rain...... 8

4. Scenes and song titles in The Last Five Years...... 11

5. Poems of Love and the Rain—list of songs in their order of composition...... 18

6. The Rain Motive as it appears at the beginning of the Prologue...... 21

7. The Rain Motive as it appears at the end of the Epilogue...... 22

8. Recurring Vocal Motive as it first appears in mm. 7-8 of the Prologue...... 23

9. Length of time between songs in performance...... 33

10. Chart showing a comparison of the settings of each poem, the use of the Rain Motive (RM) and Vocal Motive (VM), and the name of the author for each song pair...... 35

11. Comparison summary of Song No. 2 and Song No. 16—Stop All The Clocks.....38

12. Comparison summary of Song No. 3 and Song No. 15—The Air Is The Only.....40

13. Comparison summary of Song No. 4 and Song No. 14—Love’s Stricken “Why”...... 42

14. Initial vocal motive...... 44

15. Accompaniment motive showing dominant harmonic function...... 44

16. Accompaniment motive in imitation of the initial vocal motive, shown at two pitch levels...... 45

17. Comparison summary of Song No. 5 and Song No. 13—The Apparition...... 46

18. Introductory phrase leading to G tonal center and recurring motive at the words “more than a day”...... 48

19. Comparison summary of Song No. 6 and Song No. 12—Do I Love You (parts I and II)...... 51

20. Example 1. Melodic phrase at mm. 1-2 in Song No. 11, outlining the D Major triad over a sustained D in the piano bass...... 53

20. Example 2. Melodic phrase at mm. 5-6 in Song No. 11, outlining the D Major triad over a sustained D in the piano bass...... 54

21. Comparison summary of Song No. 7 and Song No. 11—In The Rain...... 55

22. Phrase emphasizing the word “who” and ending with the descending minor third motive in Song No. 8...... 56

23. Melodic leap downward representing a loud cry as shown in mm. 90-91 of Song No. 8...... 57

24. Measures 1-4 showing voice leading to C tonal center in Song No. 8...... 59

25. Opening melodic phrase of Song No. 8 in mm. 5-7 showing C minor “tonic” pitch classes...... 59

26. Measures 104-107 of Song No. 8 showing the descending minor third motive and Db–C, G–C voice leading in support of the C minor tonal center...... 60

27. Bass line movement in mm. 14-17 showing return to C tonal center in Song No. 10...... 63

28. Comparison summary of Song No. 8 and Song No. 10—Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain...... 63

29. Text painting of the wind in Song No. 9—Interlude...... 66

30. Interlude mm. 9-11 showing C minor tonality and G dominant relationship; text painting showing “musical sighs” in m. 11...... 67

31. Interlude mm. 12-13 showing the Rain Motive in its original and expanded forms...... 68

32. Interlude mm. 14-15 showing melodic quote from Song No. 8—Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain...... 69

33. Comparison summary of the first and second halves of Song No. 9— Interlude...... 70

34. Comparison Chart showing tonal centers, E-natural/E-flat pitch classes, poetry subjects, and types of rain imagery in the song cycle...... 73

35. Hin und zurück—beginning of the trio, mm. 214-218, showing musical sighs sung in octaves above the names of medicines intoned by the Orderly...... 94

36. Structure of the opera, showing mirror form...... 98

37. Performance times for each section of the opera...... 99

38. Prelude opening motive in mm. 1-4...... 102

39. Characteristic motive from the Postlude, mm. 398-400...... 102

40. Argument Motive from Duet I, mm. 144-149, in the vocal line and as played by trumpet and trombone in the accompaniment...... 108

41. Robert’s last text in Trio I, mm. 228-230, showing A-flat Major tonality...... 113

42. Robert’s recitative, Trio II, mm. 258-260, showing A-flat Major tonality and modulation to C tonal center...... 114

43. Final phrase of Sage’s aria and quoted phrase from Helene’s Ariette II...... 117

44. Sage’s Aria opening accompaniment motive, mm. 231-232...... 118

45. Sage’s Aria second accompaniment motive in E Major, mm. 241-243, and chant-like melody...... 119

46. Tonal Centers in each section of the opera...... 122

47. Performance times for Poems of Love and the Rain and Hin und zurück...... 131

48. Comparison of the paired song lengths in the halves of Poems of Love and the Rain...... 132

CHAPTER I

MIRROR FORM

In the study of any composition, the element of form is of primary concern. The

form is a means of organizing the other elements of a composition, such as harmony,

melody, rhythm, and in the case of vocal works, text and plot. One intriguing type of

form is the mirror. In mirror form, the second half of the work reflects a mirror image of

the first half—in other words, the second half presents the first half in reverse order, so

that the composition ends where it began. This form can also be referred to as a

palindrome or an arch form, or in a larger sense as a type of cyclical form, because it ends

where it began, completing a cycle.

Although the term “mirror form” usually refers to music of the twentieth century

and the focus of this research centers on two twentieth-century works by Ned Rorem and

Paul Hindemith, there are earlier examples of music that display this form. A look at

some of these earlier works provides insight into several different ways in which

composers have successfully used this form to achieve their compositional goals.

Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300-1377) composed his rondeau Ma fin est mon

commencement et mon commencement ma fin (My end is my beginning and my

beginning my end) using a type of mirror form. In this work, the melody in the upper

voice is presented backwards in the tenor voice, and in the contratenor voice the second

half of the melody is the reverse of the first half.1 William Byrd (ca. 1540-1623)

1 Donald Jay Grout and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, 6th ed. (New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001), 104.

1 2

composed a multi-voiced palindrome in his motet Diliges Dominum (Esteemed Lord).

The motet is written for four pairs of voices, and at the halfway point the two voices

within each pair exchange parts and sing them backward. Brian Newbould suggests that

Byrd chose this compositional technique as a means of presenting the text, which exhorts

the listener to “... love thy neighbor as thyself.”2

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) also used mirror form in his Cantata No. 63,

Christen, ätzet diesen Tag (Christians, etch this day). In this cantata, Bach reveals a

preference for balance and symmetry which is underscored by the overall structure of the

work. The seven movements of the cantata are organized in the following manner:

1. Chorus 2. Recitative (Alto) 3. Duet (Soprano and Bass) 4. Recitative (Tenor) 5. Duet (Alto and Tenor) 6. Recitative (Bass) 7. Chorus

Figure 1. Seven movements of Cantata No. 63.

The basic structure is that of a mirror, divided by the tenor recitative in the middle.

Further analysis reveals that both choruses are composed in a similar form as well. They begin with an instrumental prelude, are in a da capo form, and end with an instrumental

postlude. This creates a seven-part form: prelude, chorus, interlude, chorus, (da capo al

fine) prelude, chorus, interlude which becomes the postlude (fine). The following chart clarifies this seven-part form.

2 Brian Newbould, “A Schubert Palindrome,” 19th Century Music 15, no. 3 (spring 1992): 208.

1. Prelude 2. Chorus 3. Interlude 4. Chorus da capo al Fine 5. Prelude repeated 6. Chorus repeated 7. Interlude repeated (now as Postlude) Fine

Figure 2. Seven-part form of the da capo Chorus in Cantata No. 63.

In addition, the prelude and interlude in the first chorus are of equal length—thirty-three measures. The final chorus movement and the duet for the soprano and bass are also composed in a da capo seven-part form similar to the first chorus; the prelude and interlude in both movements are seven measures in length. The duet for the alto and tenor is somewhat different, but it begins and ends with a prelude and postlude of equal length—twenty measures. By examining the overall form of this cantata, it is apparent that the mirror form helps create both balance and symmetry in this work.

Two examples of palindromes in music of the Classical period are the minuet from Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 47 and the Minuet in C Major for keyboard by

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788).3 Haydn (1732-1809) wrote an exact palindrome in his minuet, and in fact did not write out the music for the second section, writing the words “Menuet al roverso” (minuet in reverse) in the score instead. In 1770, a year or two before Haydn composed his Symphony No. 47, C.P.E. Bach composed his Minuet in

C Major. It contains two eight-measure sections which are a full-textured palindrome.4

3 Newbould, 208.

4 Ibid.

Newbould suggests the possibility that the minuet as a composition lent itself to

experimentation with this form, due to the simple block-chord structure of the minuet and

the ability to reverse the harmonic rhythms in the triple meter more easily than in duple

or quadruple meters.5

In the nineteenth century, Franz Schubert (1797-1828) composed a palindrome in

his melodrama of 1820, Die Zauberharfe (The Magic Harp). Newbould states that this

palindrome is “...the only example in Schubert and possibly the sole instance in the whole

of nineteenth-century music.”6 He further defines a palindrome as a musical statement followed by its retrograde, and encompassing more than the retrograde of a single line.7

The nineteen-measure palindrome in Die Zauberharfe encompasses all the parts in the orchestra, and the harmonic progressions therefore appear in retrograde form as well. The palindrome, which is nearly exact, occurs in the third movement of the melodrama and is divided into two parts, at mm. 7-25 and 334-353. In addition, the two palindrome sections are framed by a succession of seven chords taken from the Rosamunde overture, which

Schubert originally wrote for Die Zauberharfe. Although Schubert’s reasons for choosing to write this palindrome are unclear, Newbould theorizes that there is a connection to the text of the melodrama, which is a dialogue between the fairy Melinde and the fire-demon

Sutur. He suggests that the seven chords refer to Melinde, and the nineteen-measure palindrome represents Sutur. Thus Schubert may have used this palindrome to support the drama in this staged work.

5 Newbould, 208.

6Ibid., 207.

7Ibid.

The use of mirror form appears in the twentieth century in genres such as

instrumental music and piano works, as well as in vocal works. Instrumental works such

as Bela Bartok’s String Quartet No. 4 (1928) and his Music for Strings, Percussion and

Celesta (1936) and Anton Webern’s Symphony, Op. 21 (1928) employ this form, as do

Webern’s Piano Variations, Op. 27 (1936).

Bela Bartok composed several works emphasizing the use of arch forms (a type of

mirror form), which he called “bridge forms,” between 1927 and 1939. One example is

his String Quartet No. 4 (1928), which consists of five movements in an overall

A B C B A structure. In this quartet the first and last movements are allegro movements

based on similar thematic material; the second and fourth movements are scherzos, with

the fourth movement a free variation of the second; and the third movement has an A B A

structure as well.8 Bartok’s String Quartet No. 5 (1934), Piano Concerto No. 2 (1931),

and Violin Concerto No. 2 (1938) are also structured in similar arch forms.9

In his Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Bartok employs mirror form in

the third movement (Adagio) in two ways: in the opening xylophone solo and in the overall structure of the work. In the xylophone solo, the midpoint of the mirror is at the beginning of the third measure. The entire movement has a mirror structure: Prologue A

B C D C B A Epilogue. At the midpoint of the movement, in the D section, measures 49-

8 Robert P. Morgan, Twentieth-Century Music (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1991), 184.

9 Ibid.

50 are a retrograde of measures 47-48. In this manner, Bartok uses mirror form on both a large and a small scale to organize his composition.10

Anton Webern’s use of mirror form is tied to his approach to the twelve-tone method of composition. Webern constructs his tone rows so that they have specific organizational properties. According to Robert P. Morgan, in his Symphony, Op. 21

Webern constructs the tone rows so that

“...the last two notes of any given row form are identical to the first two notes of a particular transposition of the inversion...Webern allows this property to determine the sequence of row forms in all four voices, the last two notes of each of the four initial forms overlapping with the first two of the following ones...Moreover, this property is symmetrical: the row is constructed so that the second of each row pair leads back to the first one again...This offers Webern a compelling reason for repeating the entire segment (note the double bar at the end), since the row structure literally turns back on itself and thus forms a closed system.”11

It is this “turning back on itself” that creates the mirror form in Webern’s Symphony, Op.

21. In fact, the first movement is constructed as a palindrome, with the midpoint occurring at measure 35, which is where the retrograde begins.12 Concerning Webern’s

Piano Variations, Op. 27, Morgan states:

“The main structural idea of the Piano Variations, Op. 27...is derived not so much from the row itself as from the idea of combining the original form of the row with its untransposed retrograde. Webern exploits this combination to shape the opening phrase as an exact palindrome, with its axis in the middle of m. 4; that is, the music from the last sixteenth of m. 4 through m. 7 is an exact retrograde of the music up to the beginning of m. 4.”13

10 Claude Palisca, ed., Norton Anthology of Western Music, 4th ed., vol. 2, Classic to Modern (New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001), 674.

11 Morgan, 205.

12 Palisca, 782.

13 Morgan, 207.

This palindrome is another example of Webern’s use of mirror form. Thus, Webern

employs mirror form as a compositional technique in his Symphony, Op. 21 and his Piano

Variations, Op. 27.

Twentieth-century vocal works based upon mirror form include Paul Hindemith’s

chamber opera, Hin und zurück (1927), and Ned Rorem’s song cycle, Poems of Love and

the Rain (1963); twenty-first-century vocal works in this form are Jake Heggie’s opera,

Dead Man Walking (2000), and Jason Robert Brown’s musical, The Last Five Years

(2001).

Paul Hindemith’s Hin und zurück (There and Back Again), a one-act opera, employs mirror form in the following manner: the action proceeds forwards and then reverses at the midpoint, returning to the beginning. Each line of text appears in reverse order in the second half, and the action proceeds as if a video is played in reverse. The music does not reverse order exactly, but many musical figures are retained in the second half of the opera, appearing with the appropriate phrases of text. At the midpoint, the character of the Sage comments that “. . . no great difference exists if a man begins his life in the cradle, then proceeds ’til he meets death, or if he dies first, and follows from death to birth.” 14 The Sage’s commentary is not repeated in reverse order, but divides the

halves of the opera. Thus the form stems from the central thought of the librettist as stated by the Sage.

The mirror form in Ned Rorem’s song cycle Poems of Love and the Rain derives

from the composer’s idea of writing two contrasting settings of each poem in the cycle.

14Paul Hindemith, Hin und zurück, piano reduction, libretto by Marcellus Schiffer, English version by Marion Farquhar (Mainz, London, Paris and New York: B Schott’s Söhne, 1927), 14-15.

This reflects his belief that a good poem can be set to music in more than one way.15

The manner in which the table of contents is printed in the musical score depicts Rorem’s choice of mirror form, which he also calls “pyramidal.”16

1. PROLOGUE from The Rain Donald Windham 2. Stop All The Clocks, Cut Off The Telephone W. H. Auden 3. The Air Is The Only Howard Moss 4. Love’s Stricken “Why” Emily Dickinson 5. The Apparition Theodore Roethke 6. Do I Love You Jack Larson 7. In The Rain- E. E. Cummings 8. Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain Kenneth Pitchford 9. Interlude Roethke 10. Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain (conclusion) 11. In The Rain- 12. Do I Love You (Part II) 13. The Apparition 14. Love’s Stricken “Why” 15. The Air Is The Only 16. Stop All The Clocks, Cut Off The Telephone 17. EPILOGUE from The Rain

Figure 3. Table of Contents from the score of Poems of Love and the Rain.

A closer look at the table of contents reveals the structure: seven poems by seven

different authors are presented in a mirror form, set off by a Prologue and an Epilogue

and divided by an Interlude at the midpoint. The poems are ordered so that songs no. 1

and 17 share the same text, as do songs no. 2 and 16, 3 and 15, 4 and 14, etc. The subject

matter of the poetry is mainly unrequited love, and Rorem wished to set these poems

15 Ned Rorem, “Composer’s Notes,” in Poems of Love and the Rain, (New York: Boosey & Hawkes, 1965).

16 Ibid.

against a backdrop of constant rain.17 Although Rorem did not intend for the poems to

tell a story, the listener experiences an emotional journey which somehow begins and

ends in the same place. Rorem said, “I wished for the singer to arrive on the stage one

person, and to leave it another. The metamorphosis would occur midway, through a new

viewpoint on an old obsession.”18 It is the mirror form that allows for this transformation.

Contemporary composer Jake Heggie uses mirror form in a broad sense in his

opera, Dead Man Walking. The first act of the opera, after the prologue, begins with

Sister Helen singing a simple unaccompanied spiritual (composed by Heggie) entitled,

“He will gather us around.” Throughout the act, music is added in layers until the

crashing finale in which all the characters sing together, and Sister Helen collapses

onstage. During the second act, the layers are gradually removed until the final scene.

The opera ends with Sister Helen singing, unaccompanied, the spiritual from the

beginning of the opera. According to Heggie, the second act is “…a gradual stripping

away of layers to reveal the essence of what is at stake in the story: life and love.”19

Heggie’s choice of mirror form was thus based on his concept of the story and the best way to express the emotional journey of the characters therein.

17 Rorem, “Composer’s Notes,” in Poems of Love and the Rain.

18 Ned Rorem, Poems of Love and the Rain, “Notes by the Composer,” Phoenix PHCD 108, 1989, compact disc.

19 Jake Heggie, “From the Composer,” Dead Man Walking, Program notes, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati, Ohio, July 19, 2002. The première of Dead Man Walking took place at the San Francisco Opera on October 7, 2000.

Jason Robert Brown adapts mirror form in his Broadway musical, The Last Five

Years,20 in a different manner. This musical presents the story of two people who fall in love, marry, and separate after five years. There are only two characters in the story,

Catherine and Jamie. During the musical, Catherine and Jamie alternate songs, Catherine

telling her story from the end of their relationship and working backwards toward the

beginning, and Jamie telling his story from their first date and working forwards until

their relationship ends. Their stories meet at their wedding duet, entitled “The Next Ten

Minutes,” which is in the eighth scene of the fourteen scenes that make up this work. The

musical ends with both characters singing the word “Goodbye,” Catherine at the end of

their first date, and Jamie at the end of their relationship. Figure 4 shows the scenes with

their song titles as they appear in the musical, with Catherine’s songs on the left and

Jamie’s on the right. The wedding duet is shown in the center.

The mirror form in this work is presented in the plot lines only, and not in the

music itself. In essence, the plot lines create an “X” with both halves of the musical

presenting their entire relationship, and the second half of the musical becomes the mirror

image of the first. The wedding marks both the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half of their story. In the first part of the musical, half of the plot is told forwards from the beginning by Jamie and the other half is told backwards from the ending by Catherine. The second part of the musical also presents their five years

20 The Last Five Years was first produced at the Northlight Theatre Company in Skokie, Illinois in 2001. It opened Off-Broadway at the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York on March 3, 2002.

11 together; this time the first half of their relationship is told by Catherine and the second half by Jamie. In this rather complex manner, Jason Robert Brown uses mirror form as an effective means to convey the drama in his musical.

Catherine Jamie (end of the relationship) (beginning of the relationship) 1. Still Hurting 2. Shiksa Goddess 3. See I’m Smiling 4. Moving Too Fast 5. A Part Of That 6. The Schmuel Song 7. A Summer In Ohio

8. The Next Ten Minutes (wedding duet)

9. A Miracle Would Happen When You Come Home To Me I’ll Be There Soon, Cathy 10. Climbing Uphill 11. If I Didn’t Believe In You 12. I Can Do Better Than That 13. Nobody Needs To Know 14. Goodbye Until Tomorrow I Could Never Rescue You (beginning of the relationship) (end of the relationship)

Figure 4. Scenes and song titles in The Last Five Years.

The purpose of this document is to show how mirror form can be used in different ways to define a large vocal work—in this case a song cycle and a chamber opera. As a singer, I am particularly interested in the use of mirror form in vocal works because of the compositional challenges created by the addition of text to the music. In addition, an

understanding of the form of a work and the composer’s intentions in writing it informs the singer’s performance. Rorem’s Poems of Love and the Rain and Hindemith’s Hin und zurück employ mirror form in a similar manner to structure the large-scale drama, which

12 is why I chose these two works for study. In exploring the nature of the mirror form in each work, I will discuss the reasons why Rorem and Hindemith chose to write these works using mirror form, the effectiveness of the form in conveying the drama in each work, the manner in which the use of text affects the implementation of the mirror form, the compositional techniques used by Rorem and Hindemith to create the mirror, and the similarities and differences between the mirror forms in these two works.

CHAPTER II

Ned Rorem and Poems of Love and the Rain

Biography

American composer Ned Rorem was born in Richmond, Indiana, on October 23,

1923. His musical training included studies with Leo Sowerby (1938-39) and Virgil

Thomson (1944). His formal training was at the Curtis Institute (1943) and later the

Juilliard School of Music, where he earned the Bachelor of Science degree (1946) and the

Master of Science degree (1948). The recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship in 1951, he

studied with Arthur Honegger in France, and then settled in Paris in 1952, where he

became acquainted with Jean Cocteau, Francis Poulenc, and Georges Auric. During this

time he wrote mainly songs, and also published a series of diaries. Returning to the

United States in 1958, he taught at the University of Buffalo (1959-60), the University of

Utah (1965-66), and the Curtis Institute (1980-86). He has received numerous awards and

commissions, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his orchestral suite Air Music. His compositions include orchestral works, piano works, chamber music, operas, ballets, choral works, and art songs. Today, at the age of 83, he is an active composer, and the

recent première on February 24, 2006, of his opera Our Town at Indiana University at

Bloomington was a great success.21

21 I was present at this première and the audience reaction, as well as my own, attested to the success of Rorem’s opera. There were numerous curtain calls for the cast and the composer, and a prolonged standing ovation. I was also privileged to meet Mr. Rorem prior to the performance and as he autographed my copy of Poems of Love and the Rain he said, “No one sings these any more—except you.” A photograph of Mr. Rorem and me that was taken at the première is located in Appendix A.

13 14

Often called America’s best song composer, Rorem, who has written over five

hundred art songs,22 is certainly the most prolific American art song composer of the

twentieth century. The large number of these songs collected in his twenty-seven song

cycles also demonstrates his particular interest in this genre. He has written fifteen cycles

for voice with piano accompaniment and twelve cycles for voice with instrumental ensemble.23 Throughout his career Rorem has composed song cycles—his first for voice

and piano was Three Incantations from a Marionette Tale (1948) and his most recent is

Evidence of Things Not Seen (1988). Premièred at the New York Festival of Song in

Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall on January 22, 1988, this latter work in three parts

consists of thirty-six songs based on texts by twenty-four authors. It is scored for four

soloists (SATB) and piano, and is his magnum opus in this genre.24 Rorem’s first song

cycle with instrumental accompaniment was Six Irish Poems (1950) for voice and orchestra, and his latest is More Than a Day (1995) for countertenor and orchestra. When asked why he wrote so many song cycles, Rorem responded that the art of the song recital had all but ended, and that only a few singers were still interested in singing

American art songs. Since the commissions he received from such singers were for cycles, he wrote cycles.25

22Boosey & Hawkes, “Ned Rorem Biography,” http://www.boosey.com/pages/cr/composer/composer_main.asp?composerid=2740&ttyp e...(accessed March 31, 2007).

23 A complete list of Rorem’s song cycles can be found in Appendix B.

24The Official Ned Rorem Website, “About Ned Rorem,” http://nedrorem.com/nav1.html (accessed March 31, 2007).

25 Ned Rorem, “The NATS Bulletin Interviews Ned Rorem,” The NATS Bulletin 39, no. 2 (November/December 1982): 6.

Poems of Love and the Rain

The Ford Foundation commissioned the writing of Poems of Love and the Rain.

Rorem composed the cycle in December-January 1962-63 and dedicated it to mezzo-

soprano Regina Sarfaty.26 She sang the first performance, with Rorem at the piano, at the

Wisconsin Union Theater in Madison, Wisconsin, on April 12, 1964. They performed the

work in New York at the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum on April 9, 1965, also recording it together that same year. In addition to the performances with Regina Sarfaty, Rorem performed Poems of Love and the Rain with

American mezzo-soprano Beverly Wolff in New York City at Town Hall in 1968 and recorded the cycle with her in 1989.27

It is interesting to note that Rorem wrote songs for mezzo-sopranos on a number of

occasions. He explained that when he first began composing songs, he knew little about

the voice. In an interview with Patrick O’Connor in Opera News, Rorem discussed

writing songs for American mezzo-soprano Nell Tangeman.28 He said that, as a result,

26 American mezzo-soprano Regina Sarfaty (b. 1932) studied at the Juilliard School of Music. Her debut was in 1957 with the Santa Fe Opera. She sang with opera companies in the United States and Europe, including the New York City Opera, Baltimore Opera, Glyndebourne Opera, Zürich Opera, Paris Opéra, and Geneva Opera. She sang both lyric and dramatic mezzo-soprano roles, in both traditional and modern repertoire. Elizabeth Forbes, “Sarfaty, Regina,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan Press Limited, 1992), 4:179.

27American mezzo-soprano Beverly Wolff (1928-2005) studied in Philadelphia and made her debut with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. She later sang regularly with the New York City Opera, as well as with opera companies in the United States and abroad. Slonimsky, Kuhn, and McIntire, “Wolff, Beverly,” in Baker’s Biographical Dictionary, 6:3967.

28 Nell Tangeman (1917-65) studied voice at the Cleveland Institute of Music and later in New York. Her 1945 debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra was as

“. . . [I] became geared to the notion of a mezzo-soprano range and timbre.”29

Rorem gives us a view of his compositional process in his “Composer’s Notes” to

the score of Poems of Love and the Rain. His dedication of the cycle to Regina Sarfaty

explicitly describes his thoughts. He wrote:

Regina Sarfaty’s voice and physique were constantly in my mind as I worked. She is a [sic] brooding and beautiful, and her voice resembles herself—rich and dark, dramatic and anguished. Hence my choice of poems which deal principally with unrequited love against a backdrop of constant rain…The cycle tells no story per se; it seeks rather to sustain a uniform mood with as much variety as the terms of this mood permit—with an occasional flash of light through the black cloud.”30

The recording of Poems of Love and the Rain by Sarfaty and Rorem further clarifies

Rorem’s description of the vocal timbre he had in mind, as well as the stylistic character of the cycle that he desired to express. Sarfaty’s voice has a dark, dramatic tone quality, with rich low notes and a powerful high range.31 In his “Composer’s Notes” Rorem also explains his decision to set each poem twice in order to demonstrate the variety of

possibilities for setting a good poem, and he describes his choice of mirror form to

organize the structure of the song cycle.32

soloist in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. Her New York recital debut followed in 1948; later she traveled to Italy on a Fulbright scholarship. During her career, she sang throughout the United States and Europe. Nicholas Slonimsky, Laura Kuhn, and Dennis McIntire, “Tangeman, Nell,” in Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, ed. Nicholas Slonimsky (emeritus) and Laura Kuhn (New York: Schirmer, 2001), 6:3582.

29 Patrick O’Connor, “Imagination Snared,” Opera News 53 (October 1988): 25.

30Ned Rorem, “Composer’s Notes,” in Poems of Love and the Rain, (New York: Boosey & Hawkes, 1965).

31 Ned Rorem, Poems of Love and the Rain; Second piano sonata, Regina Sarfaty, mezzo-soprano, the composer at the piano (first work); Julius Katchen, piano (second work), Composers Recordings CRI 202, 33 rpm, 1965.

32 Rorem, “Composer’s Notes,” Poems of Love and the Rain.

Additional information concerning Rorem’s compositional process can be found

by examining the score itself. Each song in the score includes its date of composition,

with the exception of the Prologue. A look at these dates reveals that Rorem apparently did not have a systematic manner of composing Poems of Love and the Rain; songs from both halves of the cycle were composed one after the other, and not in their order of

appearance in the cycle. The second song of the cycle has the earliest date of

composition; because the Prologue proceeds attacca to this song, it is possible that they

were written together on December 5, 1962. For only two of the song pairs were the

songs written one after the other—song no. 3 was written just prior to song no. 15, and song no. 12 was written prior to song no. 6, in reverse order from that in the cycle. The

Interlude and the final two songs were written within two days—December 22-23,

1962—during the middle of the time period Rorem spent in completing the cycle. Song

no. 5—The Apparition—took the longest to complete (three months) and was the last to

be written. The chart in figure 5 shows the songs in their order of composition.

The following discussion of Poems of Love and the Rain will begin with a look at

the poetry and the authors, motivic unity, rain imagery, and pacing before turning to a

detailed comparison of the song pairs including large-scale structural and tonal

organization.

2. Stop All The Clocks, Cut Off The Telephone 5 Dec. 1962 13. The Apparition 8 Dec. 1962 14. Love’s Stricken “Why”’ 9 Dec. 1962 3. The Air Is The Only 5 Dec. 1962 15. The Air Is The Only 21 Dec. 1962 9. Interlude 22 Dec. 1962 16. Stop All The Clocks, Cut Off The Telephone 23 Dec. 1962 17. Epilogue: from The Rain 23 Dec. 1962 4. Love’s Stricken “Why” 29 April 1947 (2 A.M.), revised 26 Dec. 1962 11. In The Rain- 31 Dec. 1962 10. Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain (conclusion) 1-2 Jan. 1963 12. Do I Love You (Part II) 9 Jan. 1963 6. Do I Love You (Part I) 9-10 Jan. 1963 8. Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain 3 Jan. 1963 7. In The Rain- 21 Jan. 1963 5. The Apparition Jan.-March 1963

Figure 5. Poems of Love and the Rain—list of songs in their order of composition.

Poetry and Authors

A study of the poems and their authors gives additional insight into Rorem’s

manner of composing. Rorem stated that he chose whatever spoke to his condition for his

song texts.33 In Poems of Love and the Rain he chose “. . . poems which deal principally

with unrequited love against a backdrop of constant rain. . . .”34 In setting his song texts,

Rorem adheres to two main principles: follow a natural prosodic flow, and never repeat words unless they are repeated by the poet.35 In order to set the English language in a

33Rorem, “The NATS Bulletin Interviews Ned Rorem,” 5.

34Rorem, “Composer’s Notes,” Poems of Love and the Rain.

35Rorem, “The NATS Bulletin Interviews Ned Rorem,” 5.

19 natural manner, Rorem uses mostly syllabic writing. When he gives a word or syllable more than one note, it is for emphasis.

The list of poets whose works Rorem chose for Poems of Love and the Rain includes twentieth-century American poets, as well as nineteenth-century American poet

Emily Dickinson. They are, in the order in which their poems appear in the song cycle:

Donald Windham (b.1920), Wystan Hugh Auden (1907–73), Howard Moss (1922–87),

Emily Dickinson (1830–86), Theodore Roethke (1908–63), Jack Larson (b. 1933),

Edward Estlin Cummings (1894–1962), and Kenneth Pitchford (b.1931). A look at the background of these authors aids in understanding why their works in particular spoke to

Rorem. First of all, with the exception of Dickinson, they are his near contemporaries.

The references to these authors in his book, Wings of Friendship,36 reveal that he knew their writings very well. In fact, he has set the poetry of Auden, Larson, Moss, and

Roethke in several songs and cycles in addition to Poems of Love and the Rain. A number of Rorem’s letters published in Wings of Friendship are directed to Larson, who is apparently a personal friend. It is also possible that Rorem, who writes quite openly about his own homosexuality, would very likely be drawn to the poetry of other homosexual authors, such as Windham, Auden, and Larson.

Poems of Love and the Rain begins not with a poem, but with a line of prose from

Windham’s book, Emblems of Conduct. The line chosen by Rorem is from Windham’s chapter entitled “The Rain.” Windham writes, “Everywhere, the impossible is happening: two things, the rain and the landscape, are occupying the same space at the same time.”37

36 Rorem, Wings of Friendship, (Shoemaker Hoard, 2005).

37 Donald Windham, Emblems of Conduct, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1963), 76.

Rorem chose this text for the Prologue and the Epilogue, to begin and end his song cycle

and to set the scene for the entire cycle. Rorem set this text in a slow, dreamy manner,

against the background of the rain, which appears as a motive in the accompaniment.

This setting retains the mood of the original prose, which is also a slow, dreamy

description of the narrator’s surroundings during a rainstorm.

Unifying Motives38

Rorem uses recurring motives to unify Poems of Love and the Rain. The Prologue

begins and ends with an accompaniment motive that is repeated nine times during the single line of prose that introduces the cycle. This motive will be referred to as the “Rain

Motive,” reflecting Rorem’s intention to set the poems “. . . against a backdrop of constant rain. . . .”39 The Rain Motive consists of two simultaneous rhythmic figures: a

triplet in the left hand and a thirty-second note figure in the right hand. In its first

appearance, the left-hand figure consists of a perfect fifth followed by a diminished fifth

in an arpeggio. The right-hand figure has a jagged shape, beginning with a thirty-second

note rest followed by a large leap downwards (in this case a minor ninth) and another leap upwards (here a minor sixth) and ending with a small skip downwards (here a minor

38 A number of authors identify recurring motives in Poems of Love and the Rain including Virginia Ruth Buzan, Ralph Del Dowden, Judith Elaine Carman, Leon Austin Henry, Jr., and Nobleza G. Pilar; their works are listed in the bibliography. Although Rorem states in his “Composer’s Notes” to the song cycle that there is one recurring motive throughout, these authors present varying interpretations of motivic unity in this work. The motives identified in this document are based upon my own performance and analysis of the song cycle, and are those which I believe to be discernible to the listener.

39Rorem, “Composer’s Notes,” Poems of Love and the Rain.

third). The Rain Motive appears with slightly altered intervals throughout the song cycle,

but the arpeggiated triplet left-hand gesture consistently occurs in conjunction with the

jagged downward-and-upward thirty-second note gesture in the right hand. Figure 6 shows the Rain Motive as it appears at the beginning of the Prologue.

Figure 6. The Rain Motive as it appears at the beginning of the Prologue.40

The Rain Motive reappears seven times during the Interlude and seven times during the Epilogue. A variation of this motive becomes the basis for the eleventh song.

Rorem reinforces the underlying mirror structure of the song cycle by using the Rain

Motive in the Prologue, Interlude, and Epilogue. In the Prologue and Epilogue, which are

40Rorem, “Prologue: from “The Rain,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 2.

nearly identical, this motive retains its original form with each repetition. The Interlude is

improvisatory in nature, and here the Rain Motive appears in its original form and in

expanded forms—the right hand figure begins with four notes, expands to six notes, and then to nine notes. These three variations appear at the beginning and end of the piano solo section of the Interlude, creating symmetry. Since the Rain Motive begins and ends the cycle and is connected with the same text in both Prologue and Epilogue, it gives the cycle a strong sense of closure. Figure 7 shows the Rain Motive as it appears at the end of the Epilogue.

Figure 7. The Rain Motive as it appears at the end of the Epilogue.41

41Rorem, “Epilogue: from “The Rain,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 48.

A second motive, which appears principally in the vocal line, also unifies the cycle.

It first appears in mm.7-8 of the Prologue and reappears in its original form and in varied

forms throughout the cycle. This motive will be referred to as the “Vocal Motive.” The

Vocal Motive consists of a central pitch surrounded by upper and lower neighbor tones and followed by a descending small interval. In its first appearance the central pitch is B-

natural, which is encircled by the notes A-natural and C-natural, and followed by a

descending minor third to the note G-sharp. Figure 8 shows the Vocal Motive as it first

appears in mm.7-8 of the Prologue.

Figure 8. Recurring Vocal Motive as it first appears in mm.7-8 of the Prologue.42

Rorem further unifies his song cycle by the repeated use of a two-note motive in the interval of a descending minor third. This motivic unit is derived from both the Rain

Motive and the Vocal Motive: it is the final interval in the right-hand piano part of the

Rain Motive, and it is the final interval in the Vocal Motive. This characteristic descending minor third may appear at the beginning, middle, or end of a vocal phrase and is often the final interval of the song.

42Rorem, “Prologue: from “The Rain,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 3.

Rain Imagery

Another unifying feature in Rorem’s composition is the appearance of the rain throughout the cycle. The background of the rain is depicted in many forms in the accompaniment, reflecting the many natural forms in which rain can appear. The following discussion will trace the types of rain presented in each song and the various compositional techniques Rorem uses to portray them in the piano accompaniment, as

well as the manner in which they support the poetic texts.

In the Prologue, which is the setting of the text by Windham, Rorem creates the

general mood of the cycle by introducing the Rain Motive. This motive paints the picture

of a rainstorm observed in the distance, “. . . with an occasional flash of light through the

black cloud.”43 The extremely soft dynamic level as well as Rorem’s instructions in the

score —“blurred and limpid” and “bathed in pedal”44— allow the listener to perceive this

rainstorm as a part of the landscape, or background, against which the following songs

will take place. The last measure of the Prologue presents the crashing down of the storm

upon the listener, ushering in the second song of the cycle, “Stop All The Clocks.”

The picture of the rain becomes more violent in the second song. Rorem utilizes a

strong rhythmic figure—a quarter note followed by a dotted quarter note and an eighth

note—to depict a crashing thunderstorm. This figure emphasizes the second beat of the

measure and recurs throughout the triple meter sections of the song. The dynamic level of

fff and the liberal use of marcato indications add to this depiction. The dramatic

accompaniment reinforces the text by Auden, which tells of the pain of losing a loved one

43 Rorem, “Composer’s Notes,” Poems of Love and the Rain.

44 Rorem, “Prologue: from “The Rain,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 2.

and the despair the singer expresses in the last line, “. . . for nothing now can ever come

to any good.”45 The storm ends as quickly as it began, winding down in the last two

measures to a more gentle accompaniment and mp dynamic level.

In the third song, “The Air Is The Only,” Rorem sets the text by Moss beginning

with a gentle patter of raindrops in the repeated broken ninths in the first four measures,

followed by similar figures in mm. 5-8. The accompaniment continues in steady eighth-

note figures throughout the song, with the addition of sixteenth notes in only a few

places. An ostinato figure in the left-hand piano part at mm. 9-10 is repeated in mm. 23-

24, and the opening broken-ninth gesture brings the song to a close in m. 25. A gentle rainstorm, beginning with a few raindrops and then progressing to a steady rain before dissolving into a few raindrops again, is depicted by this accompaniment. The poetic text in this song contains images of the air, the sea, “. . . And love’s rain.”46

The fourth song, “Love’s Stricken ‘Why’,” is very short—only six measures in

length. This setting clearly represents the text by Dickinson, “Built of but just a

syllable. . . .”47 This song is “just a syllable” in comparison to the others in the cycle. The absence of discernible rain figures in the accompaniment suggests a pause between storms in the singer’s journey.

“The Apparition,” which is the fifth song in the cycle, begins with an

accompaniment figure in the first measure that depicts a flash of lightning, followed in

the second measure by thunder. These rhythmic figures are repeated throughout this song,

45 Rorem, “Stop All The Clocks,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 9.

46 Rorem, “The Air Is The Only,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 11.

47 Rorem, “Love’s Stricken ‘Why’,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 12.

including the last two measures. This strong, stormy accompaniment supports the

anguished text in Roethke’s poem.

The rain in the sixth song, “Do I Love You (part I),” is portrayed by a calm,

repeated eighth-note figure in the left hand of the accompaniment, continuing throughout

the song. The seventh song, “In the Rain,” begins with quarter-note trills alternating

between the left and right hands, portraying the splashing of raindrops. In mm. 10-15 the

sound of water is heard in the rippling, harp-like arpeggios crossing repeatedly from the

right hand to the left. The trills return in mm. 16-19, and the arpeggios bring the song to a

close in mm. 20-25. The text in both of these songs is positive and loving. Song no. 6

ends with the statement, “And I love you more than a day,”48 and song no. 7 ends with

“. . . as i [sic] think of you.”49 Rorem supports the mood of the poetry by Larson and

Cummings very well with his choice of gentle rain to accompany these texts.

Rorem paints a vivid picture of lightning and thunder in his eighth song, “Song For

Lying In Bed During A Night Rain.” This directly connects to the text by Pitchford that begins the song: “How can I wash the lightning away that shines on your closed eyes?

How can I tell the thunder to lie as calm as your hand?”50 Rorem paints this picture of

lightning in mm. 1-2 by using disjunct figures in the piano right hand with large leaps and

rests between short bursts of music. The thunder follows, depicted as two minor ninths

and a low B-natural in the bass punctuating the strong beats of mm. 3-4. (Measures 1-4 of

song no. 8 are shown in figure 24 on page 59 of this document.) Crashing chords that also

48 Rorem, “Do I Love You (part I),” Poems of Love and the Rain, 17.

49 Rorem, “In The Rain,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 20.

50Rorem, “Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 21-22.

depict thunder begin at m. 58 to support the urgent questions, coinciding with the

interrogative words, shown here in boldface: “But who are these bleeding strangers . . .?”

“Why do they curse our handclasp . . . ?” and “Why do you lie unmoved . . . ?”51 A final thunderclap appears as a dissonant sforzato chord in the last measure of the song, which brings the first half of the song cycle, as well as the first half of the mirror form, to a dramatic close.

The Interlude begins with a solo vocal line and a text by Roethke that describes the tense atmosphere of an oncoming storm. This solo makes up half of the Interlude. As the last note of the vocal line ends, the piano begins a solo depiction of the awaited storm.

Rorem begins this piano solo with a ppp dynamic marking and a lento tempo. The Rain

Motive that introduces the storm expands from its original form in mm. 12-13 and proceeds to an improvisatory section in mm. 14-19. This improvisation depicts the escalating storm; the first wave of rain enters with the poco accelerando at m. 14 followed by poco ritardando in m. 15, and the storm achieves its full force with the molto accelerando e crescendo into mm.17-19. The storm reaches its peak as the Rain Motive returns in mm. 20-21 at a fff dynamic level with the marking pesante (con tutta forza) and a return to the lento tempo from the beginning of the piano solo. The Rain Motive returns at mm. 20-21 in its original and expanded forms as in mm. 12-13, bringing the storm to a close with the markings ritardando e diminuendo molto at the end of m. 21. There is a pause between the storms at m. 22 with a fermata on the pitch F, followed by the attacca entrance into the tenth song of the cycle. Rorem differentiated the Interlude from the rest

51 Rorem, “Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 24-26.

of the songs in Poems of Love and the Rain by the use of solo voice and then solo piano

to clearly define the midpoint of the song cycle.

The tenth song begins the mirror image in the cycle as it presents the conclusion of the poem from the eighth song—“Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain.” Rorem

set this song to the background of a steady rain that is depicted by constant triplet

accompaniment figures throughout the song, as well as continuous quarter-note melodic

lines. The lightning and thunder of the eighth song are no longer present—instead there is

a sense of resignation and sadness in this continual rain that supports the description of a

failed relationship in Pitchford’s text. The progression of dynamic levels from p to pp in

the last four measures, followed by the morendo indication in the last two measures,

reinforce the feeling of hopelessness in the last line of the poem, “How can I love what I

have never seen in your face?”52

Rorem returns to the Rain Motive in a varied form to present a background of rain

in the eleventh song, “In The Rain-.” The Rain Motive here consists of four thirty-second

notes played simultaneously in both hands of the piano part. The arpeggio shape in the

left hand is retained against the jagged shape in the right hand in this variation. This background form of the rain occurs fifteen times in the eleventh song, with a rhythmically free melodic line between the motives. The form is reminiscent of the distant rain that is depicted in the Prologue and Epilogue. The text by Cummings is

52 Rorem, “Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain (conclusion)” Poems of Love and the Rain, 31.

29 dreamy and drowsy, with references to “. . . the rain darkness. . .”53 in which the singer sits and thinks of her beloved.

For the setting of Larson’s poem, “Do I Love You (part II),” Rorem chose a light, rippling rain shower comprised of continuous eighth notes in a five-note ostinato pattern in the piano left-hand part. The right-hand accompaniment retains the continuous eighth- note character, but with five short outbursts of sixteenth notes in an upward scalar line.

The joyous depiction of the rain matches the mood of the text in this second part of

Larson’s poem, which begins with the question, “Do I love you more than the air?” and ends with the answer, “And I love you, more than the air.”54

The rain in the thirteenth song, “The Apparition,” begins with a repeated eighth note on the pitch G in the piano right-hand part. This repeated-note pattern continues through the first five measures of the song, in conjunction with the opening text of

Roethke’s poem, “My pillow won’t tell me Where he has gone.”55 The rain increases in intensity as it is portrayed by a repeated open-fifth sonority for one measure in m. 6, then a repeated three-note sonority in mm. 7-21. The opening measures of the song begin in a low range, presenting a somber, almost ominous mood. The accompaniment sonorities rise in pitch to follow the rising melodic phrases, until the storm breaks free in mm. 22-29 with the climactic lines of the poetry, “Dare I grieve? Dare I mourn? He walks by.”56 At this point the rain becomes more active, with a più agitato marking and broken-chord

53 Rorem, “In The Rain-,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 32.

54 Rorem, “Do I Love You (part II),” Poems of Love and the Rain, 35-36.

55 Rorem, “The Apparition,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 37.

56Ibid., 39.

patterns in the left-hand piano part. At m. 28 the storm begins to abate, with the più

tranquillo marking and a decrescendo to the pp dynamic level at m. 30. The repeated

three-note sonorities return at mm. 30-34, this time in the left-hand piano part, bringing

the listener back to the beginning mood of the song, and a ppp dynamic level.

To support the anguished text in Dickinson’s poem, “Love’s Stricken ‘Why’,”

Rorem chose a rhythmic pattern reminiscent of that in the second song in Poems of Love

and the Rain—“Stop All The Clocks”—a quarter note followed by a half note, placing a

strong accent on the second beat of the measure in this 3/4 meter setting. As in the second

song, the accompaniment in the fourteenth song depicts a crashing thunderstorm, and the

use of syncopation in the opening melodic line strongly characterizes the violent

emotions carried by the rain. The dynamic levels aid in portraying this thunderstorm—

both halves of the song begin with ff and end with mf, showing two waves of intensity

that follow the shape of the melodic phrases from higher pitches resolving to lower ones

at the end of each phrase.

In the fifteenth song—“The Air Is The Only’—the text by Moss is truly presented

against a background of constant rain. Rorem did not compose this song with any

obvious rain figures in the accompaniment, rather the constant pulsing of quarter notes

and the frequent use of the high register in the right-hand piano part create the illusion of

the rain. The storm gathers momentum in mm. 13-20 as the quarter-note rhythms take on

large chordal sonorities and the melodic phrases rise in pitch level towards the climactic

text at m. 19, “. . . The dead and alive. . . .”57 The storm diminishes in mm. 21-25 with the return of the melodic phrase from mm. 4-5 in a slightly varied form; the pitches

57 Rorem, “The Air Is The Only,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 42.

remain the same, and the rhythm is expanded in mm. 22-23. The dynamic levels, which

reach ff at the climax in m. 19, also diminish to pp as the storm dies away in the last measure of the song, “. . . and love’s rain.”58

Song no. 16—“Stop All The Clocks”—presents what are perhaps the most

dramatic storm images in the entire cycle. Rorem marked this setting of Auden’s text

“Wildly fast and angry”59 with a corresponding tempo marking (quarter note = 144). The

meter changes in almost every measure of the song, beginning with 7/8. This changing

meter gives a disjunct, erratic feeling that supports the image of a wild storm. The

sixteenth-note runs in the accompaniment, often occurring between melodic phrases (as

in m. 6 and m. 12), depict the wind, and the strong chordal figures (as in m. 13 and m. 19)

depict lightning and thunder. The dynamic levels vary constantly throughout the song as

the storm rises and swells, ending with a molto crescendo to the final fff at the last

measure. The final eight measures display strong rhythmic figures in both melody and

accompaniment to set the last line of the text—“For nothing now can ever come to any

good.”60 The 6/8 meter in the last five measures is blurred by marcato chords and rests on unexpected beats to accompany the held note in the melody, which then makes a dramatic descending octave leap on the final note of the song. This last burst of fury in the storm strengthens the final line of the text, which perhaps also summarizes the singer’s final burst of emotion in the song cycle.

58 Rorem, “The Air Is The Only,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 42.

59 Rorem, “Stop All The Clocks,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 43.

60 Ibid., 47.

The Epilogue, which begins with the Rain Motive as in the Prologue, returns the singer and the audience to the calm, dreamy mood and the text by Windham that began the song cycle. It also completes the mirror form. Although it is marked “As at the beginning (or even slower)”61 there is a tension left hanging in the air unlike the beginning of the cycle. The emotions left over from the previous storm color the distant rain of the Epilogue for both the singer and the listener.

Pacing

A point of interest in Poems of Love and the Rain is Rorem’s use of specific instructions for the length of time between songs when performing the cycle. Rorem uses these performance instructions in a symmetrical manner to establish pacing in the cycle.

The Prologue and the Interlude proceed attacca to the next song, creating motion at the beginning of each half of the cycle. There is a “Very long pause” before the Interlude and the Epilogue, slowing down the motion at the end of each half. The pauses become shorter in the middle of each half, speeding up the motion, and then slow down towards the end. Thus, during the presentation of each set of songs—Rorem set each poem twice—the motion speeds up towards the middle and slows down again near the end. In this manner, the pacing also creates a mirror form in Poems of Love and the Rain. The chart in figure 9 shows Rorem’s instructions for the length of time between each song.

61 Rorem, “Epilogue: from ‘The Rain’,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 48.

1. PROLOGUE: from The Rain attacca 2. Stop All The Clocks, Cut Off The Telephone Long pause 3. The Air Is The Only Medium pause 4. Love’s Stricken “Why” Short pause 5. The Apparition Short pause 6. Do I Love You Medium pause 7. In The Rain- Medium pause 8. Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain Very long pause 9. Interlude attacca 10. Song For Lying In Bed During a Night Rain Medium pause (conclusion) 11. In The Rain- Short pause 12. Do I Love You (Part II) Short pause 13. The Apparition Short pause 14. Love’s Stricken “Why” Long pause 15. The Air Is The Only Medium pause 16. Stop All The Clocks, Cut Off The Telephone Very long pause 17. EPILOGUE: from The Rain

Figure 9. Length of time between songs in performance.

Mirror Form

Comparison of the Song Pairs

In his “Composer’s Notes” to the score of Poems of Love and the Rain, Rorem states, “I selected poems by several American authors and set each one to music twice, in as contrasting a manner as possible (i.e. gentle then passionate, slow and violent, then fast and hysterical, etc.).”62 Did Rorem achieve his goal? An analysis of the song pairs discloses the difficulty of Rorem’s self-appointed task. In some of the song pairs he could successfully create contrasting settings; others proved to be more difficult. A comparison of the musical settings reveals that the second half of the cycle contrasts, in most cases, with the first. In order to remain true to the natural inflection of the English language,

62 Rorem, “Composer’s Notes,” Poems of Love and the Rain.

however, Rorem has to retain some rhythmic similarity in the two settings. The need to

faithfully express the meaning of the poem also requires some similarity of musical

character between them. It is interesting to note that as the cycle progresses, the settings

become stronger in contrast around the Interlude at the midpoint, which is unique. As the

mirror reflection returns the listener to the beginning of the cycle, the songs become more similar, ending with settings that are nearly exact. The chart in figure 10 provides a general comparison of the song pairs. Additional comparison charts are provided with the detailed discussions of each pair of songs.

Prologue and Epilogue

The Prologue and Epilogue are almost identical in their musical settings, with the

exception of tonal center: the Prologue has a pitch center of E-natural, and the Epilogue is centered on E-flat, one half-step lower than the Prologue. Throughout the song cycle the pitch classes E-natural and E-flat recur as tonal centers or as important melodic points.

Apparently there is an inner struggle reflected in the fluctuation between these two pitch classes, until the resolution to E-flat in the Epilogue. The lower tonality gives a sense of

resolution to the cycle; it creates a kind of musical sigh for the listener. As a young

composer, Rorem was influenced by the music of the French Impressionists, including

Debussy.63 It is understandable that he would adopt the use of a central pitch class, or

63 Ned Rorem, “Ned Rorem on Music and Politics: An Interview in Celebration of the Composer’s Seventieth Birthday,” interview by Eleonora M. Beck, Current Musicology 54 (1993): 24.

35 pitch centricity,64 as the basis for some of his songs, since this is a technique often found in the music of Debussy. The Prologue and the Epilogue are the only two songs in the cycle that include both the Rain Motive and the Vocal Motive.

Song Nos. Title Comparison of Motives Author Settings Used 1 & 17 Prologue: from The Nearly exact RM & VM Windham Rain settings in both Epilogue: from The Rain 2 & 16 Stop All The Clocks, Similar settings varied VM in Auden Cut Off The Telephone both 3 & 15 The Air Is The Only Contain both expanded Moss similarities VM in no.3 and differences 4 & 14 Love’s Stricken “Why” Contrasting varied VM Dickinson settings in no.14 5 & 13 The Apparition Contrasting expanded Roethke settings VM in no.5 6 & 12 Do I Love You (part I); Contrasting Larson Do I Love You (part II) settings 7 & 11 In the Rain- Contrasting varied RM Cummings settings in no.11 8 & 10 Song For Lying In Bed Contrasting Pitchford During A Night Rain; settings Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain (conclusion) 9 Interlude Unique RM Roethke

Figure 10. Chart showing a comparison of the settings of each poem, the use of the Rain Motive (RM) and Vocal Motive (VM), and the name of the author for each song pair.

64Pitch centricity refers to tonal music in which the tonal center is established by nontraditional means, including the use of pedal points, ostinato, accent, formal placement, and reiteration. Stefan Kostka calls this “tonic by assertion.” Stefan Kostka, Materials and Techniques of Twentieth-Century Music, 3d ed., (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2006), 102-103.

Stop All The Clocks

There are strong similarities in the second and sixteenth songs—“Stop All The

Clocks.” Both settings present Auden’s poem in a dramatic, declamatory style. Both utilize a large vocal range, melodies based upon the intervals of the third and the fourth,

the Vocal Motive in varied and expanded forms, and a syncopated rhythm for the words,

“He is Dead.”65 Several lines of the poetry are set with almost identical melodies and

rhythms, including the fact that a pause sets off the last three words. They are “He was

my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My

noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever: I was

wrong.”66 The expanded Vocal Motive appears four times in the second song at

mm. 17-19, 20-22, 36-38, and 56-57; it appears once in the sixteenth song at mm. 31-34.

The endings of the songs differ in that song no. 2 ends quietly with notes derived from

the Vocal Motive and a descending minor third in a middle voice range, and song no. 16

ends dramatically in a high range with a descending octave leap and a crescendo to a fff

dynamic level.

The tonal center in the second song is A-flat, and the sixteenth song centers on D-

natural. Rorem creates the A-flat center in song no. 2 by the key signature and the

repeated use of A-flat in the bass line in mm. 1-17 and mm. 45-61 to begin and end the

song. Other important pitch classes in this song are E-flat and B-flat, which correspond to

the traditional concept of the “dominant” chord in functional harmonic analysis. In

addition, the highest pitch in the vocal line is also A-flat and occurs at m. 49 in

65 Rorem, “Stop All The Clocks,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 5, 44.

66 Ibid., 6-7, 45-46.

conjunction with the A-flat bass note. The final note of the melody, which is approached

by the characteristic interval of a descending minor third, is an A-flat (at first

enharmonically spelled as G-sharp) that is held out for over three measures to end the

song. The final sequence of bass notes—A-flat, G-flat, A-flat, B-flat, A-flat—reinforces the importance of the central pitch A-flat and the ending A-flat bass note of the song finalizes the A-flat tonality.

In a similar manner, Rorem creates the tonal center in song no. 16 by the repeated

use of the pitch class D-natural in the bass line and in the vocal line. The melodic phrases

in mm. 1-9 all begin with D-natural; in mm. 14-18, 21-24, and 40-44 the vocal lines

weave around D-natural as the central note. In m. 37 Rorem chose to end the important

text “I was wrong” on D-natural; the last textual phrase ends with a long held-out

D-natural for five measures that resolves dramatically with an octave leap downwards.

The final accompaniment sonority includes the note D-natural in the low bass, combined

with the notes A-natural and E-natural that derive from the main pitches of the traditional

“dominant” chord as in the second song.

The chart in figure 11 summarizes the comparison of songs no. 2 and 16.

Song No. 2 16 motives used Vocal Motive, Vocal Motive, varied and expanded; varied and expanded descending minor 3rd tempo Lento appassionato Wildly fast and angry quarter note = 69 quarter note = 144 meter 3/4, changes throughout 7/8, varies in almost every measure tonal center A-flat D-natural

important structural A-flat, E-flat, B-flat D-natural, A-natural, pitch classes E-natural

Figure 11. Comparison summary of Song No. 2 and Song No. 16—Stop All The Clocks.

The Air Is The Only

The third and fifteenth songs—“The Air Is The Only”—display both similarities

and differences. The initial octave leap upwards in both songs leads into almost identical

vocal lines in mm.1-5 of each, though in keys a step apart. Thereafter the settings differ in character; song no. 3 retains a calmer style and more moderate range, while song no.

15 proceeds in a more dramatic fashion and uses a higher tessitura and more dynamic contrast. The contrast between these songs includes a change in meter from 4/4 in the

third song to 6/4 in the fifteenth. The Vocal Motive appears twice in expanded forms in

the third song at mm. 9-12 and mm. 20-21; it does not appear at all in the fifteenth. After

the fifth measure the melodic line in the fifteenth song takes a completely different shape

from that in the third song. In the fifteenth song the phrases rise in a loosely sequential

39 manner, the highest pitches moving from C to D, E, E-flat, F, G, G-sharp, and ending on

A at the word “dead” in the climactic phrase of the text, “The dead and alive. . . .”67

The third song begins on the pitch B and ends on the pitch G-sharp; the fifteenth song retains this pitch relationship, beginning on the pitch A and ending on the pitch F- sharp. The tonality in song no. 3 is based on the recurring pitch classes B and E, which are used in an ostinato pattern in the piano left hand in mm. 9-10 and mm. 23-24.

Although the key signature indicates the key of E major, Rorem does not use functional harmonic chord progressions to support this key; rather, there is a sense of tonality on E created by these repeated notes. This E tonal center is reinforced by the upward octave leap on the B-natural that begins the first two melodic phrases and the last phrase of the song, and by the fact that the vocal line ends the song on the note G-sharp. The final chord of the song includes E, G-sharp, and B in the accompaniment as well as the G- sharp in the vocal line. In this manner Rorem uses the recurrence of these “tonic” pitch classes to create the sense of E major as the tonality of this song.

In song no. 15 the tonality is based on D major, again achieved through the techniques of pitch centricity rather than traditional harmonic function. The left-hand accompaniment part presents a D-major scale spanning two octaves in mm. 2-6; the

“tonic” pitch classes D, F-sharp, and A recur throughout the song, and these pitch classes are presented together in the climactic nineteenth measure and in the final measure of the song. In addition, the uppermost and lowest voices in the piano accompaniment end the song on the pitch class D.

The chart in figure 12 summarizes the comparison of songs no. 3 and 15.

67 Rorem, “The Air Is The Only,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 42.

Song No. 3 15 motives used Vocal Motive, none expanded tempo Allegretto grazioso Calmly quarter note = 126 quarter note = 112 meter 4/4 6/4 overall, brief change to 9/4 tonal center E Major D Major

important structural E-natural, G-sharp, D-natural, F-sharp, pitch classes B-natural A-natural

Figure 12. Comparison summary of Song No. 3 and Song No. 15—The Air Is The Only.

Love’s Stricken “Why”

“Love’s Stricken ‘Why’” stands out as the only poem of the cycle written by a nineteenth-century poet. In his book, Knowing When to Stop: A Memoir, Rorem explains the origin of this song.68 In keeping with the theme of unrequited love, the song was written after a brief but intense personal romance had come to an end. Rorem, describing his deep sadness, said, “This resulted in a little song, just four measures long, but perfect in its wedding of text to tune.”69 Fifteen years later this song became a part of Poems of

Love and the Rain as the fourth song in the cycle. Dickinson’s poem supplied the text for the fourth and fourteenth songs of the cycle. In these two songs, Rorem successfully achieved his goal of setting the text in two contrasting ways. They differ in dynamic level, vocal range, rhythm, melody, and style of accompaniment. Song no. 4 is soft and

68 Ned Rorem, Knowing When to Stop: A Memoir, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), 248-49.

69 Ibid., 248.

slow, with a vocal range of an octave, a melody employing more complex rhythms, and a

flowing accompaniment. Song no. 14 displays loud dynamic levels, a larger range and

higher tessitura, syncopated rhythms at the beginning of an otherwise evenly measured vocal line, and a block chord accompaniment that emphasizes the second beat of the measure. In this pair, only song no. 14 employs the recurring Vocal Motive, in a varied

form, at mm. 3-4 and 7-8. In addition, each of the four melodic phrases in song no. 14 ends with the characteristic descending minor third motive that is derived from the Rain and Vocal Motives.

The central pitch class in song no. 4 is E-flat, which occurs at the beginning of the

song in the right-hand piano part and is approached by a descending scalar passage in the left-hand piano part in mm.1-2. The climactic pitch in the melodic line is E-flat at m. 5 on the word “hugest” in the text “The hugest hearts that break.”70 The song ends with a

sonority that includes the “tonic” pitches E-flat, G, and B-flat.

The tonal center for song no. 14 is C, which is approached by a descending bass

line that moves chromatically from D-natural to D-flat to C-natural in a manner similar to

that of the seventeenth-century laments of Claudio Monteverdi and other composers of

his time. Rorem’s choice of this format strongly supports the despair in Dickinson’s text.

The song divides into two parts of four measures each that correspond to the two

repetitions of this bass line, creating two extended musical sighs. Both halves of the song

begin with the same D in the vocal line, and both end with the characteristic interval of

the falling minor third. Although the melody in m. 4 ends with a G falling to an E over a

70 Rorem, “Love’s Stricken ‘Why’,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 12.

C bass note, the accompanying sonority built on thirds (B-flat, D, F, A, C, D, G) blurs

what might have seemed like a resolution to a C Major tonality.

The second half of the song presents a more dissonant and therefore more

dramatically intense melodic line over the descending bass line. The highest melodic

pitch, G-natural, occurs in m. 5, emphasizing the text “Built of just a syllable.”71 The final melodic phrase, although it resembles the corresponding phrase in the first half of the song, ends with a falling minor third on the pitches A-natural to F-sharp over the bass note C-natural. These two melodic phrases, at mm. 3-4 and 7-8, revolve around the note

C-natural as an important melodic point. The final polychordal sonority includes two triads sounded simultaneously—B-flat minor and C Major. The use of a tritone as the last audible sonority adds to the dramatic tension in this song.

The chart in figure 13 summarizes the comparison of songs no. 4 and 14.

Song No. 4 14 motives used none Vocal Motive, varied; descending minor 3rd tempo Lento Intense eighth note = c. 76 quarter note = c. 58 meter 4/4 3/4

tonal center E-flat C-natural

important structural E-flat, G-natural, C-natural, G-natural pitch classes B-flat

Figure 13. Comparison summary of Song No. 4 and Song No. 14—Love’s Stricken “Why.”

71 Rorem, “Love’s Stricken ‘Why’,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 40.

The Apparition

Rorem’s settings of Roethke’s text in the fifth and thirteenth songs—“The

Apparition”—display strong contrasts in tempo, meter, vocal line, character, and

accompanimental style. Song no. 5, marked “Allegro agitato” in a fast tempo (quarter note = 134) and alternating 4/4 and 3/2 meters, presents a more overt display of emotion than song no. 13, which is marked “Smoothly” with a slower tempo indication (quarter note = c. 80) and 3/4 meter. The emotions in song no. 13 are inwardly intense, and build with each successive phrase by a rise in pitch and dynamic levels until the climax in mm.

22-27, at which point they recede into the inner thoughts of the singer again to end the song. The disjunct accompanimental style of short bursts of marcato gestures separated by rests to portray lightning and thunder in song no. 5 differs markedly from the steady repeated triplet figures of the rainstorm depicted in song no. 13.

The tonal center of D minor is presented in both the vocal line and the

accompaniment in song no. 5. The song also begins with a dominant–tonic progression in

mm. 2-3 and ends with the dominant chord of D minor in the last measure. The vocal line

is characterized by the rising interval of a ninth, which occurs six times during the song.

This large leap beginning on D repeatedly emphasizes the upper pitch E-natural as an

appoggiatura that then resolves downward to the D tonal center. An important structural

pitch, this upper E-natural is approached by various large leaps in the vocal line nine

times. Figure 14 shows this initial vocal motive.

Figure 14. Initial vocal motive.

Two characteristic accompaniment motives that also begin with E occur in the right-hand piano part—the first of these occurs in mm. 2, 5-6, 15, and 28 and is defined by a marcato gesture that outlines what would be a dominant harmony in the key of D minor (A–C-sharp–E). Figure 15 shows this first accompaniment motive. A second accompaniment motive in imitation of the initial vocal motive occurs in mm. 14-15 and

23-24 beginning on E and at mm. 8, 9, 7, 18, and 26 transposed to F. Figure 16 shows this second accompaniment motive.

Figure 15. Accompaniment motive showing dominant harmonic function.

Figure 16. Accompaniment motive in imitation of the initial vocal motive, shown at two pitch levels.

At three points in the fifth song F minor is briefly tonicized: mm. 8-13, 17-22, and

26. The Vocal Motive occurs in an expanded form centered on the notes F and A-flat during two of these sections in mm. 9-13 and 18-22. In addition, the melodic phrases in these three sections end on a high F that is held for two measures at a ff dynamic level, reinforcing the F minor tonal center. The progression of tonal centers alternates between

D minor and F minor throughout the song, with D minor at the beginning and end of the song, creating an overall D minor tonal center.

Song no. 13 begins in Mixolydian mode on A. The sustained legato melodic phrases begin successively with the pitches A, B, C-sharp, D, F-sharp, G, and A in mm.

1-21. Each melodic phrase contains the upward interval of a fourth, and proceeds in a loosely sequential manner outlining the modal scale. At mm. 15-17 there is a tonal shift

to C, as demonstrated in the bass line movement from G to C in m. 16, indicating a

dominant–tonic relationship, and in the upward fourth movement from G to C in the

melodic line. The climax at mm. 22-23 shows the conflict between E-natural and E-flat

that is often present in the song cycle, as these are the top pitches of the vocal lines for

the text “Dare I grieve? Dare I mourn?”72 The appearance of the pitch class C-natural at

m. 23 signals a shift to F-natural as the final tonal center for this song. F-natural is the

highest note in the vocal line of the song at m. 24, is approached by C, D, and E in the final vocal phrase at mm. 28-30, and appears in three octaves simultaneously in the final two measures of the song.

The chart in figure 17 summarizes the comparison of songs no. 5 and 13.

Song No. 5 13 motives used Vocal Motive, expanded; none three new motives—vocal and accompaniment tempo Allegro agitato Smoothly quarter note = 134 quarter note = c. 80 meter alternating 3/4 4/4 and 3/2 meters tonal center D minor, alternating with Mixolydian mode, modulating F minor to C-natural and F-natural

important structural D, E-natural, A-natural, A-natural, G-natural, C-natural, pitch classes C-sharp, F-natural, A-flat F-natural

Figure 17. Comparison summary of Song No. 5 and Song No. 13—The Apparition.

72 Rorem, “The Apparition,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 39.

Do I Love You

Although Rorem states in his “Composer’s Notes” to Poems of Love and the Rain

that each poem is set twice, this is not exactly true. Rorem divided the poems in two

instances: Larson’s “Do I Love You” is divided between the sixth and twelfth songs, and

Pitchford’s “Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain” begins in the eighth song and

concludes in the tenth. In songs no. 6 and 12—“Do I Love You” (parts I and II)—Rorem

again creates contrast through the use of tempo, meter, text setting, and the style of the

accompaniment.

Song no. 6 begins in 4/4 meter with the marking “Andantino tranquillo” in a slow

tempo (quarter note = 56). The steady rain depicted in the accompaniment underscores

the text, which includes images to the slow passing of time and the sensitivity to each

hour of existence. In the first line of the poem—“Do I love you more than a day?”73—

Rorem uses a four-note melodic and rhythmic motive for the last four words that is repeated throughout the song. Figure 18 shows this motive in its first appearance in the vocal line at m. 2. The fact that this motive recurs twice in the vocal line with this same

text, at the beginning and the end of the song, and eight times in the accompaniment

shows the importance of these words to Rorem. In fact, Rorem wrote another work,

entitled More Than a Day, setting Larson’s poetry in 1995. This extended cycle of nine

songs for countertenor and orchestra is twenty-five minutes long and was composed for

Brian Asawa,74 who recorded it with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra under the

73 Rorem, “Do I Love You (part I),” Poems of Love and the Rain, 16.

74 Brian Asawa was the first countertenor to win the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (1991), as well as several other acclaimed opera competitions in the United States and abroad. He has appeared in opera houses around the world, singing

direction of Jeffrey Kahane.75 The fifth and seventh songs in the cycle More Than a Day

are an orchestrated version of the sixth and twelfth songs in the cycle Poems of Love and

the Rain. Rorem refers to the composition of More Than a Day in three of his letters to

Larson in his book, Wings of Friendship.76

Figure 18. Introductory phrase leading to G tonal center and recurring motive at the words “more than a day.”

roles such as Tolomeo, Ottone, Nero, Orfeo, Oberon, and Prince Orlofsky. He maintains an active performing career, with future oratorio and opera performances scheduled in Chicago, Hamburg, Seattle, Riga, Latvia, and the Netherlands. His recordings are available on the Decca, London, Conifer, and Deutsche Grammaphon labels. Brian Asawa Website, “Biography,” http://www.brianasawa.com/bio.htm (accessed May 8, 2007).

75 More Than a Day – Music of Ned Rorem, sung by Brian Asawa. Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra conducted by Jeffrey Kahane, BMG Classics CD 09026-63512-2, 2000.

76 Rorem, Wings of Friendship, 232-33, 235, 254.

In song no. 6—“Do I Love You (part I)”—from Poems of Love and the Rain,

Rorem emphasizes Larson’s words “Through you” in m.12 by an increase in the use of

sixteenth notes in the accompaniment, rising dynamic levels to f, and the high pitch

E-natural in the melodic line. At this climactic point in the song, Rorem employs a rising

minor third, rather than the recurring falling minor third, to create a joyous outburst of

emotion.

The tonal center for song no. 6 is G, which is established by repetition of the same

pitch G to begin the first four phrases and the last phrase of text. This G is approached by

a brief introductory phrase in the right-hand piano part—the notes E, F, and A in m.1 lead

to the G that begins the first vocal phrase, as shown in figure 18. At m. 9 the note D

occurs as an important structural tone in the melodic line, implying the dominant function

of the G tonal center. The highest pitch in the melodic line is E-natural, occurring in m. 8

and at the climax in m. 12, as previously mentioned. This E-natural recalls the E-flat/E-

natural struggle that pervades the entire song cycle. The final melodic note in the song is

A, which the listener perceives as the second scale degree in the G tonality, and not as a resolution to the tonic. The four-note motive appearing on the words “more than a day” reappears in the last two measures of the accompaniment to give closure to the song.

Song no. 12—“Do I Love You (part II)”—begins in 12/8 meter at a ppp dynamic

level. Rorem marked this song “Joyous” with a fast tempo indication (dotted quarter note

= 126). The accompaniment features a five-note ostinato figure that continues unaltered

throughout the song, depicting a steady, light rain shower. This light accompaniment

supports the text, which begins with the question “Do I love you more than the air?”77

77 Rorem, “Do I Love You (part II),” Poems of Love and the Rain, 35.

and includes several references to air and breath. The opening melodic line also repeats

six times during the song, only differing at the words “Through you.”78 Rorem

emphasized these words in both the sixth and the twelfth songs by introducing change in

the setting. These two songs are not connected to the rest of the cycle by the use of the

Vocal Motive, although the descending minor third derived from the Rain and Vocal

Motives recurs at the ends of melodic phrases in song no. 12. Rorem sets these two songs

apart in this manner, perhaps because they do not fit the pattern of unrequited love shown

in most of the song cycle.

The tonality in song no. 12 is D Major, although Rorem introduces some ambiguity

by the alternation of the pitch classes C-natural and C-sharp in the melodic phrases. The fact that each phrase ends on E-natural further blurs the key center, but the listener perceives E as the second scale degree, and not the tonic, similar to the perception of the final note in song no. 6. The recurring use of the pitch classes D, F-sharp, and A to outline the vocal phrases, and the upward scalar lines beginning on D in the right-hand accompaniment part at mm. 5, 7, and 11 also indicate D Major as the tonal center.

The chart in figure 19 summarizes the comparison of songs no. 6 and 12.

78 Rorem, “Do I Love You (part II),” Poems of Love and the Rain, 36.

Song No. 6 12 motives used new motive— descending minor 3rd “more than a day” tempo Andantino tranquillo Joyous quarter note = 56 dotted quarter note = 126 meter 4/4 12/8

tonal center G-natural D Major

important structural D-natural, E-natural D-natural, F-sharp, pitch classes A-natural

Figure 19. Comparison summary of Song No. 6 and Song No. 12—Do I Love You (parts I and II).

In The Rain

Rorem’s settings of Cummings’s text in the seventh and eleventh songs contrast in

tempo, meter, melodic shape and accompaniment style. Song no. 7, marked “Allegro

(delicate and muted),” has a faster tempo (quarter note = 148) than song no. 11, which is

marked “Not slow, very free” with a variable tempo marking (quarter note = from 50 to

90, being fastest when voice is alone). The melodic phrases in song no. 7 begin in the upper register and have a downward-moving line, ending with the descending minor third motive four times. In mm. 16-20 this descending minor third appears in the middle of two short phrases, but in the same lower octave as before. The last phrase begins with a large

leap of a thirteenth (B–G) at the f climax of the song to underscore the text “as i [sic] think of you.”79 This melodic leap contrasts with the overall subdued character of the

song and effects an outburst of emotion at this portion of the text. The melodic phrases in

79 Rorem, “In The Rain-,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 20.

song no. 11 have an arch shape—beginning in the low range, rising to the upper range,

returning to the low range, and ending with the descending minor third motive five times.

This use of the descending minor third is one similarity between songs no. 7 and 11, as is the generally soft dynamic level in both songs.

The accompaniment in song no. 7 has a continuous patter of rain expressed in trills

and runs while song no. 11 returns to a variation of the Rain Motive as its basis. This

Rain Motive occurs fifteen times throughout the song, interspersed between lines of text

that are presented in a recitative-like manner. At m. 14 in song no. 11 Rorem uses the

highest pitch in the song, F-sharp, to paint a picture of floating at the text “. . . where

float flowers of kiss.”80 This same F-sharp occurs once more near the end of the song in

m. 19 to emphasize the text “rarely beloved.”81 The improvisatory nature of song no. 11

effectively presents the background of distant rain on a drowsy evening.

The tonal center in both song no. 7 and song no. 11 is D, although song no. 7 is in

Dorian mode and song no. 11 is in Lydian mode. Rorem establishes the tonal center of D

in song no. 7 at the outset by the alternation of trills on the pitches A and D as the

accompaniment for the first ten measures. This accompaniment figure returns an octave

higher and in reverse order (D, then A) at mm. 16-19. In addition, the pitch class D

occurs at important structural points in the vocal line at mm. 7, 11, 17-18, and 20, as well

as at the ends of melodic phrases as the final note of the descending minor third motive

(F–D).

80 Rorem, “In The Rain-,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 33.

81 Ibid., 34.

The Lydian mode on D in song no. 11 is established by the key signature, and by the appearance of the modal scale in the bass line of the accompaniment in mm. 19-22.

The D tonal center is also reinforced by the use of the D as the bass note for the Rain

Motive at mm. 1, 5, 12, 13, 14, and 22. The opening notes in the first two measures of four of the melodic phrases outline the D Major triad; figure 20 shows two examples.

Measures 1-2

Figure 20, Example 1. Melodic phrase at mm. 1-2 in Song No. 11, outlining the D Major triad over a sustained D in the piano bass.

Measures 5-6

Figure 20, Example 2. Melodic phrase at mm. 5-6 in Song No. 11, outlining the D Major triad over a sustained D in the piano bass.

In keeping with the recurrent use of E-natural as an important structural pitch class throughout the song cycle, E-natural occurs as the upper note in several melodic phrases in song no. 11, and as the first note of the descending minor third motive (E–C) at the ends of three melodic phrases, including the first and last in the song.

The chart in figure 21 summarizes the comparison of songs no. 7 and 11.

Song No. 7 11 motives used descending minor 3rd Rain Motive variation; descending minor 3rd tempo Allegro Not slow, very free quarter note = 148 quarter note = from 50 to 90, being fastest when voice is alone meter 4/4 begins 3/4, varies constantly throughout the song tonal center D-natural D-natural Dorian mode Lydian mode important structural A-natural, D-natural D-natural, F-sharp, A-natural, pitch classes E-natural

Figure 21. Comparison summary of Song No. 7 and Song No. 11—In The Rain.

Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain

Since the tenth song presents the conclusion of Pitchford’s poem from the eighth song, there is necessarily a difference in the settings due to the different texts and the greater length of the eighth song. The songs contrast strongly in tempo, meter, and

character, but share a wide vocal range and a tonal center of C. Song no. 8, marked

“Marcatissimo,” has a fast tempo (dotted quarter note = c. 112) and 6/8 meter. Song no.

10 has a slower Andante tempo (quarter note = 66) and 3/4 meter. Song no. 8 has a more

dramatic and strong rhythmic character, compared to the gently flowing melody and

accompaniment of song no. 10. Both songs have a nearly identical vocal range; the range

in song no. 10 is one half-step larger.

Song no. 8 is quite long (107 measures) and complex, having six different sections

reflecting the changing text. Section 1 presents a series of four questions beginning with the words “How can I . . .” in mm. 1-28 that are characterized by syncopated rhythms and repeated melodic lines that generally outline the middle C octave. In the fourth of these

phrases, the word “fear” is significant at m. 25, as it connects to similar texts in the

Interlude and in song no. 10. The pitch class D-flat appears for the first time in the vocal

line during this phrase; the word “fear” occurs on the note D-flat. Section 2 contains a soft, legato description of the night scene and encompasses mm. 29-50. At Section 3

(mm. 51-56) Rorem paints a picture of a heart beating by the use of soft repeated staccato chords to accompany the text “. . . without the slow pulse beside me of your sleep.”82

In Section 4 (mm. 57-69) a dramatic change occurs as four phrases emphasizing the word “who” are presented at a ff dynamic level above sforzato chord punctuations in the accompaniment. Each of these phrases begins with a large leap, usually a ninth, upwards to the pitch E-flat, and each phrase ends with the descending minor third motive—three of these phrases end on the note E-natural. Figure 22 shows the first of these phrases at mm. 57-59.

Figure 22. Phrase emphasizing the word “who” and ending with the descending minor third motive in Song No. 8.

82 Rorem, “Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 24.

Section 5 (mm. 70-78) begins with the word “when” at a subito piano dynamic

level, and is chromatic and transitional in nature, ending with a crescendo to f at m. 78.

The vocal line at mm. 77-78 leads upward chromatically from D-natural to E-flat, E-

natural, and then to the high F-natural that begins Section 6 at m. 79. In Section 6

(mm. 79-107) the question “why” is presented twice at mm. 79 and 90 in an octave leap

downward from this pitch F that is marked ff and marcato, representing a loud cry. Figure

23 shows this octave leap downward at mm. 90-91. Here the vocal line returns to the

style of that in Section 1 with its agitated syncopation; the descending minor third motive

appears twice in this section at mm. 98 and 105.

Figure 23. Melodic leap downward representing a loud cry as shown in mm. 90-91 of Song No. 8.

The final phrase of text at mm. 100-107, “. . . to redden the white of your face?”83

presents the climax of the song. The highest pitch in the vocal line occurs at the word

“white” in m. 102 on G-natural that is held out in mm. 102-104 at a fff dynamic level.

The melodic line resolves downward chromatically to the descending minor third motive

on the notes E-flat to C-natural to end the song. It is evident that Rorem carefully

constructed the vocal lines in the eighth song by his use of rising structural pitch classes

from C-natural to D-flat, E-flat, E-natural, F-natural, and G-natural in order to underscore

the rising emotion and drama in the text.

Song no. 8 has a tonal center of C minor that is indicated by the key signature and

is also created by techniques of pitch centricity. The opening two measures include

movement from D-flat to C in the right hand piano part and from G to C in the left hand

part; the final bass note B-natural in m. 4 acts as a leading tone to the C in m. 5. Figure 24

shows the first four measures of song no. 8.

The opening melodic lines focus on the pitch classes C and E-flat, creating a C

minor “tonic” sound. Figure 25 shows the beginning melodic phrase in mm. 5-7 and these

C minor pitch classes. Throughout mm. 29-67 the recurring E-flat as the topmost note of

the vocal line and the repeated C-natural in these same lines reinforces the C minor tonal center. The continuous use of E-flat as an important structural pitch class in song no. 8

marks this song as an example of the E-flat/E-natural struggle Rorem creates in Poems of

Love and the Rain.

83 Rorem, “Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 27.

Figure 24. Measures 1-4 showing voice leading to C tonal center in Song No. 8.

Figure 25. Opening melodic phrase of Song No. 8 in mm. 5-7 showing C minor “tonic” pitch classes.

The introduction of the pitch E-natural in the vocal line at m. 78 signals a modulation to F minor in mm. 79-95. The return to C minor occurs with the descending minor third motive on E-flat to C at m. 98. This tonal center is reinforced by the return of the opening melodic line at mm. 100-101, the climactic pitch G-natural at m. 102, the descending minor third motive on E-flat to C as the final melodic notes, and the reappearance of the opening D-flat to C and G to C voice leading in the next-to-last measure of the song. Figure 26 shows the final measures of song no. 8, including the descending minor third motive and voice leading in support of the C minor tonal center.

Figure 26. Measures 104-107 of Song No. 8 showing the descending minor third motive and Db–C, G–C voice leading in support of the C minor tonal center.

The close proximity of songs no. 8 and 10 in the song cycle, on either side of the

Interlude, allow a closer feeling of connection between them than exists between the other song pairs. The emphasis on the word “fear” in these three consecutive songs also

creates this closer connection. The three references to fear in these songs occur at

structurally important points in the music. In song no. 8 the text “How can I fear what I

have never seen in your face. [sic]”84 includes the word “fear” on the pitch D-flat that

begins the rising melodic phrases in support of the increasing drama in the poetry. At

m. 10 in the Interlude the word “fear” in the next-to-last line of text, “The veins within

our hands betrayed our fear.”85 occurs on the important structural pitch class G. Further discussion of this pivotal text will be included in the analysis of the Interlude. In song no.

10 the placement of the word “fear” on a descending minor third in m. 16 shows its significance in the text, “How can I know two sounds as dry as your voice before fear and after?”86 The use of this unifying motive connects this text to the song cycle as a whole.

Song no. 10 concludes the poetry in song no. 8 and is much shorter—only twenty-

four measures in length. The character in this song is one of resignation, as portrayed by

the slower tempo and the steady quarter notes in the melody against the triplets in the

accompaniment; these remain basically unchanged throughout the song. Like song no. 8,

the tonal center is C, but constant shifts from E-flat to E-natural as important structural pitch classes create a sense of ambiguity and prevent the establishment of a distinct major or minor mode. The song divides into four phrases of text; the first, second, and fourth phrases have E-flat pitch classes at the beginning and middle, and end on the same note

E-natural. A point of interest in song no. 10 is Rorem’s use of the interval of a

84 Rorem, “Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 22.

85 Rorem, “Interlude,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 28.

86 Rorem, “Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain (conclusion),” Poems of Love and the Rain, 31.

descending fourth at the ends of the melodic phrases, rather than the descending minor

third motive that is prevalent in the song cycle. The use of the descending minor third motive in m. 16 on the word “fear” emphasizes this word’s importance by contrast, and echoes the use of the descending minor third in song no. 8.

The C tonal center in song no. 10 is created by the use of C as a pedal point in mm.

1-2 in the piano bass line, and by the fact that the first, second, and fourth melodic

phrases begin with the same note C in the bass line. Furthermore, the recurrent bass line

motion from G to C in these three phrases suggests a dominant–tonic relationship around a C tonal center. There is a brief modulation to F-sharp minor in mm. 14-18 for the third phrase of the poetry. This is similar to the modulation to F minor in song no. 8. A return to the C tonal center is indicated by the chromatic downward motion of the bass line in mm. 14-17 from C-sharp to C-natural, B-natural, A, F-sharp, and ending on G, which assumes the dominant function of C in mm. 17-18. In fact, the sonority on this G includes

the pitches of the V7 chord in the key of C Major or C minor. Figure 27 shows this

chromatic bass line, ending on the dominant seventh chord. The final two measures of the

song include the bass note C and a sustained middle C to bring the song to a close on the

C tonal center.

The chart in figure 28 summarizes the comparison of songs no. 8 and 10.

↑ chromatic bass line ↑V7/ C

Figure 27. Bass line movement in mm. 14-17 showing return to C tonal center in Song No. 10.

Song No. 8 10 motives used descending minor 3rd new motive— descending 4th; descending minor 3rd tempo Marcatissimo Andante dotted quarter note = c. 112 quarter note = 66

meter 6/8 3/4

tonal center C minor, briefly modulating C minor/major, to F minor briefly modulating to F-sharp minor important structural C-natural, E-flat, G-natural, C-natural, E-flat, pitch classes F-natural E-natural, F-sharp, G-natural

Figure 28. Comparison summary of Song No. 8 and Song No. 10—Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain.

Interlude

The Interlude presents a definite division of the two halves of the cycle. The

unaccompanied voice in the first half of the Interlude leads to the solo piano part in the

second half. Here the progression of texts comes to a complete stop, giving the listener

time to pause and absorb all that has gone before. The singer’s journey also stops at this

central point in the cycle, then returns through a different set of emotions to the point of

departure. Rorem’s Interlude, a strong compositional device, helps the listener to

understand that this cycle is a partnership between pianist and singer, that both are

equally important in creating the mood and conveying the message of the poetry. An understanding of this partnership is especially important to Rorem, who is an accomplished pianist himself, with many recordings to his credit. At this point in the song cycle, the forward progression of poems ends and the mirror reflection begins, as the poems are presented in reverse order throughout the second half of the cycle. The final two lines of text in the Interlude, “The veins within our hands betrayed our fear. What we had hoped for had not come to pass.”87 are pivotal to this process. As mentioned earlier,

the element of fear is central to songs no. 8-10 and these lines in the Interlude—song no.

9—reveal that this fear relates to the theme of unrequited love upon which Rorem’s song cycle is based. These two lines of poetry present a turning point in the thoughts of the

performer, setting the stage for the change in emotions, or metamorphosis as Rorem calls

it, as the song texts are presented again in the second half of the cycle.

Rorem does not give precise tempo or meter indications for the first half of the

Interlude—instead, he gives the following indications: “Slow and very, very free: almost

87 Rorem, “Interlude,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 28.

unmetered. Subdued yet broad, smooth yet breathless.”88 There are eleven measures in

this section, with the number of beats per measure ranging from six to fifteen. This

variation in the length of the measures allows the singer great freedom of expression in

presenting the poetry. The text setting is mostly syllabic, divided into duple and triple

subdivisions of the beat to follow the natural inflection of the words. Rorem gives two or

more notes to only a few words for emphasis. Some examples of these important words

are: “eaves” in m. 4 (three notes), “sky” in m. 5 (four notes), “widened” in m. 6

(expanded with three notes on the first syllable), “dry” in m. 7 (three notes), and

“betrayed” in m. 10 (extended by placing the last syllable on three notes).

In this music for unaccompanied solo voice, Rorem reveals himself as a master of

text painting. For example, in two instances, at mm. 1-2 and 8-9, the wind is depicted by

the use of a falling chromatic line beginning on the pitch B-natural. In the first instance,

the wind is portrayed as “rushing” in the poetry, which is shown by a rising melodic line

after the chromatic line downwards. In the second instance, the chromatic line continues

with a downward phrase, depicting motionless wind. Figure 29 shows these two

portrayals of the wind. In mm. 4-5 the growing chaos referred to in the text is presented

by the recurring interval of a tritone combined with a crescendo from p to mf. Rorem’s

use of the tritone increases the tension in this line and gives an ominous feeling at this

point in the song. A final example of Rorem’s text painting can be found in the last line

of the poem, “What we had hoped for had not come to pass.”89 Rorem presents the resignation and despair in this text by the use of three musical sighs—the pitch F-sharp

88 Rorem, “Interlude,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 28.

89 Ibid.

moves downward to F-natural and then falls a minor third to the pitch D three times in a

row; the final sigh extends down a fifth to G below middle C, representing deep despair.

This final musical phrase at m. 11 in the Interlude can be seen in figure 30.

Measures 1-2 ↑

Measure 9 ↑

Figure 29. Text painting of the wind in Song No. 9—Interlude.

The tonal center for the first half of the Interlude is C minor, as indicated by the

key signature and by the opening B-natural to C voice leading, functioning as a leading tone to the tonic. Including the opening phrase, three of the melodic phrases begin with

these same notes. The vocal lines in mm. 3, 7, and 10 outline the C minor triad pitch

classes, spaced over two octaves in range. Another important pitch class in this part of the

Interlude is G-natural, creating a “dominant” relationship to the C tonal center. In mm. 3,

7, 10, and 11 the phrases end with the descending pitch classes D to G, emphasizing the

“dominant” triad. Three phrases begin with F-sharp moving to G; the F-sharp functions

as a leading tone to G in these phrases at mm. 2-3, 6-7, and 9-10. The final vocal line at

m. 11 in the Interlude is reminiscent of the Vocal Motive and ends on G, creating a half

cadence in C minor. This note G is tied over and held as the piano portion of the Interlude

begins, creating a type of common-tone modulation to the E tonal center in the second

half of the Interlude. Figure 30 shows mm. 9-11 of the Interlude.

Figure 30. Interlude mm. 9-11 showing C minor tonality and G dominant relationship; text painting showing “musical sighs” in m. 11.

The Rain Motive in its original form as in the Prologue and at its original E-natural pitch center begins the second half of the Interlude. This half is marked “Lento” and is in

4/4 meter, but the “almost unmetered” feeling of the first half is retained due to the

improvisatory nature of the piano solo. The Rain Motive recurs four times in

mm. 12-14—twice in its original form, and twice in expanded forms in the upper voice.

Figure 31 shows the three forms of the Rain Motive in mm. 12-13.

Figure 31. Interlude mm. 12-13 showing the Rain Motive in its original and expanded forms.

At m. 14 the right-hand piano part quotes the opening melodic phrase from song no. 8, mm. 5-9—Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain—with the difference that it is now in the key of B minor instead of C minor. The cadenza in mm. 16-19 begins with a fragment of this melody, and it is the basis for the entire cadenza, which is marked

“Presto” in the score and is virtuosic in nature. The tension rises during this cadenza, which Rorem gives the instructions “molto accelerando e crescendo.” The dynamic level increases to fff at m. 20, which Rorem also marked “pesante (con tutta forza).” Figure 32 shows the melody that is quoted from song no. 8 in mm. 14-15 of the Interlude.

Figure 32. Interlude mm. 14-15 showing melodic quote from Song No. 8—Song For Lying In Bed During A Night Rain.

At m. 20-23 the tempo returns to a “Lento” marking, bringing the pianist back to the tempo at the beginning of the second half of the Interlude. An important difference, however, is the placement of the right-hand piano part in the bass clef, adding to the heavy, forceful sound referred to in Rorem’s instructions. The Rain Motive returns in its original and expanded forms in mm. 20-21, similar to its presentation in mm. 12-13. The descending minor third motive occurs twice in m. 21 on the notes F and D after the Rain

Motive, in a somewhat jazz-like rhythmic figure. Rorem uses this F to lead downward in stepwise motion to E-flat and then to the D that begins the vocal line in song no. 10, creating a seamless transition from the piano solo to the accompanied voice format that follows. The fact that the Interlude proceeds attacca to the following song is reminiscent of the Prologue proceeding to song no. 2 in the same manner.

The tonal center of E-natural in the second half of the Interlude is established by the recurring bass notes on the pitch class E in mm. 12-14 and 20-23 in conjunction with the Rain Motive. In addition, the pitch class B-natural, as the “dominant” pitch class of E,

is an integral part of the Rain Motive and the borrowed melody from song no. 8 that is

the basis for the cadenza in mm. 14-19. The pitch classes G-natural and G-sharp are both

prominent during the second half of the Interlude, creating ambiguity regarding a major

or minor mode that is similar to that in songs no. 10 and 12 of the cycle. The pitch class

G-natural is associated with the Rain Motive in mm. 12-14 and 20-21; the pitch class G-

sharp recurs at important rhythmic points during the cadenza in mm. 18-19.

The chart in figure 33 provides a comparison of the first and second halves of song

no. 9.

Song No. 9 First Half 9 Second Half motives used New motive – descending Rain Motive, in its original, perfect 5th varied, and expanded forms; descending minor 3rd tempo Slow and very, very free: Lento/Presto/Lento almost unmetered meter none given – varies by measure 4/4 from 6 beats to 15 beats tonal center C minor E Major/minor

important structural C-natural, E-flat, G-natural, E-natural, G-natural, G-sharp, pitch classes D-natural B-natural, F-sharp

Figure 33. Comparison summary of the first and second halves of Song No. 9—Interlude.

Conclusions

By examining the tonal centers, poetry, and rain imagery in Poems of Love and

the Rain, a number of conclusions can be drawn regarding Rorem’s use of mirror form

and his method of composition in this song cycle. The mirror form applies to the order of

the poems and their subject matter, but not to the progression of tonal centers or the types

71 of rain imagery associated with the song pairs. Only two song pairs are based on the same tonal center: songs no. 7 and 11 have tonal centers of D, although the mode differs, and songs no. 8 and 10 are based on C, again with differing modes. The Prologue and

Epilogue are set to similar forms of rain, as are two song pairs: no. 2 and 16, and no. 3 and 15. Five of the song pairs have contrasting forms of rain: songs no. 4 and 14, 5 and

13, 6 and 12, 7 and 11, and 8 and 10. The fact that the majority of song pairs differ in their rain imagery supports Rorem’s claim that he set each song in two contrasting ways.

In all but one song—song no. 7—Rorem uses the pitch classes E-flat and E- natural at important structural or melodic points. These pitch classes may be associated with the tonal center, as in songs no. 3, 4, and the Interlude, or its “dominant,” as in songs no. 2 and 16. In the vocal line, E-flat or E-natural may occur as the highest melodic pitch, a repeated pitch, at a significant word in the text, or as the final note in a melodic phrase.

In some songs the vocal line ends on the pitch class E-flat or E-natural (Prologue,

Epilogue, and songs no.10, 12, and 13) or these pitch classes are presented in the final sonority of the accompaniment (Prologue, songs no. 2, 3, 4, and 5, Interlude piano solo, songs no. 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and Epilogue). In songs no. 8 and 11 these pitch classes occur as part of the descending minor third motive that unifies the song cycle.

Rorem’s pervasive use of the pitch classes E-flat and E-natural appears to be connected to the search for love and the predominance of unrequited love in Poems of

Love and the Rain. The Prologue centers on E-natural; as the song cycle begins the listener is left open to any experience of love that may arise against the background of the rain. Rorem chooses E-natural as the tonal center for the only poems expressing a joyous love relationship—“Do I Love You” and “In the rain.” Unrequited love poetry may

include E-flat or E-natural or both, presenting the inner struggle that takes place

throughout the song cycle. During the first half of the song cycle, four of the songs center

on E-natural, three on E-flat, and one song does not include either pitch class. The vocal

solo portion of the Interlude centers on E-flat, while the piano solo centers on E-natural.

After the Interlude, it is clear that the love will remain unrequited, as evidenced by the

pivotal text, “What we had hoped for had not come to pass.”90 During the second half of the cycle, three songs center on E-natural, two songs on E-flat, and three songs include both of these central pitch classes. The inclusion of both pitch classes in one song occurs only in the second half of the song cycle, showing the increasing struggle they represent.

At the end of the singer’s journey, the sense of resignation is complete—the song cycle

closes on the pitch class E-flat, creating a musical sigh as the final tonality rests on the

lower pitch class.

The chart in figure 34 gives an overview of the tonal centers, presence of pitch

classes E-flat and E-natural, the subject of the poetry, and the rain imagery in the cycle.

90 Rorem, “Interlude,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 28.

Song No. and Title Tonal E/ Poetry Subject Rain Imagery Center E-flat 1. PROLOGUE: from E E background of distant rain The Rain rain 2. Stop All The Clocks, E-flat E-flat unrequited love crashing Cut Off The Telephone thunderstorm 3. The Air Is The Only E major E unrequited love gentle rain 4. Love’s Stricken “Why” E-flat E-flat unrequited love none 5. The Apparition D minor/ E unrequited love lightning and F minor thunder 6. Do I Love You G E happy love calm steady rain

7. In The Rain- Dorian Mode none happy love splashing on D raindrops; rippling water 8. Song For Lying In Bed C minor/ E-flat troubled lightning and During A Night Rain F minor relationship; thunder doubt and fear 9. Interlude—vocal solo C minor E-flat unrequited love tension of an oncoming storm 9. Interlude—piano solo E Major/ E no text the storm arrives, E minor escalates, ends 10. Song For Lying In Bed C Major/ E/ unrequited love steady rain During a Night Rain C minor, E-flat (conclusion) F minor 11. In The Rain- Lydian Mode E happy love distant rain on D 12. Do I Love You D Major E happy love rippling rain (Part II) shower 13. The Apparition Mixolydian E/ unrequited love steady raindrops; Mode on A; E-flat storm that abates C; F 14. Love’s Stricken C E-flat unrequited love crashing “Why” thunderstorm 15. The Air Is The Only D Major E unrequited love background of constant rain 16. Stop All The Clocks, D E unrequited love wild storm—the Cut Off The Telephone most dramatic in the song cycle 17. EPILOGUE: from E-flat E-flat background of calm, distant rain; The Rain rain tension remains from past storm

Figure 34. Comparison Chart showing tonal centers, E-natural/E-flat pitch classes, poetry subjects, and types of rain imagery in the song cycle.

The Effect of Mirror Form on the Performance

The manner in which Rorem uses mirror form in Poems of Love and the Rain is

unique in solo song literature. Although he does not clarify his reason for choosing mirror

form to organize the structure, it is a logical means of achieving his goal of setting each

poem twice, while retaining the listener’s interest. As stated in Chapter I of this

document, Rorem desired that the singer would be transformed during the performance of

Poems of Love and the Rain, and that the second half of the cycle would present “. . . a

new viewpoint on an old obsession.”91 The obsession that Rorem refers to in this

statement is the theme of “. . . unrequited love against a backdrop of constant rain. . . .”92

Rorem creates a number of challenges for the singer in performing this work. Each song must be presented in its individual conception, with careful attention to the characteristics that define it as a unique entity. At the same time, there must be an awareness of the larger picture—the drama that is present in the work as a whole must be allowed to unfold. The same text must be interpreted in two different ways, using the musical guidelines Rorem established in each composition. The singer must convey the change in perspective on the poetry to the audience through the manner in which she projects the mood in her performance. From a technical standpoint, it can be challenging to learn and memorize the two different settings of the same text. Having performed

Poems of Love and the Rain, I can speak to the effectiveness of the mirror form in

91 Ned Rorem, Poems of Love and the Rain, “Notes by the Composer,” Phoenix PHCD 108, 1989, compact disc.

92Rorem, “Composer’s Notes,” Poems of Love and the Rain.

75 realizing Rorem’s goals.93 It is through the use of the mirror that the singer’s journey can take place, and that the performance of two different settings of the same text in a single concert has a greater meaning, both to the singer and to the listener.

93 This performance took place at the University of Cincinnati College- Conservatory of Music on March 10, 2004, in Watson Recital Hall. The pianist was Ji-Young Jeoung.

CHAPTER III

PAUL HINDEMITH AND HIN UND ZURÜCK

Biography

Paul Hindemith was born in Hanau, Germany, on November 16, 1895. His early

music training included studies in violin with Adolf Rebner and in composition with

Arnold Mendelssohn at the conservatory in Frankfurt am Main (1909-17). In 1914

Hindemith became a member of the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra, where he remained until

1923, with the exception of the period of his military service in 1918-19. He was

promoted to the position of concert master in 1917. In 1924, he married Gertrud

Rottenberg, daughter of the orchestra’s principal conductor, Ludwig Rottenberg. Gertrud

was trained as a singer, actress, and cellist, and Hindemith composed a number of works for her and dedicated many of his works to her.

In addition to his position at the Frankfurt Opera, Hindemith became a member of

Rebner’s string quartet in 1915 as second violinist, and also gave solo concert

performances on the violin. He later changed instruments to the viola, becoming a

member of the Amar String Quartet from 1922-29 in this capacity. His career as a

composer gained momentum when, on June 2, 1919, Hindemith presented a program of

his own compositions in Frankfurt. This program attracted the attention of publisher B.

Schott’s Söhne in Mainz; Schott became his sole publisher, a relationship that was

beneficial to both parties. In 1923, Hindemith began to receive a monthly income from

Schott, and was able to leave the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra, allowing him to pursue other

musical endeavors. One such endeavor was to help organize the contemporary music

76 77

concerts at the yearly Donaueschingen Festivals in 1923-30; these were held in Baden-

Baden from 1927-29, and in Berlin in 1930. For these concerts, Hindemith invited composers to submit works for performance in specific genres. In 1927, film music and one-act operas were programmed, and Hindemith composed his chamber opera, Hin und zurück (There and Back Again), for the festival that year.

In 1927 Hindemith began teaching composition at the Berlin Hochschule für

Musik. During his years in Berlin (1927-38) he continued his own studies in music

theory, acoustics, Latin and mathematics, and he became one of the first composers to

offer courses in film music.94 Hindemith held various teaching positions in the ensuing

years, including the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood (summer of 1940), Yale

University (1940-53), and Zürich University (1951-57). He also gave a series of lectures

as the Charles Eliot Norton Lecturer at Harvard University in 1950-51.

When the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Hindemith began to experience political difficulties because of the progressive nature of his compositions, and in April of that year much of his music was banned from performance in Germany. A further ban on all performances of Hindemith’s music occurred in October 1936. He began to write his book, Unterweisung im Tonsatz (The Craft of Musical Composition) in

1935, during this ban, completing the first part in 1937. After his Jewish colleagues at the

Berlin Hochschule lost their positions, and he was publicly denounced by Joseph

Goebbels, the propaganda minister, Hindemith began to think of emigrating. The fact that

94 Giselher Schubert, “Paul Hindemith,” New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Online, ed. Laura Macy (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), under “The Berlin Years,” http://www.grovemusic.com/data/articles/music/1/130/13053.xml?section=music.3053.4 (accessed June 2, 2004).

78 his wife and her father were Jewish may have also affected this decision. He made three trips to Ankara, Turkey, in 1935-37 at the invitation of the Turkish government, to assist in organizing the music curriculum at the Ankara Conservatory. He resigned from the

Berlin Hochschule in 1937, and made three trips to the United States in 1937-39.

Although his music was denounced in Germany, performances in London and Zürich were highly successful; in September 1938 Hindemith and his wife moved to

Switzerland. Shortly after the beginning of World War II, in February 1940, he emigrated to the United States, and after some difficulty, his wife was able to join him in September of that year. Having been invited to teach at several American universities, he soon became well-known as a teacher and composer, and his works were widely performed in the United States and abroad. He also wrote two books on music theory and composition in 1943 and 1946, while teaching at Yale University. In January 1946, Hindemith became an American citizen.

Hindemith’s career took a new direction when he was invited to conduct a series of concerts in Europe in 1947. In 1949 he was offered a teaching position at the

University of Zürich, and divided his time between Switzerland and the United States until 1953, when he moved to Switzerland to stay. His conducting career became his primary focus, and he conducted concerts in every major musical center in Europe, including London, Vienna, and Berlin, as well as cities in Germany, Great Britain and

Italy.95 He toured South America in 1954 and Japan in 1956, and also recorded a number of his own works with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London in 1956. The next few years were filled with the premières of his works and concert tours in Germany, Switzerland,

95 Schubert, under “Return to Switzerland.”

the United States, Italy, and Austria. While on a concert tour in Germany, Hindemith

became ill and died unexpectedly in Frankfurt on December 28, 1963. In the eyes of the

general public, he was one of the most respected musicians of his time.96

Hin und zurück

Of Hindemith’s many compositions, his stage works are among those for which

he is most noted, in particular, his operas Cardillac and Mathis der Maler (Mathis the

Painter). His chamber opera, Hin und zurück, subtitled “Sketch with Music,” is perhaps

the least well-known of these stage works.97 As previously stated, Hindemith wrote Hin

und zurück in 1927 for a chamber music festival that was held in Baden-Baden, the

Donaueschinger Kammermusiktage (Donaueschingen Chamber Music Festival). The

première was on July 17, 1927. Hin und zurück was performed by the Deutsche

Kammermusik Baden-Baden (German Chamber Music of Baden-Baden), conducted by

Ernst Mehlich. The stage director was Walther Brügemann, and the set designer was

Heinz Porep.98 Other works performed at this festival were Darius Milhaud’s

L’enlèvement d’Europe (The Rape of Europa), Kurt Weill’s Mahagonny Songspiel, Ernst

Toch’s Prinzessin auf der Erbse (The Princess and the Pea) , Hermann Reutter’s Saul, and Conostas’s In zehn Minuten (In Ten Minutes).99

96 Schubert, under “Posthumous Reputation.”

97 A complete list of Hindemith’s stage works can be found in Appendix C.

98 Schott Music, “Hin und zurück,” http://www.schott- music.com/shop/9/show,152753.html (accessed June 23, 2007).

99 Andreas Briner, Paul Hindemith (Zürich: Atlantis Musikbuch-Verlag Zürich, 1971), 57.

In the United States, Hin und zurück was performed in 1939 by a group of

Juilliard Graduate School alumni in Manhattan, New York. The Time Magazine review

applauded the work, stating, “If somewhat short on logic in either direction, this piece of

Kulturbolsche-whimsey was just as good fun coming as going.”100 Hindemith

participated in performances in 1940 at the Tanglewood Summer Music Academy in

Lenox, Massachusetts, as one of the pianists in the pit orchestra, and in 1942 at the Hartt

School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut, as the conductor.101 In the years since these

early performances, Hin und zurück has remained a well-received part of the opera

repertoire in the United States and Europe.

A number of professional opera companies have presented Hin und zurück in the

United States. Opera San José included Hin und zurück in its 1981-82 season, with

Salieri’s The Little Harlequinade (The Little Buffoonery) and Haydn’s La cantarina (The

Singing Lady).102 The American Chamber Opera also staged Hin und zurück together

with two other operas—William Albright’s Seven Deadly Sins and Dominick Argento’s

A Water Bird Talk—at the Marymount Manhattan Theater in New York in 1986.103 The

100 “Palindrome Opera,” Time Magazine, April 3, 1939, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,771626,00.html (accessed June 5, 2007).

101 Douglas Moore, Gallantry—A Soap Opera; Paul Hindemith, Hin und zurück; Gian Carlo Menotti, The Telephone, The New York Chamber Ensemble, Stephen Rogers Radcliffe, conductor, liner notes by John Michel, Albany Records TROY173, CD, 1995.

102 Opera San José, “Repertoire History,” http://www.operasj.org/repertoire0607.html (accessed June 5, 2007).

103Bernard Holland, “Opera: Chamber Group in 3-Part Bill,” The New York Times, November 2, 1986,

New York Chamber Ensemble presented Hin und zurück in Manhattan at Bryant Park in

1993 with Douglas Moore’s Gallantry and Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Telephone.104

Under the direction of conductor Stephen Rogers Radcliffe, The New York Chamber

Ensemble also recorded these three operas for Albany Records in 1995.105 The

performers were: Jeanne Ommerlé (Helene), Carl Halvorson (Robert), Richard Holmes

(Professor), Robert Osborne (Orderly), and Austin Wright Moore (Sage).

Hin und zurück has been performed at many American universities—author

Quaintance Eaton lists twenty-two performances in the years 1949-58 in his book on

opera production.106 (A list of performances can be found in Appendix D.) Later

American university productions include a performance at Bowling Green State

University in Ohio in 1977, together with another of Hindemith’s operas, The Long

Christmas Dinner; Hin und zurück was performed again in Bowling Green during the

1990-91 academic year.107 At Shoreline Community College in Washington, Hin und

zurück was performed in 1994, along with Samuel Barber’s A Hand of Bridge and

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DEFD9133FF931A35752C1A96094 82... (accessed June 5, 2007).

104 Bernard Holland, “Review/Concert; Chamber Ensemble Vs. Noise: Music Wins,” The New York Times, May 31, 1993, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE0DE1430F932A05756C0A96595 82... (accessed June 5, 2007).

105Moore, Gallantry; Hindemith, Hin und zurück; Menotti, The Telephone, Albany Records TROY173, CD, 1995.

106 Quaintance Eaton, Opera Production: A Handbook (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1961), 190, 251-262.

107Bowling Green State University College of Musical Arts, “Opera at BGSU,” http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/music/ensembles/opera.html (accessed June 16, 2007). I was a member of the cast in The Long Christmas Dinner at the 1977 performance.

additional opera scenes.108 The College of Marin Opera Theater in Kentfield, California,

staged Hin und zurück in 1996 and again in 1998.109 Temple University Opera Theater in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, presented Hin und zurück together with Igor Stravinsky’s

Mavra and Giacomo Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi in 2003,110 and the Tanglewood Music

Center in Lenox, Massachusetts, included Hin und zurück in its 2006 summer Festival of

Contemporary Music, along with Stravinsky’s Mavra and Elliott Carter’s What Next? 111

Hindemith’s opera has also been performed in at least one music conservatory in

Germany—in Munich, Hin und zurück was performed in 1996 by the Bayerischen

Theaterakademie (Bavarian Theater Academy) at the Hochschule für Musik (Music

Conservatory) of the Prinzregententheater, one of the six major theaters in the city.112

European professional performances include a 1971 production at the Teatro

Comunale di Bologna in Italy;113 a 1990 production by the Helikon Opera in Moscow,114

108 Shoreline Community College, “Opera at Shoreline Community College,” http://www.shoreline.edu/opera/ (accessed June 5, 2007).

109College of Marin, “College of Marin Opera Theater: Hin und Zurück,” http://www.comopera.com/ Productions/1996 July 25.html (accessed June 1, 2004).

110 Temple University Office of News and Media Relations, “Temple University Opera Theater Presents a Triple Bill, Including Works by Stravinsky, Hindemith and Puccini, April 25, 27,” http://www. temple.edu/news_media/gc0304_709.html (accessed June 5, 2007).

111 Frank Pesci, Jr., “20th-Century Opera at Tanglewood,” Ionarts, July 28, 2006, http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2006/07/20th-century-opera-at-tanglewood.html (accessed June 5, 2007).

112Bayerische Theaterakademie August Everding, “Prinzregententheater: Hin und zurück,” archives, http://www.theaterakademie.de/de/produktionen/archiv_1995_1996/hin_und_zurueck.ht ml (accessed April 20, 2006).

113Maria Rosaria Boccuni, e-mail message to author, April 21, 2006.

performances at the Städtische Bühnen Münster in Germany during the 2001-02 season,

paired with Leonard Bernstein’s opera, Trouble in Tahiti;115 and performances at the

Konzerthaus Berlin in 2004 as part of a “Trilogie d’amour” (Trilogy of Love) with Ernst

Krenek’s Vertrauenssache (Confidential Matter) and Alexander von Zemlinsky’s Ein

Lichtstrahl (A Ray of Light).116 In 2007, Hin und zurück was performed at the Kurt Weill

Festival in Dessau, Germany, by graduates of the Bel Canto Northwest Vocal Institute of

Portland State University (U.S.A.) in collaboration with the PanArte Ensemble of the

University of the Arts in Berlin. At the Laves-Foyer in Hannover, Germany, Hin und

zurück was also presented in 2007, together with Ernst Toch’s Egon und Emilie (Egon

and Emilie), in a program entitled “Desperate Lovers.”117 The fact that Hin und zurück

continues to be performed in the United States and in Europe attests to its success and

popularity.

The following discussion of Hin und zurück will first examine the effect of the

Expressionist movement on Hindemith and his operas, and then continue with a

biography of the librettist and a discussion of the comic elements contained in the libretto and the music. A large-scale analysis of the mirror form will be presented next, including

114S.A.R.A. Opera Ballets Spectacles Musicaux, “Helikon Opera,” http://www.sara-artists.com/helikon/helikon_eng.htm (accessed June 10, 2007).

115Städtische Bühnen Münster, “Rufen Sie Herrn Plim,” http://www.theater.muenster.org/detail. php?id=plim (accessed May 31, 2004).

116Marianne Hachmann, e-mail message to author, April 20, 2006.

117 Schott Music, “Hin und zurück,” under “Past Performances,” http://www.schott-music.com/shop/9/show,152753.html (accessed June 23, 2007).

a look at the overall structure and stage directions, followed by a detailed comparison of

the halves of the opera.

Hindemith and Expressionism

When Hindemith returned to Frankfurt after his military service in 1919, he found that the city had become a leading center of Expressionism118 during his absence, and it

was “the most vital avant-garde movement of the time.”119 Embracing this movement, he

wrote a short one-act opera, Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen (Murder, Hope of Women).

This opera was based on a play by the Expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka that was

highly symbolic and sadistic—in fact, the play caused a riot when it was performed in

Vienna in 1908.120 Hindemith planned to write a set of three operas to fill a full evening, and chose a short, amusing, and vulgar text by Franz Blei for the second opera, Das

Nuschi-Nuschi,121 which was written in 1921. “Hindemith’s choice of text was by no

means arbitrary, since he had decided that the three operas would deal, in varying ways,

118 Expressionism is a term taken from the visual arts and linked to the German school of painters, including Nolde, Kirchner, Ernst, and Kokoschka, who worked in Berlin, Munich, Vienna, and other important German and Austrian cities ca. 1905-30. These painters emphasized the artist’s subjective interpretation of reality, using distortion, exaggeration, and symbolism. Composers associated with this movement in music include Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Krenek, and Hindemith. André Boucourechliev, “Expressionism,” in Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed., ed. Willi Apel (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1972), 302-303.

119Guy Rickards, Hindemith, Hartmann and Henze (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1995), 40.

120 Ibid.

121Nuschi-Nuschi translates to mean “Nuts-Nuts,” a vulgar reference to testicles. Rickards, 41.

with the themes of violent sexuality and society’s repression—even punishment—of it.”122 The plot is a satire in which a philanderer is castrated for his sins by the “Nuschi-

Nuschi”—the creature in the title role of the opera. That same year, Hindemith composed

the third one-act opera for his trilogy, Sancta Susanna (Saint Susanna). The scandalous libretto by August Stramm about the sexual fantasies of a novice nun was refused performance in Stuttgart when the first two operas received their premières under the direction of Fritz Busch; the trilogy was first presented as a whole in 1922 by Ludwig

Rottenberg in Frankfurt and was a success. Hindemith later turned away from

Expressionism, and in the 1930’s these operas were labeled politically incorrect, and caused him problems with the National Socialists.

Although Hin und zurück was written several years after Hindemith’s trilogy of

one-act operas, it shows the influence of Expressionism on his work, due to the fact that

the plot includes marital infidelity, a murder, and a suicide. Another opera in this same

vein is Neues vom Tage (News of the Day), which was written in 1929 and premièred at

the Kroll Opera in Berlin. Neues vom Tage is a satire of many topics including that of

divorce; the librettist for both Hin und zurück and Neues vom Tage is Marcellus Schiffer,

a well-known Berlin cabarettist and author.

Marcellus Schiffer—Biography

Marcellus Schiffer was born in Berlin in 1892, the son of a Jewish timber

merchant. He was trained as a painter, illustrator and graphic artist, and his early

occupations included playwright, teller of Expressionistically distorted fairy tales, writer

122 Rickards, 41.

of serials, and novelist. He was one of the most important writers of cabaret and revue texts of the Weimar Republic, and had great success as a chanson-lyricist. Many famous

German Diseusen,123 cabaret stars and actors performed his songs, and many composers

set his song texts to music. Schiffer lived in Berlin as a somewhat prominent Bohemian

and ladies’ man. He was a well-dressed young man, who wore a monocle and enjoyed the

company of ladies. His diary, which was published by his niece after his death under the

title Heute nacht oder nie: Tagebücher, Erzählungen, Gedichte, Zeichnungen (Tonight

Or Never: Diaries, Tales, Poems, Drawings), includes tales of the Berlin nightlife and

artistic life, with some scandalous stories and also some unflattering descriptions of

colleagues, both well-known and obscure.

Most important and most successful was Schiffer’s collaboration with Margo

Lion (1900-89) and Mischa Spoliansky (1898-1985). Schiffer discovered the singing and

acting talent of Lion, who became his lifelong companion and later his wife. Lion was

Marlene Dietrich’s best friend, a friendship which began with their duet “Wenn die beste

Freundin mit der besten Freundin” (If the Best Friend With the Best Friend) in the

Kaufhaus-Revue “Es liegt in der Luft” (There is Something in the Air). The text and the

music were by Marcellus Schiffer and Mischa Spoliansky, a pianist who became well-

known as the “Komponisten des Kurfürstendamms” (Composer of the

Kurfürstendamm).124 Schiffer encouraged Lion to appear in cabarets in order to help her

123 The term Diseuse refers to the type of female singer who both spoke and sang her songs in the cabaret-style of the 1920’s and 1930’s. Some famous Diseusen are Marlene Dietrich, Margo Lion and Edith Piaf.

124 The Kurfürstendamm is a great boulevard in the heart of the former West Berlin. The ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church stand here as a memorial to peace. This boulevard is a great tourist attraction and is known for its many outdoor

out of the hysterical and depressive attacks she suffered (which he also described at

length in his diary); her debut was in 1923 and she was soon one of the most sought-after

actresses and interpreters of chansons. She even played the part of Pirate Jenny in the

French film version of “Die Dreigroschenoper” (The Three-Penny Opera) in 1931.

Together with Spoliansky, Schiffer discovered new, timely genres for

Musiktheater (German musical theater), that could move between cabaret and revue,

literature and popular song, high culture and popular culture. German author Viktor

Rotthaler felt that the first German attempt at a musical was Spoliansky and Schiffer’s

Kaufhaus-Revue “Es liegt in der Luft” and not “Die Dreigroschenoper.”125 This was a

great success, and next they wrote the cabaret-opera “Rufen Sie Herrn Plim!” (Call Mr.

Plim!)—a parody of the service industry, in which a department store customer service

worker gets fired over and over again. The collaboration between Spoliansky and

Schiffer ended with the hit song from the 1932 Jan Kiepura film “Heute nacht oder nie”

(Tonight Or Never). Soon afterwards, Spoliansky emigrated to England, where he began

his second career as a film composer.

In June 1930 Schiffer stopped writing in his diary. Although he and his wife were

both successful in their work at that time, Schiffer fell more and more into depression. On

August 24, 1932 Schiffer committed suicide by taking poison in his apartment. It has

never been certain why Schiffer took his own life. Author Claus Lochbihler wrote about

cafés, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, and nightclubs. Germany, rev. ed. (Bad Münstereifel, Germany: Ziethen-Panorama Verlag, 1997), 61-63.

125 Claus Lochbihler, “Voll Schaudern die Nacht durchplaudern,” review of Marcellus Schiffer: Heute nacht oder nie. Tagebücher, Erzählungen, Gedichte, Zeichnungen, by Viktor Rotthaler, Neue Musikzeitung, May 2003, http://www.nmz.de/nmz/2003/05/rez-buch-schiffer.shtml (accessed June 23, 2007).

Schiffer’s death, “There don’t seem to have been any concrete reasons that led him to this

decision, but rather a general tiredness of life and a deadly boredom, that were woven

like a red thread throughout his entire drawings and his diary. An unfinished text of his

bore the title “Vielleicht gewöhnt man sich mit der Zeit an die Zeit” (perhaps with time

one gets used to the time). For the one who wrote this text, this hope remained unfulfilled.”126

Comic Elements

Mirror Form

Hin und zurück is considered a comic opera, although the plot includes a murder

and a suicide. The comic effect derives in part from the form, which is that of a mirror.

This tale of a jealous husband who shoots his wife and then jumps out of a window is

interrupted by the appearance of a Sage, who philosophizes that

Von ganz droben gesehn ist es ohne Belang, ob des Menschen Lebensgang von der Wiege vorwärts irrt, bis er verdirbt, oder ob er erst stirbt und nachher geboren wird.127 (As seen from above, it is of no importance whether a man’s life wanders forward from the cradle until he dies, or whether he dies first and is born afterwards.)

After this point the action replays in reverse, and the unnatural motions of the characters

as they replay the sequence of events backwards creates a comic effect. Though this

126 Claus Lochbihler, “Voll Schaudern die Nacht durchplaudern,” Neue Musikzeitung, May 2003, http://www.nmz.de/nmz/2003/05/rez-buch-schiffer.shtml (accessed June 23, 2007). All translations, unless otherwise noted, are my own.

127 Paul Hindemith, Hin und zurück, piano reduction (Mainz: Schott Musik International GmbH & Co., KG, 1927), 14-15.

opera has its roots in Expressionism, its success was not because it was based upon any

deep personal meaning conveyed, but because it was amusing.128

Through his choice of mirror form to structure this opera, Hindemith

demonstrated his continued interest in film techniques. In addition to teaching courses in

film music at the Hochschule für Musik during his years in Berlin (1927-38), Hindemith

composed a film score for mechanical organ—Felix the Cat at the Circus—in 1927, and

a film score for pianola, a mechanical piano with piano rolls—Vormittagspuk (Haunting

in the Morning)—in 1928. Research by Jennifer Lee Arndt concludes that the technique

of reversing the action in the opera derives from silent film technology of the 1920’s, in

particular, the ability to reverse a sequence of events by editing techniques.129 Hindemith

biographer Ian Kemp agrees, stating that “It may be noted that the idea for Hin und zurück was obviously suggested by contemporary film techniques.”130 Rickards concurs,

adding that “Hin und zurück is one of Hindemith’s most curious creations. The whole

piece lasts less than fifteen minutes, the plot concerning a marital argument that leads to

murder. At this point, action, text and music move into reverse, the opera unwinding like

a film running backwards. In its contrived atmosphere and cinematic structure, Hin und

zurück is quite unique amongst Hindemith’s operatic output . . . .”131

128 Andres Briner, Paul Hindemith (Zürich: Atlantis Musikbuch-Verlag Zürich, 1971), 58.

129 Jennifer Lee Arndt, Paul Hindemith’s ‘Hin und zurück’: a Study and a Rationale for a Cinematographic Approach, (DMA doc., The University of Texas at Austin, 1988), 5.

130 Ian Kemp, Oxford Studies of Composers (6): Hindemith (London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1970), 24.

131 Rickards, 59.

Libretto

Schiffer’s libretto defines the comedy in this chamber opera. In keeping with the

mirror form, the characters sing their lines in reverse order during the second half of the opera. In a clever manner, their lines sometimes tell a story in the reverse direction as well. The score also includes specific stage directions that clarify the singers’ actions in both halves of the opera.

The list of characters reveals similarities with the traditional comic operas of the

Baroque and Classical periods. The leading lady of the story is Helene, a light soprano,

and the male lead is Robert, her husband, a tenor. The Sage, whose function is that of the

Deus ex machina,132 is also a tenor. There are two comic characters—the Professor, a baritone, and the Orderly, a bass—who fill the role of the basso buffo in traditional comic

opera plots. Schiffer also included a character who remains speechless throughout the

work, which is reminiscent of the role of Vespone, a mute, in Giovanni Battista

Pergolesi’s intermezzo, La serva padrona (The Servant Mistress).133 In Hin und zurück,

the character of Aunt Emma, who is deaf, sits onstage and knits throughout the entire

132 Deus ex machina is a term meaning “God from the machine.” In Greek and Roman drama, this term was used to describe a deity who was brought in by stage machinery to resolve a difficult situation. In general terms, it refers to any unexpected or improbable character, device, or event used for the same reason. In Hin und zurück, the Sage arises from under the stage and causes the scene to rewind, removing the tragic ending and replacing it with the happy ending that was also the beginning of the opera. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, s.v. “Deus ex machina.”

133 La Serva Padrona, an intermezzo composed by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi on a libretto by Gennaro Antonio Federico, was first performed in Naples, Italy, in 1733. Performed between the three acts of Pergolesi’s opera seria entitled Il prigionier superbo, it became a huge success and remains in the modern repertoire. The characters in this intermezzo are: Uberto, a bachelor (basso-buffo); Serpina, his maid (soprano); and Vespone, Uberto’s valet, who is a mute. Henry W. Simpson, 100 Great Operas and Their Stories: Act by Act Synopses (New York: Anchor Books, 1979), 467-468.

opera. Occasionally she holds an ear-trumpet to her ear, hears nothing, and resumes

knitting. Her oblivion to the escalating violence around her, and its culmination in the

murder of her niece and in her niece’s husband’s suicide, adds to the farcical nature of the

piece.

Although one would expect to hear singing at the beginning of an opera, the first

sound the audience hears after the orchestral introduction in Hin und zurück is a sneeze

from Aunt Emma. In this manner, the comic intention of the piece is established from the

very beginning. Even the sneeze occurs forwards and in reverse at the beginning and end

of the opera—the word is “Haa-ptschü” at the beginning, and “Ptschü-haa” at the end.

The text itself shows the wit of Marcellus Schiffer—for example, one of the first

lines that Helene sings is, “Froh und früh erwacht” (happy and early awakened).134 She continues to play with the words “froh und früh” for the next twenty-one measures. The word “früh” (early) takes on another level of importance when her husband, Robert,

arrives home early from work. Helene sings, “Bist Du schon so früh aus dem Geschäft

zurück?” (Are you already home so early from work?).135 As the plot develops, it is this

coming home early that eventually results in the catastrophic events of the morning—the murder of Helene, and Robert’s suicide.

Another example of the humor that is inherent in the text is the rhyme scheme in

the Sage’s speech. It consistently uses pairs of rhymed words but without any defined

line length. If the entire speech is written out with the following divisions, this humor

becomes apparent:

134 Hindemith, Hin und zurück, piano reduction, 6-7.

135 Ibid., 7.

Man hat nicht an den Eingriff höh’rer Macht gedacht. Sie ist durchaus dagegen, daß der Mensch sich wegen Kleinigkeiten umbringt. Unbedingt muß etwas geschehn. Von ganz droben gesehn ist es ohne Belang, ob des Menschen Lebensgang von der Wiege vorwärts irrt, bis er verdirbt, oder ob er erst stirbt und nachher geboren wird. Laßt uns darum das Schicksal rückwärts drehen. Ihr werdet sehen, die Logik weicht nicht um ein Haar, und alles wird gut, wie es vorher war.136

In addition, the Sage refers to the causes of the murder and suicide as “Kleinigkeiten”

(trifles, or small things) in this text, and states that one is definitely against having people kill themselves over such small things. This line is satiristic in nature, as it is doubtful that the German population at the time Hin und zurück was written would have considered marital infidelity to be a small thing.

During the argument between Helene and Robert that eventually leads to Helene’s murder, Robert calls her a number of names that also seem quite comic—“Falscheste der

Kröten!” (falsest of toads!), “Hinterlist’ger Igel!” (deceitful hedgehog!), “Gräßliches

Ichneumon!” (dreadful mongoose!), and “Tück’sches Krokodil!” (treacherous crocodile!).137 These names are very harsh, in contrast to the German custom of using pet names such as “Maüschen” (little mouse) or “Kätzchen” (kitten) as terms of endearment,

136 Hindemith, Hin und zurück, piano reduction, 14-15. An English translation of this text can be found in Appendix E.

137 Ibid., 11, 17-18.

and would therefore be amusing to a German audience. Thus, even at the height of the

drama, when the murder takes place, the audience cannot take the events too seriously.

After Helene is shot and lying dead onstage, the sudden appearance of the

Professor and the Orderly in the breakfast room adds to the humor. The Professor’s

examination of the dead wife consists of lifting up her arm and examining it with his

stethoscope, while the Orderly ineffectually intones a list of medicines with three-syllable

names—Veronal, Adalin, Pantopon, Bromural, Trigemin, Aspirin, Lysoform,

Baldrian138—that are too late to be of assistance to the expired Helene. During the trio

sung by Robert, the Professor, and the Orderly, Robert and the Professor sing together in

octaves in a series of musical sighs separated by rests. These musical sighs support their mournful text, which is amusing as it is sung over the list of medicines intoned by the

Orderly. Figure 35 shows the beginning of the trio in the first half of the opera.

At the end of the trio, Helene is carried out by the Professor and the Orderly;

whether they employ a stretcher or simply lift her up and carry her is left to the

imagination of the stage director. Sergei Prokofiev employed a similar plot device in his

opera, The Love for Three Oranges, which was written in 1919. The première was by the

Chicago Opera Company in 1921, and it was later performed in a number of European

cities—the first of these was Köln in 1925, and another was Berlin in 1926. It is possible

that Hindemith and Schiffer were aware of this opera and that it influenced their work in

Hin und zurück. During the third act of The Love for Three Oranges, the Prince and

138 These medicines, which were in use at the time Hin und zurück was written, were for various conditions. For example, Veronal was a topical medicine for the veins, Bromural was for the stomach, Aspirin for headaches, pain and fever, Lysoform was a disinfectant, and Baldrian is an herbal tranquilizer. This information comes from conversations with my German acquaintances, Doris Kletschka Green and her family.

Truffaldino (the court jester) are in the desert, having stolen three oranges from the Cook at the castle of Creonte. Truffaldino opens two of these oranges, which contain beautiful princesses who immediately die of thirst. Four soldiers conveniently appear in the desert, and carry the dead princesses offstage.

↑ medicines named ↑ musical sighs

Figure 35. Hin und zurück—beginning of the trio, mm. 214-218, showing musical sighs sung in octaves above the names of medicines intoned by the Orderly.139

Hindemith HIN UND ZURÜCK © 1927 Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG, Mainz, Germany © Renewed All Rights Reserved Used by permission of European American Music Distributors LLC, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott Music

139 Hindemith, Hin und zurück, piano reduction, 12. All musical examples will be taken from the piano reduction score unless otherwise noted.

The appearance of the Sage, magically lighted, from underneath the stage, would

also be humorous to the audience after Helene’s tragic murder and Robert’s suicide. The

stage directions specify that the Sage comes from under the stage, after the stage darkens

at Robert’s death. The Sage is also described as having a beard in these stage directions.

Since the Sage turns the plot around and sets everything right again, it is amusing that he

comes from under the stage, rather than from above it. The offstage harmonium140 accompaniment reinforces the religious implications of the Sage’s presence, as does the beard, and one would expect his entrance to be associated more with heaven than with the underworld.

Musical Elements

A number of musical elements contribute to the comic effect of Hin und zurück.

Hindemith’s unusual instrumentation is one such element. The score calls for: flute,

clarinet, alto saxophone, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, two pianos (one for four hands, and

another for two hands), and offstage harmonium. The lively scoring for this combination

of instruments is reminiscent of a small jazz band rather than an opera orchestra.

Hindemith was familiar with band music—he wrote some dance-band arrangements ca.

1921, but they were never published because he decided to withdraw them after

140 The harmonium is a keyboard instrument that was developed in the nineteenth century, having a sound similar to that of the organ. Early instruments similar to the harmonium were in use in the early 1800’s; the first real harmonium was built by A. Debain in 1840. Its sound is created by a steady current of air, supplied by a pair of pedal-operated bellows, that set thin metal tongues in vibration. The tone can be sustained and there are stops that allow for a variety of timbres. “Harmonium,” in Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed., ed. Willi Apel (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1972), 371.

submitting them to Schott.141 Another earlier work, Kammermusik No. 1, shows

Hindemith’s use of unconventional instrumentation—it is a four-movement suite for a

small band including accordion, a canister of sand, and a siren, and was composed for the

Donaueschingen Festival in 1922.142

In Hin und zurück, the organ-like sound of the offstage harmonium that accompanies the Sage’s aria at the mid-point of the opera is reminiscent of church music

and clearly sets this section apart from the first and third sections, in which the mirror

takes place. It is during the Sage’s aria that Hindemith also uses his harmonic setting to

comic effect. In the midst of the twentieth-century dissonances in this work the V7-I

cadence in A-flat major at the end of the Sage’s aria seems out-of-place and therefore

comical, yet it delineates the sections of the opera in a manner that is easily understood

by the listener.

Additional humorous use of instrumentation includes the jazz sound of the clarinet

with its ‘bent notes’ during the prelude and in the postlude; the use of the clarinet

tremolos accompanied by bassoon at the Aunt’s sneeze in the prelude, and the same

combination of instruments at the sneeze in the postlude; the trombone’s downward

glissandi at the entrance of the Professor and the Orderly just before the trio and in the

mirror image section of the opera just after the trio; and the percussive effects of the two

pianos throughout the prelude and postlude.

141 Rickards, 48.

142 Ibid.

Mirror Form

Because Schiffer’s libretto largely defines the form of Hin und zurück,

Hindemith’s challenge in composing his opera was to decide how to create a musical

rendition of a plot that reverses order. He chose to reverse the order of the musical

phrases, with some changes that enhance the flow of the music. Since the text reverses by sentences, not by words, the music reverses as the text does. This also aids the listener in recognizing the musical content as it proceeds backwards.

In keeping with Baroque and Classical period opera traditions, Hindemith uses

arias, duets, and trios to structure Hin und zurück. These twentieth-century versions are

not divided by pauses, however, but proceed seamlessly from one to another, with the

exception of the Sage’s aria at the midpoint of the opera. Because of the scene changes

and the importance of the Sage’s text to the plot, it is set off by pauses before and after

the aria. The overall form, in which the mirror symmetry is clearly visible, is shown in

figure 36. Note that the number of performers increases from one to three towards the

midpoint, and decreases from three to one after the Sage’s aria. The opera as a whole is

framed by the instrumental prelude and postlude.

Instrumental Prelude Ariette, sung by Helene Duet, sung by Robert and Helene Trio, sung by Robert, the Professor, and the Orderly Aria, sung by the Sage Trio, sung by Robert, the Professor, and the Orderly Duet, sung by Robert and Helene Ariette, sung by Helene Instrumental Postlude

Figure 36. Structure of the opera, showing mirror form.

The second half of the opera is somewhat shorter than the first, as seen in figure

37. The actual performance times depend on the tempo the conductors and singers choose for each performance, and must take into account the time needed to achieve the staging required by the stage director in realizing the plot. The listed performance times are taken from the New York Chamber Ensemble recording. Historically speaking, this is a rather fast performance, as other references to Hin und zurück list it as lasting anywhere from twelve to fifteen minutes.

From this table one can see that each section of the opera is shortened in the second half; for example, the postlude is forty-nine seconds shorter than the prelude. The question of why Schiffer and Hindemith chose to shorten the reverse version of the opera is one that remains unanswered. Perhaps they wished to avoid losing the audience’s attention in the second half of the opera, as familiar text and music was presented. In the case of the prelude and postlude, another reason might be that the function of the prelude in setting the mood and tonal idiom of the opera required more time than the postlude, whose function is simpler—to bring the opera to a satisfactory close.

Section of Performance the opera time in minutes Prelude 1:25 Helene’s recit. 0:13 Ariette 0:50 Duet 1:34 Trio 0:58 Robert’s 0:21 last words Sage’s aria 1:52 Robert’ 0:20 last words Trio 0:35 Duet 1:24 Ariette 0:45 Helene’s recit. 0:10 Postlude 0:36 Total 11:03

Figure 37. Performance times for each section of the opera.

Stage Directions

The stage directions are an integral part of this opera, and are included in the

score. It is unclear whether Schiffer wrote these stage directions together with the text, if

Hindemith added them to Schiffer’s libretto, or if Schiffer and Hindemith wrote them in

collaboration. What is clear is that they are detailed and printed at specific points in the

musical score, to correspond with the text and the drama. (The complete text and stage

directions in German with my own English translation can be found in Appendix E.

Although an English translation is present in the piano reduction score, this translation is meant to be sung, and has therefore been modified to fit the music. The translation found in Appendix E is a literal translation.) Although the stage director who wishes to present

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this opera is therefore somewhat limited in his realization of the work, there is still much

room for creativity, and the insight into Schiffer’s and Hindemith’s original intentions

can be quite helpful, especially when staging the second half of the opera, in the reverse

direction.

Comparison of the Halves of the Opera

In order to determine the extent of the mirror form in Hin und zurück, a detailed

comparison of the halves of the opera will now be presented. Each section in the first half

will be compared with its counterpart in the second half, with regard to plot, length, tempo, meter, text setting, accompaniment figures, unifying motives and tonal centers.

Prelude and Postlude

Hin und zurück begins with a seventy-one-measure prelude that sets the tone of

the opera. The music is lively, with changing meters and a strongly rhythmic character.

These constantly changing meters and the syncopation give an irregular feeling that

signals the comic nature of the plot to the audience—thus, the audience expects a comedy

from the very beginning of the piece. The opening accented A Major chord sets the tonal

center for the prelude. A point of interest is that Hindemith does not use any key

signatures in the opera score, but writes out all the accidentals instead. This accented A

Major chord recurs five times during the prelude, including the first measure and the

second-to-last measure, firmly cementing A Major as the tonal center for the prelude,

using techniques of pitch centricity. Other pitch-class sets are briefly tonicized during the

prelude as well—B-flat is tonicized at m. 23 by the use of a B-flat Major triad on the first

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beat; B-flat also occurs on the first beat in m. 53, prepared by triads based on B-flat, C,

and A in m. 52.143 A G Major accented triad occurs on the first beat of m. 26 and again in

m. 29, both times prepared by a sequence of pitch classes from A-flat to B-flat to G,

giving a short tonic emphasis to the pitch class G. The use of the neighboring tones B-

flat and G as additional tonal centers reinforces the overall A tonal center of the prelude.

Measures 1-4 present a rhythmic and melodic motive that is repeated ten times

during the prelude and reappears twice at the beginning of the duet in the first half of the

opera and three times at the end of the duet in the second half, at the corresponding text.

The reappearance of this “happy” motive establishes the mood at the beginning of Helene and Robert’s first duet, and signals the return to this mood at the end of their second duet.

Figure 38 shows this opening motive.

The fourteen-measure postlude is also lighthearted in nature, but unrelated to the prelude in musical composition or rhythm. The 3/4 meter, which began in Helene’s

Ariette prior to the postlude, remains constant throughout, and the motivic content

derives from Helene’s Ariette accompaniment rather than the motives presented in the

prelude. The postlude music consists of continuous motion in sonorities built on parallel

fourths, with a characteristic rhythm of an eighth note followed by two sixteenth notes.

Figure 39 shows this characteristic motive.

143 All measure numbers refer to the piano reduction score unless otherwise indicated.

102

Figure 38. Prelude opening motive in mm. 1-4.

Figure 39. Characteristic motive from the Postlude, mm. 398-400.

103

The tonal center of G-sharp Major is established in the last measure of the Ariette, by the G-sharp bass note in the accompaniment, and the B-natural and G-sharp as the last notes of Helene’s last phrase. The pitch class G-sharp continues as a pedal point in the first two measures of the postlude, and in the last seven measures as well; the continuous presence of the pitch class B-natural in these measures adds to the G-sharp Major tonality. The final sonority of G-sharp and D-sharp in octaves firmly concludes the opera in the tonal center of G-sharp.

A point of interest is that the prelude has a tonal center of A Major, and the postlude centers on G-sharp Major. This relationship of a half-step lower in the postlude creates a musical sigh for the opera as a whole. Although the musical content, length, and tonal centers differ in the prelude and postlude, Hindemith preserves the mirror form by the use of an instrumental section to begin and end the opera.

Ariette I and II

Helene’s Ariette will be referred to in this document as Ariette I in the first half of the opera and Ariette II in the second half of the opera; the duets and trios will be labeled in the same manner. Ariette I, which is thirty measures long, is preceded by eight measures of dialogue to the Aunt that is similar to an accompanied recitative. In this scene, Helene has come to breakfast, greets her Aunt (who doesn’t hear her, and doesn’t respond), sits down and pours herself a cup of tea, and sings happily to herself. The quickly moving accompaniment in the Ariette (quarter note = 104-112) in 3/4 meter with its characteristic rhythm supports the light-hearted mood of the text, “Froh und früh

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erwacht” (Happy and early awakened).144 This rhythm includes a repeated staccato

figure of an eighth note followed by two sixteenth notes. The accompaniment sonorities

that are built on parallel quartal chords give a light and transparent quality to this Ariette.

The tonal center of G-sharp is established by the bass note that begins the first

measure of the Ariette and is repeated throughout the next two measures as a pedal point.

The use of G-sharp in the bass line recurs in mm. 84-86, 92-94, and 100-104. The clarinet

solo in mm. 81-83 and the soprano melody that begins the Ariette are based upon the G-

sharp minor triad; this clarinet solo recurs at mm. 92-95 and mm. 100-104 in its original

form and in slight variation. This use of the G-sharp minor triad suggests a subtext of

unhappiness in Helene’s mood. Helene’s solo lines center on the pitch classes G-sharp

and D-sharp, and her Ariette ends on a trill on F-double-sharp in m. 107 that functions as

a leading tone to the high G-sharp that is her final note in this Ariette. This last note is

preceded by upwards scalar staccato passages in mm. 104-105 and sixteenth-note

staccato figures in mm. 106-107 that represent laughing. The alternation of the words

“froh” and “früh” throughout the Ariette and the playful juxtaposition of the vowels in

the word “froh – o – ü – o – ü – oh” at mm. 98-99 add to the comedy in this scene. The

final chord in m. 107 is a seventh chord based on A that functions as the V7 of D Major,

which is briefly tonicized at the beginning of Duet I in the opera.

Ariette II is twenty-six measures in length—four measures shorter than Ariette I.

The tempo marking is the same as in Ariette I (quarter note = 104-112) and the meter is

3/4, with the exception of two measures in 4/4 meter near the beginning of the Ariette.

Helene’s melody begins on a high A-flat, the enharmonic spelling of the high G-sharp

144 Hindemith, Hin und zurück, piano reduction, 6.

105

that ended Ariette I. The mirror reflection continues with the same coloratura lines in

mm. 357-358 as in mm. 106-107 of Ariette I. The corresponding scalar passages in mm.

104-105 are inverted in Ariette II at mm. 359-360, moving downward instead of upward,

perhaps allowing for an undertone of sadness in the laughter the second time the audience

hears it in the opera. After this point, the second Ariette is freely based upon the first. In

general, the two Ariettes are similar in their use of chromatic, angular melodic lines, but

contain only two other musical phrases that are directly quoted, in mm. 367-368 (quoting

mm. 89-90 in Ariette I) and mm. 371-372 (quoting mm. 93-94 in Ariette I).

The characteristic accompaniment motive presented in the first four measures of

Ariette I recurs throughout Ariette II, with the same G-sharp tonal center. This motive, which also appears in the Postlude, is shown in figure 39. Both Ariettes end with a high

G-sharp, approached by an upwards glissando from the note A in the second Ariette in comparison to the trill on the leading tone in the first Ariette; both final notes are preceded by an ornament, however, which connects the two. The mirror form is not exactly retained, since the first Ariette began on the note D-sharp and the second Ariette ends on G-sharp. Hindemith retains the dramatic ending of Ariette I instead, ending

Ariette II on the same high note for the soprano.

As in Ariette I, the G-sharp tonal center is established by repeated G-sharp bass

notes (also as pedal points), melodic phrases based on the pitches of the G-sharp minor

triad, and the beginning and ending melodic notes A-flat (enharmonically G-sharp) and

G-sharp in the soprano’s high range. Further, the recurrence of the pitch class D-sharp in

the melodic line and in the quartal sonorities of the accompaniment assumes the function

of the dominant chord in functional harmony, reinforcing the G-sharp tonal center.

106

Continuing the mirror, Helene sings to the Aunt after Ariette II to end the opera with the same phrases as in the recitative before Ariette I. The melodic phrase at the text

“Ich werde dir etwas Gesellschaft leisten” (I will keep you company)145 in mm. 381-383 is similar to that in mm. 77-79, but in reverse order. The phrase in Ariette II begins on A, has an arch shape upwards to D-sharp, and ends on G-sharp, whereas the parallel phrase in Ariette I begins on G-sharp, arches upward to E-flat (enharmonically D-sharp), and ends on A. The remaining two phrases, containing the texts “Wie geht es Dir?” (How are you?) and “Guten Morgen, liebe Tante” (Good morning, dear Aunt),146 are not musically related.

Duet I and II

The duets in Hin und zurück contain the complete dialogue between Helene and her husband, Robert. Duet I begins with Robert’s early return from work in order to give

Helene a birthday present. Soon the servant girl brings a letter for Helene, which she quickly takes and attempts to hide. Robert, seeing her reaction to the arrival of the letter, demands to know who sent it. She says it is from her dressmaker, but Robert doesn’t believe her. An argument ensues, and he grabs the letter out of her hands. When Helene finally admits that the letter is from her lover, the argument escalates and Robert begins to call her names—“Falscheste der Kröten!” (Falsest of toads!), “Hinterlist’ger Igel!”

(Deceitful hedgehog!), “Gräßiches Ichneumon!” (Dreadful mongoose!), and “Tück’sches

145 Hindemith, Hin und zurück, piano reduction, 22.

146 Ibid., 22-23.

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Krokodil!” (Treacherous crocodile!).147 Helene voices her fear of what Robert may do next, and he draws a pistol and shoots her, shouting “So stirb!” (So die!) as she sings “Ich ster...[be]” (I die...).148 Each part of this duet has a distinct setting, and the accompaniment reflects the events between Robert and Helene.

Duet I occurs in mm. 108-205 (ninety-seven measures) and Duet II in mm. 275-

354 (seventy-nine measures). The tempo markings in Duet I change from somewhat calm

(quarter note = 104-112) to very lively (quarter note = 186); the meter begins in 3/4 for

the first dialogue, including the giving of the birthday gift, and changes to 2/4 after the

letter arrives, remaining in 2/4 for the rest of the duet. Duet II proceeds in reverse order in

both tempo and meter.

Hindemith uses recurring motives to unify this section of the opera—the motive

from the prelude as shown in figure 39 is stated twice at the beginning of Duet I and three

times at the end of Duet II, and Hindemith introduces a new motive for the duets that

appears in both the vocal lines and the accompaniment. This new motive will be referred

to as the “Argument Motive.” The first half of this new motive appears in low octaves

played by both pianos in mm. 114-116 of Duet I, foreshadowing the tragic events to

come. The trumpet states the entire motive for the first time in mm. 124-129, after the

arrival of the letter is announced. Figure 40 shows the Argument Motive as it appears in

mm. 144-149 in both the vocal and instrumental parts.

147 Hindemith, Hin und zurück, piano reduction, 11.

148 Ibid.

108

↑complete motive in trumpet and trombone ↑

Figure 40. Argument Motive from Duet I, mm. 144-149, in the vocal line and as played by trumpet and trombone in the accompaniment.

The Argument Motive begins on the note E-flat in m. 124 and its subsequent repetitions through m. 176, and the first two measures include the notes of the E-flat minor triad. Although the motive does not remain in E-flat minor, its frequent repetition gives an impression of the minor mode. The vocal lines in mm. 124-136 and mm. 171-

176 follow this motive, doubling the accompaniment. The recurrence of the Argument

Motive beginning on E-flat throughout the duet and the repetition of the pitch class E-flat in the vocal lines establish E-flat as the tonal center.

Hindemith depicts the argument between Robert and Helene in an effective and realistic manner by his use of text setting. In the next section of the opera, the uppermost notes of the vocal lines rise in pitch as the argument escalates, from D-flat in m. 127 to

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D-natural in m. 134, E-flat in m. 136, E-natural in m. 140, F in m. 143, and ending on G-

natural in m. 164. During this section of the duet, Robert and Helene alternate lines,

arguing about the origin of the letter and struggling for its possession, until they both join

in m. 164 on the high G-natural in a unison “Ha!” that is held for three measures. In this

manner, Hindemith creates a realistic musical depiction of a verbal shouting match, as

each singer attempts to out-shout the other by moving into a higher and higher range. At

m. 168, Robert tears the letter away from Helene, and she admits that the letter is from

her lover. Their vocal lines center on the E-flat octave in mm. 168-188, and at m. 177

each line reduces to a falling E-flat octave as Robert begins to call Helene cruel names

and she expresses her fears at his behavior. The accompaniment in mm. 177-188 displays

an irregular pattern of staccato notes and accents played on all the instruments that adds

to the furor of the argument, which culminates in m. 189. At this point there is a shift

upwards to an E-natural tonal center as Robert sings a high G-sharp and Helene sings E-

natural, holding these two pitches for seven measures. The Argument Motive is played by

the flute, clarinet, saxophone, and bassoon together beginning on E-natural in mm. 196-

201, reinforcing this shift in tonal centers. During this final statement of the Argument

Motive, Robert draws a pistol and shoots Helene, who falls dead to the floor, ending the

duet.

Duet II, which is eighteen measures shorter than Duet I, presents a condensed version of Helene and Robert’s dialogue, with the lines in reverse order. The mirror is not exact in Duet II, but the major musical components are present, with the exception of the rising phrases of the argument in Duet I that reach a climax on the high G-natural—this is omitted in Duet II. Duet II begins with the Argument Motive on E-natural (and in the E-

110 natural tonal center) played by the flute, clarinet, saxophone and bassoon. Next Robert and Helene sing their high notes, G-sharp and E-natural respectively, held out for six measures on the text “So stirb” and “Ich ster...[be],”149 similar to the ending of Duet I.

The following twelve measures move to E-flat as the tonal center, repeating the falling octave vocal lines on E-flat as Robert calls Helene cruel names and she expresses her fears at his behavior. These measures are accompanied by the irregular pattern of staccato notes and accents in the orchestra that was present in Duet I. At mm. 300-304 the Argument Motive recurs in the wind instruments and in Robert’s vocal line on E-flat at the text “Nun weiß ich alles, Oh welches Drama!” (Now I know everything, oh, what a drama!).150 Helene’s next line, in which she admits that the letter is from her lover, differs slightly from that in Duet I, but both begin on the note E-flat, reinforcing the E- flat tonal center. Robert and Helene’s struggle over the letter and argument about its origin include direct quotes from Duet I in mm. 309-314 (quoting mm. 159-164) and in mm. 315-320 (quoting mm. 144-149).

In mm. 320-334 Hindemith composes a new, shortened version of the corresponding section in Duet I containing the escalating argument and rising vocal lines

(mm. 127-164) that present the vocal “shouting match” between Robert and Helene. In

Duet II these lines (mm. 320-334) are built upon the repetition of the Argument Motive that recurs three times in the accompaniment and is doubled by the voices. Helene’s music in mm. 335-36 at the text “Geben Sie her!” (Give it [the letter] here)151 is directly

149 Hindemith, Hin und zurück, piano reduction, 17.

150 Ibid., 18.

151 Ibid., 19.

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quoted from Duet I, mm. 126-27, re-establishing the mirror form. A subtle shift in tonal

centers occurs in the saxophone part at m. 338-340, moving down a half-step to D-natural at the extension of the Argument Motive. At this point in the opera, the servant girl enters

and announces the arrival of a letter for Helene, and the opera reverses to the calmer

tempo and 3/4 meter that are present at the beginning of Duet I. The ominous-sounding

fragment of the Argument Motive in the piano low octaves begins on D-natural in Duet II

and the final section of Duet II remains a half-step lower than the corresponding section

in Duet I. Presumably, Hindemith chose to lower the tonal center in order to facilitate the

transition to Ariette II, which begins on a high A-flat, since this allows the second duet to

end with the last vocal phrase on A-flat as well.

Trio I and II

The trios in Hin und zurück provide for brief comic relief from the violent events in the duets. Quite implausibly, the Professor and the Orderly enter the breakfast room in

Trio I just after Helene is shot to death. Their entrance is comical, because no one has summoned help, and because the help that they attempt to bring is ineffectual and too late

to be of assistance. Their arrival is announced by three dissonant sonorities in the piano

parts followed by a downward glissando played by the trombone. This figure is repeated

three times in mm. 206-214 and serves to characterize them as the operatic basso buffo

personae in this work. The slow tempo (quarter note = 63) and the alternating 3/4 and 4/4

meters further support their characterization.

After their entrance, the Professor kneels down to examine Helene by lifting her

arm and listening to it through his stethoscope, while the orderly intones a list of

112 medications. During Trio I, Robert and the Professor sing a melody together in octaves three times beginning on E-natural, establishing the tonal center; the piano parts begin at m. 215 with repeated sonorities made up of the pitch classes E-natural and B-natural; and the Orderly’s intonation begins on the pitch B-natural, which functions as the dominant of the E tonal center. The pitch classes C-natural and D-flat are briefly tonicized in mm.

221 and 222 at the second lines of text for Robert and the Professor, returning in m. 224 to the E tonal center. The last three measures of Trio I are transitional, and include a modulation to A-flat, preparatory to the Sage’s aria.

Each character has a separate text in both trios, and they all sing their texts concurrently. Robert expresses remorse at what he has just done, the Professor states that apparently no one needs him here any more, and the Orderly sings a list of medications intended to cure various conditions, but that will be of no help to the dead Helene. Robert and the Professor have a somewhat mournful melodic line that includes repeated musical sighs above the Orderly’s list of medications; figure 35 shows the three vocal parts at the beginning of Trio I. The piano parts provide an accompaniment that implies walking in mm. 215-219 and 224-227 of Trio I, supporting the action of the Professor and the

Orderly in this scene. The Professor and the Orderly carry Helene offstage, leaving

Robert to sing his last line, “Nun will auch ich nicht länger leben!” (Now I too no longer want to live!).152 This last line is treated as a recitative, accompanied by the flute, clarinet, saxophone and bassoon, beginning on C-natural and modulating to A-flat, and ending on an A-flat Major triad. Robert’s final melodic phrase also centers on the pitch classes of the A-flat Major triad, as seen in figure 41.

152 Hindemith, Hin und zurück, piano reduction, 13.

113

↑ ↑ modulation from C to A-Flat Major

Figure 41. Robert’s last text in Trio I, mm. 228-230, showing A-flat Major tonality.

Trio II, at sixteen measures long, is eight measures shorter than Trio I, which

numbers twenty-four measures. Hindemith consistently shortened the mirror image in the

second half of the opera; next to the postlude, Trio II is the shortest section of the work.

Trio II begins with Robert’s final line of text, which is treated as a recitative, similar to its

setting in Trio I. His melody is nearly a retrograde version of that in Trio I, outlining the

A-flat Major triad. The flute, clarinet, saxophone and bassoon accompaniment begins in

A-flat Major and modulates to C at m. 260, reversing the order from that in Trio I. Figure

42 shows Robert’s recitative in Trio II.

114

↑ ↑ A-flat Major modulation to C

Figure 42. Robert’s recitative, Trio II, mm. 258-260, showing A-flat Major tonality and modulation to C tonal center.

Hindemith preserves the mirror form in Trio II by retaining the essential textual and melodic elements in reverse order, but he condenses Trio II by removing repeated text and combining musical elements. For example, Robert and the Professor’s melody in octaves appears three times in Trio I, but is sung only twice in Trio II—the third repetition appears in the saxophone part in mm. 260-261, just after Robert’s recitative.

This instrumental version serves as an introduction to the scene, giving the Professor and the Orderly time to carry the dead Helene back onstage. Robert’s expressions of regret are voiced only once in Trio II, lasting nine measures, whereas they are extended by repetition in Trio I to include twelve measures. The Orderly sings a list of six medications

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in Trio II, as opposed to eight in Trio I. Finally, the opening dissonant sonorities and

trombone glissandi begin during the last vocal lines of the three men in Trio II, rather

than alone as an introduction, as they appear in Trio I. The progression of tonal centers

matches the appropriate text in Trio II, moving from A-flat to C during the recitative in

mm. 258-259, remaining briefly in C in mm. 260-262, moving to D-flat in m. 263, and

arriving at E-natural in mm. 265-270.

Aria

In the Sage’s aria, which stands alone at the midpoint of the opera, Hindemith

creates a distinctly different musical idiom than in the rest of the work. Here the plot,

text, and music take on religious overtones; even the description of the Sage in the stage

directions—“with a beard”—supports this impression for the audience, as this is a

widely-known depiction of God. As previously mentioned, the Sage appears from

underneath the stage, illuminated by light, and accompanied by an offstage (and therefore

unseen) harmonium. He refers to his appearance as “den Eingriff höh’rer Macht” (the

intervention of a higher power)153 and states that this power is against Man’s killing himself because of trifles, referring to Helene’s infidelity. Something must be done, and

that is to turn the clock backwards so that everything returns to its former “good” state.

After all, he philosophizes, looking at it from his point of view—“Von ganz droben gesehn” (as seen from above)154—it doesn’t matter if man’s life begins at birth and

proceeds till he dies, or if he dies first and is born afterwards. Despite the serious musical

153 Hindemith, Hin und zurück, piano reduction, 14.

154 Ibid.

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treatment of this text, there is subtle humor in the fact that the Sage describes his point of

view as “from above” when he has actually just appeared from below the stage.

The setting of the Sage’s aria recalls the oratorio recitatives of Handel, with their

sparse accompaniments, chord punctuations between phrases of text, melodic rhythms

that are true to the natural inflection of the language, and V-I cadences after the last

words are sung. Of course, Hindemith’s version of an oratorio uses twentieth-century

dissonances and tonal centers based on techniques of pitch centricity. The Sage’s aria also includes two recurring motives as a unifying device, and chant-like melodies in mm.

234-236 and 242-248. The Sage’s final melodic phrase in mm. 256-257 quotes Helene’s

Ariettes at the text “früh und froh” in mm. 93-94 and 371-374, including a downward leap of a major seventh that resolves downward again by a half step. The use of this quoted phrase at the text “wie es vorher war” (as it was before)155 creates a musical link

to the earlier time of day, when all was “happy and early.” Figure 43 shows a comparison of these two melodic phrases. Curiously, Hindemith returns to the use of the V-I cadence,

in a manner that is typical after the last melodic phrase in a Baroque recitative, to close

the Sage’s aria. The use of this traditional harmonic ending is significant, in that it creates

finality for the listener, just before the opera reverses direction to begin the mirror image

in the second half.

155 Hindemith, Hin und zurück, piano reduction, 15.

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V I ↑ Sage’s last phrase with cadence, ↑ mm. 255-258

↑ ↑ Helene’s phrase mm. 371-372

Figure 43. Final phrase of Sage’s aria and quoted phrase from Helene’s Ariette II.

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The Sage’s aria is twenty-seven measures long and is marked “Langsam” (slow).

Hindemith uses a two-measure accompaniment motive to begin the aria; this motive repeats five times beginning on the same pitch A-flat, establishing A-flat as the tonal center. The strongly dissonant character of the motive creates a strong theatrical entrance for the Sage. Figure 44 shows this opening accompaniment motive in mm. 231-232.

Figure 44. Sage’s Aria opening accompaniment motive, mm. 231-232.

The text divides into three sections: the opening explanation of the higher power’s intervention and declaration that something must be done (mm. 231-241), the philosophical statement about death and birth (mm. 241-248), and the solution to the problem—reversing time so that all will be as it was before (mm. 249-258). The opening motive on A-flat is the basis for the first and third sections of the aria, and Hindemith

introduces a second motive that recurs three times to accompany the Sage’s philosophical

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statement. With the introduction of this second motive the tonal center changes to E

Major. The Sage’s chant-like melody in the middle section remains static, centered on the pitch B-natural, the dominant note of E Major. Hindemith’s reference to chant in the setting of the Sage’s philosophical statement emphasizes the religious nature of the aria.

The introduction of the pitch class G-natural in m. 248 functions as a leading tone in A- flat, facilitating a modulation in m. 249 back to the A-flat tonal center, at the beginning of the third section. The third section of the aria remains in A-flat, ending with the aforementioned V-I cadence that closes the aria. Figure 45 shows the second accompaniment motive in E Major and the Sage’s chant-like melody above it.

Figure 45. Sage’s Aria second accompaniment motive in E Major, mm. 241-243, and chant-like melody.

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The fact that the Sage’s aria is the central point of the opera requires that it be unique in

comparison to the other sections, and Hindemith’s use of the harmonium accompaniment,

chant-like melodies, and Baroque-style references to oratorio successfully sets it apart.

Conclusions

By examining the backgrounds of Hindemith and Schiffer one can see that the

creation of Hin und zurück had its roots in three areas: the Expressionist movement in

Frankfurt as Hindemith found it in 1919, after his military service; the silent film techniques of the 1920’s, including the available editing processes; and the satiristic comedy of the Berlin cabaret theatres, for which Schiffer was an important and well- known author. Hindemith’s choice of subject matter for Hin und zurück—marital

infidelity, murder, and suicide—reflects his earlier involvement with Expressionism. This

subject matter is cloaked in the wit and humor of Schiffer’s text—an author well-versed

in the use of satire, and who also has a background in Expressionist writing. Hindemith’s

connection to film music, including his own film score compositions, gave him the

familiarity with film editing techniques that led to the choice of a mirror form to structure

his opera. The use of the mirror form, in turn, allows for the creation of Hin und zurück

as a comedy, despite the tragic nature of the events in the plot.

The mirror form in Hin und zurück extends from the overall structure of the opera

to the text, plot, and tonal organization. The arias, duets, trios, and instrumental prelude and postlude are organized in the form of a mirror, in which the most basic framework consists of the prelude, postlude, and the Sage’s aria at the midpoint of the opera. Within this framework, the number of singers in each section moves from one to three during the

121 first half of the opera, and reverses from three to one in the second half. The text reverses order phrase by phrase in the second half of the opera, as does the musical setting, with some modification that also shortens the mirror image. Because the text and music retain their phrase structure, the listener can easily follow the plot, and therefore understand the comedy, in reverse order as well as in the forwards direction.

Hindemith’s choice of tonal centers for each section of Hin und zurück demonstrates a logical progression that also supports the mirror form of the work as a whole. Figure 46 clarifies the tonal centers in the opera. The three major structural points—prelude, Sage’s aria, and postlude—create a musical sigh, beginning with a tonal center of A Major in the prelude, moving to A-flat at the midpoint of the opera, and ending on G-sharp Major in the postlude. In the prelude, the pitch classes B-flat and G- natural are briefly tonicized, as neighboring tones to the A Major overall tonal center.

The tonal center moves down a half step to G-sharp for Ariette I; this tonal center recurs in Ariette II, beginning with the enharmonic A-flat spelling and ending with G-sharp.

Duet I is centered on E-flat, which is the enharmonic spelling of the dominant pitch class of the preceding Ariette I. After the modulation to E-natural near the end of Duet I, the E- natural tonal center is retained in Trio I. Robert’s following recitative begins in C and modulates to A-flat, which is also the opening tonal center of the Sage’s aria. The Sage’s aria moves from A-flat to E-Major and back to A-flat, ending with a strong V-I cadence in A-flat Major to divide the halves of the opera.

The mirror image in the second half of the opera is also largely retained in the progression of tonal centers. Thus, Robert’s recitative in the second half begins on A-flat, where the Sage’s aria ends, and modulates to C. Trio II has a tonal center of E-natural, as

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does Trio I. Duet II begins on E-natural and modulates to E-flat, maintaining the mirror

form. At this point Hindemith alters the mirror form slightly by modulating to D-natural.

This change to a tonal center a half-step lower allows for a smooth transition to the A-flat tonal center in Ariette II which follows, because the final melodic line ends on the pitch

A-flat as the mirror image is preserved. Ariette II begins on A-flat as the tonal center; this tonal center is enharmonically re-spelled as G-sharp after the first few measures. For the postlude, Hindemith chose to retain the G-sharp Major tonal center of Ariette II instead of returning to the A Major tonal center of the Prelude, once again altering the mirror form in favor of creating an overall musical sigh from the beginning to the end of the opera.

Section of the opera Tonal Center(s)

Prelude A Major, brief tonicization of B-flat and G-natural Ariette I G-sharp Duet I E-flat, modulates to E-natural Trio I E-natural Robert’s recitative C, modulates to A-flat Sage’s Aria A-flat, modulates to E Major, returns to A-flat Robert’s recitative A-flat, modulates to C Trio II E-natural Duet II E-natural, modulates to E-flat, then D-natural Ariette II A-flat/G-sharp Postlude G-sharp Major

Figure 46. Tonal Centers in each section of the opera.

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Effect of Mirror Form on the Performance

Hindemith’s use of mirror form in Hin und zurück is unique in opera literature.

His decision to reverse the order of the text by phrases, rather than word by word, aids the singer in interpreting the work, and also aids the listener in understanding the performance. The challenge for the performer becomes one of acting more than singing in this case, since the original musical phrases are kept mostly intact. The difficulty lies in creating the drama while acting backwards—Robert must re-enter the stage backwards through the window that he just jumped through, for example. The shooting of Helene must be re-enacted backwards—Robert picks up his weapon, horrified, then Helene

jumps up, alive again. Robert shoots, then puts away the pistol before the two sing together, “I die” and “So die!” The argument between Robert and Helene must proceed from its climax, with high emotion, to its beginning, with a lessening of emotional intensity as the argument unravels, ending with the servant girl announcing the arrival of a letter for Helene. Next the scene where Robert gave Helene her birthday present must reverse, and Helene must re-pack her present in its box and return it to Robert, who also takes back the gift he has given to her aunt. Helene asks once again, “Are you already back so early from work?” and Robert replies, “’Good morning!” and leaves. The last scene between Helene and her aunt reverses, ending with Helene wishing her aunt a good morning, and leaving the stage. The final sneeze from the aunt is heard backwards, and

the curtain falls. The extent to which the singers play the second half of the opera in reverse is up to the stage director, who may choose to have all the actions move backwards, as if a videotape was rewinding, or to keep the staging moving forwards with each line of text, and simply reverse the order of events as the phrases occur.

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Having seen a performance of Hin und zurück at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, I can attest to the fact that this comedy was well-received and enjoyed by the audience. Further, it can be performed by students as well as professionals, because of the length of the opera and the fact that the vocal lines are often integrated into the instrumental accompaniment, making them accessible to the singers in spite of the twentieth-century harmonic and rhythmic idioms. The small size of the orchestra in this chamber opera also makes it possible for many ensembles to perform, at universities and by organizations of all sizes. Lastly, it can be easily combined with other short operas, of either a comic or tragic nature, to create a full evening for the public.

CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

This document has examined the use of mirror form to structure a large vocal

work. We have seen that composers of vocal works through many time periods have used

this form, from as early as the fourteenth century to the present. These works include:

Guillaume de Machaut’s rondeau Ma fin est mon commencement et mon commencement

ma fin (My end is my beginning and my beginning my end); William Byrd’s motet

Diliges Dominum (Esteemed Lord); J. S. Bach’s Cantata No. 63, Christen, ätzet diesen

Tag (Christians, etch this day); Franz Schubert’s melodrama, Die Zauberharfe (The

Magic Harp); Jake Heggie’s opera, Dead Man Walking; and Jason Robert Brown’s musical The Last Five Years.

The particular focus of this research has been two large vocal works by twentieth-

century composers—Ned Rorem’s song cycle, Poems of Love and the Rain, and Paul

Hindemith’s chamber opera, Hin und zurück. These two composers chose mirror form for

different reasons—Rorem in order to present two contrasting settings of the same poem,

and Hindemith for theatrical reasons that grew out of the silent film technology of the

1920s in Germany. Both Rorem and Hindemith use mirror form in a similar manner, and

the form supports the drama that is present in both works, although one is unstaged and the other is staged.

In Rorem’s song cycle, the mirror form is a logical choice to organize the dual

settings of each poem, working forwards from the Prologue to the Interlude, and then in

reverse order to the Epilogue. The palindromic progression of texts allows for the

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“metamorphosis” that Rorem desired to create—that the singer would arrive onstage one

person, and to leave it another, the change taking place at the midpoint, through a new

viewpoint on an old obsession.156 This obsession refers to the overriding theme of

unrequited love, presented against a background of constant rain. The use of the

Interlude, divided into solo voice and solo piano halves, sets off the pivotal text about

fear and unrequited love, and emphasizes the partnership between pianist and singer that

is crucial to this work.

Hindemith’s use of mirror form creates a comedy from what would otherwise be a

tragic series of events—marital strife ending in murder and suicide—by replaying these events in reverse order, like a film that is played backwards. The intervention of the Sage at the midpoint of the opera as a “Deus ex machina” allows for the rewinding of the morning’s events and the undoing of the two deaths, so that all ends in the happy state that it began. The use of mirror form is an excellent means of providing the Sage with an opportunity to philosophize about life—that it doesn’t matter if a man’s life proceeds from birth to death or from death to birth—and to turn back time and restore the original relationship between Robert and Helene as husband and wife.

In both Poems of Love and the Rain and Hin und zurück the basic structure is the

same: Rorem’s song cycle begins with a Prologue, has an Interlude at the midpoint, and

ends with an Epilogue, while Hindemith’s opera begins with an instrumental Prelude, has

a separate aria for the Sage at the midpoint, and ends with an instrumental Postlude. The

mirror form in Rorem’s work applies to the order of the poems and their subject matter,

and to the pacing of the performance. The cycle begins and ends with a line of prose that

156 Rorem, Poems of Love and the Rain, “Notes by the Composer,” Phoenix PHCD 108, compact disc.

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contains the text for both the Prologue and Epilogue. After the Prologue, the first half of

the cycle proceeds with seven poems by seven authors to the Interlude, which has an

eighth text. In the second half of the cycle, the seven poems from the first half proceed in

reverse order, so that songs no. 2 and 16 share the same text, as do songs. no. 3 and 15,

songs no. 4 and 14, etc. In two of the song pairs—no. 6 and 12, and no. 8 and 10—the

text is divided between the two song settings. Rorem specifies the length of the pauses

between songs, and therefore speeds up the motion of the performance towards the

middle of each half of the song cycle, and slows it down again towards the end, using this

pacing as an additional element of the mirror form.

The mirror form in Hindemith’s work extends to the text, plot, and tonal

organization. Hindemith’s opera progresses in mirror form from an ariette to a duet and

then a trio in the first half of the opera, then back again from trio to duet to ariette in the

second half; the halves of the opera are divided by the Sage’s aria at the midpoint. The

text is presented line by line in reverse order in the second half of the opera, enabling the

audience to easily understand the plot as it rewinds. The music also reverses by phrase,

and is supported by the use of tonal centers that remain largely in the same mirror form as the text (see figure 46). Although Rorem and Hindemith both arrive at tonal centers

through techniques of pitch centricity, Rorem does not use mirror form to organize the tonal centers in his song cycle as Hindemith does in his opera. In both works, however, the beginning tonal center (in Rorem’s Prologue and Hindemith’s Prelude) is one half- step higher than the tonal center at the end of the work (in Rorem’s Epilogue and

Hindemith’s Postlude). The use of a descending half-step is a typical gesture in vocal music to depict a sigh; this gesture is present on two levels in both works—on a smaller

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scale within the vocal lines, and also on a large-scale harmonic level to begin and end the compositions. Thus this descending half-step tonal relationship creates an overall musical sigh in both works.

Rorem’s song cycle includes an inner struggle that is reflected in his use of E-

natural and E-flat either as the tonal center or as an important pitch class in sixteen of the

seventeen songs (see figure 34). This struggle appears to be connected to the search for

love and the predominance of unrequited love in the work as a whole. The fact that the

tonal center in the Epilogue resolves downwards to E-flat, as compared to the Prologue’s

tonal center of E-natural, reflects the emotion in the pivotal Interlude text, “What we had

hoped for had not come to pass.”157

Hindemith’s opera begins in A Major, proceeds through a series of related tonal

centers to A-flat at the Sage’s aria, reverses through the series of related tonal centers

(with slight modification) in the second half of the opera, and ends in G-sharp Major. The

final G-sharp Major tonality allows for Helene’s Ariette to end on the same high note G-

sharp in both halves of the opera, and gives a sense of finality to the opera as a whole,

through the musical sigh created by the descending tonal centers. Writing about this tonal

relationship, researcher Jennifer Lee Arndt observes, “. . . it is interesting to note that the

opera’s final tonal center is G#, the leading tone of A: the overture, as stated above,

begins on A. To complete the circular idea of the libretto, one has only to go back to the

overture and begin again.”158

157 Rorem, “Interlude,” Poems of Love and the Rain, 28.

158 Arndt, Paul Hindemith’s ‘Hin und zurück’: a Study and a Rationale for a Cinematographic Approach, 63.

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Additional comparable compositional techniques used by Rorem and Hindemith

in Poems of Love and the Rain and Hin und zurück include the use of recurring motives

as a unifying device, specific types of accompaniment to enhance the text setting and

support the dramatic effect, and a shortened mirror image in the second half of the work.

Rorem uses three recurring motives in his song cycle: the Rain Motive, the Vocal

Motive, and a two-note motive in the interval of a descending minor third. The Rain

Motive is associated with the background of the rain in the Prologue, Interlude, and

Epilogue, and a variation of this motive is the basis for song no. 11. The Vocal Motive appears primarily in the vocal line, in its original form and in varied form, throughout the cycle (see figure 10). Songs no. 1, 2, 3, 5, 14, 16, and 17 include this Vocal Motive. The two-note descending minor third motive also appears primarily in the vocal line in seven of the songs—no. 2, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13—as shown in the song comparison charts in

Chapter II; this motive is an integral part of the piano solo section of the Interlude as well. In four of the songs—no. 5, 6, 9 (vocal solo), and 10—Rorem composes additional motives that recur within one song for unity, but are not present elsewhere in the song cycle (see the comparison charts in Chapter II). Thus Rorem’s use of recurring motives functions on two levels: within one particular song, and to unify the song cycle as a whole.

In a similar manner, Hindemith uses recurring motives in his opera in two ways:

within a section to unify that portion of the opera, or to link two sections together. An

example of a unifying motive that functions in both of these ways is the opening motive

in mm. 1-4 of the Prelude (see figure 38), which recurs ten times within the Prelude and

also reappears at the beginning of Duet I and at the end of Duet II, connecting it to these

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parallel sections of the opera. Ariettes I and II contain a characteristic accompaniment

motive built on parallel fourths with a rhythm of an eighth note followed by two sixteenth

notes; this motive also appears throughout the Postlude (see figure 39). Hindemith

therefore connects Ariettes I and II with the Postlude by the use of this accompaniment motive. The Sage’s aria demonstrates Hindemith’s use of motives within one section— two distinct motives appear in the accompaniment of this aria. The first motive unifies the first and third parts of the aria, and the second motive recurs throughout the second part. Each motive is associated with a particular tonal center: the first motive centers on

A-flat, and the second motive on E Major. Neither of these motives appears in any other section of the opera.

Both Rorem and Hindemith composed specific types of accompaniments

designed to further the drama, set the mood, or depict the text. Rorem’s use of various types of rain imagery in the accompaniment throughout his song cycle is an integral part of the drama, portraying not only the type of rain associated with each poem, but the emotions contained in the poems as well. Although he did not directly use the rain imagery in a mirror structure, this imagery helps to depict the poems, which are arranged in a mirror form. Thus the rain imagery supports the mirror form in an indirect manner.

Hindemith uses his accompaniment figures to set the mood in his opera, as in the

use of the lively “jazz band” idiom in the Prelude to establish a happy, carefree atmosphere. In the Sage’s aria, the sound of the offstage harmonium creates a religious

tone, connecting the aria with church music by its resemblance to the sound of an organ.

The trombone glissandi associated with the entrance of the Professor and the Orderly in

Trio I, and their exit in Trio II, create a comic effect, establishing their “buffo” character.

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The irregularly accented accompaniment during the argument over the letter in Duets I and II helps to create the emotion of anger between the husband and wife. In contrast to the duets, the light and energetic accompaniment for Helene’s Ariettes I and II supports her happiness as she sits at the breakfast table, and its continuance through the Postlude reinforces the happy ending of the plot.

A comparison of the lengths of Poems of Love and the Rain and Hin und zurück reveals that both Rorem and Hindemith shortened the second halves of their works. As shown in figure 47, the second half of Poems of Love and the Rain is approximately one minute shorter than the first half, and the second half of Hin und zurück is approximately one and one-half minutes shorter than the first half of the opera. (These timings are taken from my own performance of Poems of Love and the Rain and the New York Chamber

Ensemble recording of Hin und zurück.) Proportionally, this represents a greater difference in Hindemith’s opera than in Rorem’s song cycle. The second half of Poems of

Love and the Rain is approximately 8.5 percent shorter than the first half; the second half of Hin und zurück is 28 percent shorter than the second half.

Poems of Love and the Rain Hin und zurück

First Half 11:27 First Half 5:21

Interlude 3:40 Sage’s Aria 1:52

Second Half 10:29 Second Half 3:50

Total Time: 25:36 Total Time: 11:03

Figure 47. Performance times for Poems of Love and the Rain and Hin und zurück.

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Because Rorem’s stated intention was to compose contrasting settings of the poems in the second half of his song cycle, it is difficult to discern a reason why these combined second settings would be shorter than the combined first settings. Also, the fact that he composed the songs out of their final order in the cycle belies a conscious decision on his part to shorten the second half. A look at the comparison of the paired songs as shown in figure 48 reveals that in some cases, the first setting is longer, and in others, the second setting is longer. With the exception of songs no. 8 and 10, in which the text of the poem is unevenly divided between the two songs, there is no apparent reason for the different lengths. Thus, the shorter length of the second half of the song cycle may have been unintentional on Rorem’s part.

First Half Second Half 1. Prologue 1:08 17. Epilogue 1:33 2. Stop All The Clocks, 16. Stop All The Clocks, Cut Off The Telephone 2:22 Cut Off The Telephone 1:34 3. The Air Is The Only 1:05 15. The Air Is The Only 1:22 4. Love’s Stricken “Why” 0:44 14. Love’s Stricken “Why” 0:35 5. The Apparition 1:08 13. The Apparition 1:58 6. Do I Love You (Part I) 1:31 12. Do I Love You (Part II) 0:33 7. In The Rain- 0:58 11. In The Rain- 1:47 8. Song For Lying In Bed 10. Song For Lying In Bed During a Night Rain 2:31 During a Night Rain 1:07 (conclusion) 9. Interlude (vocal solo) 2:09 9. Interlude (piano solo) 1:31 Total Time: 13:36 Total Time: 12:00

Figure 48. Comparison of the paired song lengths in the halves of Poems of Love and the Rain.

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In Hin und zurück, it is clear that Hindemith intended to shorten the second half of the opera. There are lines of text that are missing or abbreviated in the second half (for

example, an entire section of Duet I is not present in Duet II), some repetitions of musical

phrases are omitted, and sometimes there is an overlapping of musical phrases in the

second half, as in the ending of Trio II. The Postlude is also markedly shorter than the

Prelude. A possible reason for these changes in the second half of the opera is to speed up

the drama in order to retain the audience’s interest as familiar music is presented.

Another possibility is that an exact reversal of musical phrases proved difficult to

compose, and some of these modifications were necessary to keep the flow of the music

intact. In the case of the Prelude and Postlude, perhaps the function of the Prelude in

setting the mood for the opera required more time than that of the Postlude in bringing

the opera to a satisfactory close.

In Poems of Love and the Rain and Hin und zurück, Rorem and Hindemith chose

to structure a large vocal work in the form of a mirror. Both composers implemented this

form in a manner that is unique to the song cycle and to opera as genres. Each composer

chose this form for a different reason: Rorem to organize two contrasting settings of the same poem within a song cycle, and Hindemith (in conjunction with his librettist,

Marcellus Schiffer) to present a comedy based on silent film techniques. Both composers were successful in their endeavors, as evidenced by audience reactions to performances of these works.

From the performer’s standpoint, the mirror form presents challenges and also

assists in the unfolding of the drama in Poems of Love and the Rain and Hin und zurück.

A detailed study of the form and the composers’ intentions in writing these works

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informs the singer’s performance. It is this deeper understanding of a composition that empowers the singer to perform in a manner that is both faithful to the composer’s ideas and engaging for the audience, while allowing for personal interpretation of the work. It is my hope that my research will benefit other singers in future performances of Rorem’s

Poems of Love and the Rain and Hindemith’s Hin und zurück.

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Gagne, Cole. Soundpieces 2: Interviews With American Composers. Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1993.

Germany, rev. ed. Bad Münstereifel, Germany: Ziethen-Panorama Verlag, 1997.

Grout, Donald Jay and Claude V. Palisca. A History of Western Music. 6th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001.

Hatch, Christopher. “Selected letters of Paul Hindemith.” Opera Quarterly 13, no.3 (Spring 1997): 149-151.

Heinisch, Richard. “Paul Hindemith, A Portrait.” Modern Music 14, no.2 (Jan./Feb. 1937): 29.

Henry, Leon Austin, Jr. “The Song Cycles of Ned Rorem: A Technical Survey.” D.M.A. doc., Louisiana State University, 1986.

Hindemith, Paul. A Composer’s World: Horizons and Limitations. Gloucester: Harvard University Press, 1969.

137

______. The Craft of Musical Composition. Book I: Theoretical Part. English translation by Arthur Mendel. London: Schott and Co., 1945.

______. Hin und zurück, orchestral score. Mainz: B. Schott’s Söhne, 1955.

______. Hin und zurück, piano reduction. Text by Marcellus Schiffer, English version by Marion Farquhar. Mainz: Schott Musik International GmbH & Co. KG, 1955.

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“Jason Robert Brown Biography;” Music Theatre International. http://www.mtishows.com/bio.asp?bID=3341 (accessed September 13, 2004).

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______. “Paul Hindemith.” In The New Grove Modern Masters. Edited by Stanley Sadie, 229-279. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1984.

Kostka, Stefan. Materials and Techniques of Twentieth-Century Music. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2006.

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Lochbilder, Klaus. “Voll Schaudern die Nacht durchplaudern;” review of Marcellus Schiffer: Heute nacht oder nie. Tagebücher, Erzählungen, Gedichte, Zeichnungen, by Viktor Rotthaler. Neue Musikzeitung (May 2003). http://www.nmz.de/nmz/2003/05rez-buch-schiffer.shtml (accessed June 23, 2007).

Mass, Lawrence D. “A Conversation with Ned Rorem.” In Queering the Pitch: The New Gay and Lesbian Musicology. Edited by Phillip Brett, Elizabeth Wood and Gary C. Thomas, 85-112. New York: Routledge, 1994.

McDonald, Arlys L. Ned Rorem: A Bio-Bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989.

Middaugh, Bennie. “The Songs of Ned Rorem: Aspects of Musical Style.” The NATS Bulletin 24, no. 4 (May 1968): 36-39.

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Moore, Douglas, Gallantry—A Soap Opera; Paul Hindemith, Hin und zurück; Gian Carlo Menotti, The Telephone. The New York Chamber Ensemble, Stephen Rogers Radcliffe, conductor. Liner notes by John Michel. Albany Records TROY173, CD, 1994.

Morgan, Robert P. Twentieth-Century Music. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1991.

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Paul Hindemith: Zeugnis in Bildern [Testimony in Pictures]. Mainz: B. Schott’s Söhne, 1961.

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______. “The American Art Song: Dead or Alive?” Opera News 61 (August 1996): 14-16.

______. Knowing When to Stop: A Memoir. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.

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______. “The NATS Bulletin Interviews Ned Rorem.” The NATS Bulletin 39 no. 2 (November/December 1982): 5-7, 46-50.

______. “Ned Rorem on Music and Politics: An Interview in Celebration of the Composer’s Seventieth Birthday.” Interview by Eleonora M. Beck. Current Musicology 54 (1993): 24.

______. Poems of Love and the Rain. Beverly Wolff, mezzo-soprano and Ned Rorem, piano. Phoenix PHCD 108, CD, 1989.

______. Poems of Love and the Rain. New York: Boosey & Hawkes, 1965.

______. Poems of Love and the Rain; Second piano sonata. Regina Sarfaty, mezzo- soprano and Ned Rorem, piano (first work); Julius Katchen, piano (second work). Composers Recordings CRI 202, 33 rpm, 1965.

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______. Wings of Friendship: Selected Letters, 1944-2003. Shoemaker & Hoard, 2005.

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______. “Paul Hindemith.” New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Online. Edited by Laura Macy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. http://www.grovemusic.com/data/articles/opera/01/0110/011020.xml?section= opera.011020 (accessed June 2, 2004).

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______. Selected Letters of Paul Hindemith. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.

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APPENDIX A

PHOTOGRAPHS AND LETTERS

Ned Rorem and Kathleen Maurer at the world première of Our Town, Indiana University at Bloomington, February 24, 2006

141 142

Mr. Rorem’s reaction to my initial research paper on Poems of Love and the Rain. Additional references are to my CD recording of German Lieder with pianist Steven Aldredge.

143

Mr. Rorem’s reaction upon viewing a videotaped recording of my doctoral lecture recital, including a performance of Poems of Love and the Rain, which took place March 10, 2004 at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music with pianist Ji-Young Jeoung.

144

145

Photo from The Official Ned Rorem Website: Gallery Used by permission of Ned Rorem, April 18, 2007

146

Ned Rorem’s autograph on the front cover of my copy of Poems of Love and the Rain, received at the world première of Our Town, February 24, 2006

APPENDIX B

SONG CYCLES BY NED ROREM

Song cycles are listed by title, followed by the authors of the texts in parentheses, a description of the setting in brackets, and the date of composition.159

With piano accompaniment: Three Incantations from a Marionette Tale (C. Boultenhouse) 1948 Flight for Heaven (R. Herrick) 1950 Cycle of Holy Songs (Pss cxxxiv, cxlii, cxlviii, cl) 1951 From an Unknown Past (anon. 15th and 16th century) [arr. for chorus] 1951 Four Dialogues (F. O’Hara) [soprano, tenor, 2 pianos] 1953-54 Poèmes pour la paix (J. Regnier, P. de Ronsard, 1953 O. de Magny, J. Daurat, J.-A de Baїf) [arr. for medium voice and orchestra, 1956] King Midas (H. Moss) 1960-61 Poems of Love and the Rain (D. Windham, W.H. Auden, H. Moss, 1962-63 E. Dickinson, T. Roethke, J. Larson, e.e. cummings, K. Pitchford) Hearing (K. Koch) 1965-66 [arr. as a stage work, 1976] Some Trees (J. Ashbery) [soprano, mezzo-soprano, bass-baritone, piano] 1968 War Scenes (W. Whitman: Specimen Days) 1969 Women’s Voices (E. Wylie, C. Rossetti, A. Bradstreet, M. Leigh, 1975-76 Lady Chudleigh, M.S. Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, M.E. Coleridge, A. Rich, E. Dickinson, A. Boleyn, L. Ridge. C. Mew) The Nantucket Songs (T. Roethke, W.C. Williams, E. Waller, 1979 C. Rossetti, W.S. Landor, J. Ashbery) Three Calamus Poems (W. Whitman) 1982 Evidence of Things Not Seen (24 authors, including W. Wordsworth, Whitman, 1988 R. Frost, Auden, P. Monette) [SATB, piano]

With instrumental ensemble: Six Irish Poems (G. Darley) [1 voice, orchestra] 1950 Six Songs (R. Browning, J. Dryden, anon. 16th century) [high voice, orchestra] 1953 Sun (King Ikhnaton, Byron, P. Goodman, W. Blake, R. Morgan, 1966 W. Shakespeare, W. Whitman, T. Roethke) [1 voice, orchestra]

159 This list, with the exception of the last entry, is taken from: Anthony Tommasini, James Holmes and Arlys McDonald, “Rorem, Ned,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrell (New York: Macmillan, 2001), 677-8.

147 148

Ariel (S. Plath) [soprano, clarinet, piano] 1971 Last Poems of Wallace Stevens [soprano, cello, piano] 1971-72 Serenade on Five English Poems (J. Fletcher, Shakespeare, A.L. Tennyson, 1975 G.M. Hopkins, T. Campion) [1 voice, violin, viola, piano] The Santa Fe Songs (W. Bynner) [baritone, piano quartet] 1980 After Long Silence (W.B. Yeats, G. Herbert, T. Carew, R. Burns, 1981-82 Elizabeth I, T. Hardy, Blake, E. Dowson, Dickinson) [soprano, oboe, string orchestra] Schuyler Songs (J. Schuyler) [1 voice, orchestra] 1987 The Auden Poems (Auden) [high voice, violin, cello, piano] 1990 Songs of Sadness (M. Strand, J. Merrill, Hopkins, R. Burns) 1994 [baritone, clarinet, cello, guitar] More Than a Day (J. Larson) [countertenor, orchestra] 1995

APPENDIX C

STAGE WORKS BY PAUL HINDEMITH

Stage works are listed by title, followed by the librettist in parentheses, a description of the genre, and the year of the première. English translations of the titles are shown underneath the original titles.

Der Vetter auf Besuch (W. Busch), Singspiel fragment, lost written 1912-13 “The Male Cousin on a Visit”

Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen (O. Kokoschka), opera 1919 “Murder, Hope of Women”

Das Nuschi-Nuschi (F. Blei), Burmese marionette opera 1921 “The Nuts-Nuts” final scene revised 1924

Sancta Susanna (A. Stramm), opera 1922 “Saint Susanna”

Der Dämon (M. Krell), dance pantomime, 2 scenes 1923 “The Demon”

Tuttifäntchen (H. Michel and F. Becker), Christmas story, 3 scenes 1922 (incidental music for a children’s play)

Cardillac (F. Lion, after E.T.A. Hoffman: Das Fräuleinvon Scuderi), opera 1926 Cardillac (revised version: text by Hindemith, after Lion) 1952

Hin und zurück (M. Schiffer), opera 1927 “There and Back Again”

Neues vom Tage (M. Schiffer), comic opera 1929 “News of the Day” revised 1953-54

Lehrstück (B. Brecht), music-theatre work 1929 “Lesson”

Kinderoper, fragment, lost written 1930? “Children’s Opera”’

Wir bauen eine Stadt (R. Seitz), play for children 1930 “We are Building a City”

149 150

Mathis der Maler (Hindemith), opera, seven scenes 1938 “Mathis the Painter”

Nobilissima visione (Hindemith and L. Massine), dance legend, 6 scenes 1938 “Noblest Vision”

Hérodiade (S. Mallarmé), ballet 1944

Die vier Temperamente, ballet for string orchestra and piano 1946 “The Four Temperaments”

Die Harmonie der Welt (Hindemith), opera 1957 “The Harmony of the World”

Das lange Weihnachtsmahl (T. Wilder, German translation Hindemith), opera 1961 “The Long Christmas Dinner”

APPENDIX D

PERFORMANCES OF HIN UND ZURÜCK

Première: Donaueschinger Kammermusiktage, Baden-Baden, German...... July 17, 1927 Juilliard Graduate School Alumni, Manhattan, New York...... 1939 Tanglewood Summer Music Academy, Lenox, Massachusetts...... 1940 Hartt School of Music, Hartford, Connecticut...... 1942 University of Oregon School of Music...... 1949 Cincinnati College Conservatory, Highland and Oak Streets...... February 1952 Juilliard Opera Theatre, 130 Claremont Ave...... February 1953 College of Emporia, Emporia, Kansas...... May 1953 State Teachers’ College Opera Workshop, Upper Montclair, New Jersey...... May 1953 Cosmopolitan School of Music Opera Workshop, Chicago, Illinois...... June 1953 Northwestern University School of Music, Evanston, Illinois...... November 1953 Arizona State College Opera Workshop, Tempe, Arizona...... March 1954 Northeast State College, Monroe, Louisiana...... April 1, 1954 National Music Camp, Interlochen, Michigan...... July 1954 New England Opera Theatre, 120 Amory St., Brookline, Massachusetts...... July 27, 1954 University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois...... February 14, 1955 University of Texas College of Fine Arts, Austin, Texas...... March 14, 1955 State University School of Music, Baton Rouge, Louisiana...... November 18, 1955 University of Minnesota Opera Workshop, Minneapolis, Minnesota...November 19, 1955 Mannes College of Music, 157 E. 74th St., New York NY...... December 7, 1955 Peabody Conservatory, 1 E. Mount Vernon, Annapolis, Maryland...... 1956 Wisconsin State Teachers’ College, Stevens Point, Wisconsin...... February 26, 1956 Bowdoin College Department of Music, Brunswick, Maine...... April 20, 1956 University of Utah Music Department, Salt Lake City, Utah...... 1957-58 Teatro Communale di Bologna, Italy...... 1971 Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio...... 1977 Opera San José...... 1981-82 American Chamber Opera, Marymount Manhattan Theater, New York...... 1986 Helikon Opera, Moscow...... 1990 Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio...... 1990-91 New York Chamber Ensemble, Bryant Park, Manhattan, New York...... 1993 Shoreline Community College, Washington...... 1994 Bayerischen Theaterakademie, Hochschule für Musik, Prinzregententheater, Munich, Germany...... 1996 College of Marin Opera Theater, Kentfield, California...... 1996, 1998 Städtischen Bühnen Münster, Münster, Germany...... 2001-02 Temple University Opera Theater...... 2003 Konzerthaus, Musikclub, Berlin, Germany...... 2004 Musikverein, Brahms-Saal, Vienna, Austria...... 2005

151 152

Tanglewood Music Center Festival of Contemporary Music, Lenox, Massachusetts...... 2006 Kurt Weill Fest, Dessau, Germany...... 2007 Staatsoper Hannover, Hannover, Germany...... 2007

APPENDIX E

HIN UND ZURÜCK TEXT AND STAGE DIRECTIONS

Hin und zurück There and Back Again Sketch mit Musik Sketch with Music

Paul Hindemith, opus 45a Text by Marcellus Schiffer

English translation by Kathleen Maurer German text reprinted by permission of Schott Music Corporation and European American Music Distributors, LLC160

Vorhang auf. Curtain rises. Wohnzimmer. Living room. Der Frühstückstisch ist für eine Person The breakfast table is set for one gedeckt. person.

Die Tante sitzt seitlich in einem The Aunt sits to the side in an Lehnsessel und strickt. easy chair and knits. In ihrem Schoße liegt ein Hörrohr, On her lap lies an ear-trumpet, dessen sie sich öfters bedient. which she frequently uses.

Die Tante niest: “Haa—ptschü” The Aunt sneezes: “Ah-choo” Sie beruhigt sich allmählich wieder. She gradually calms herself again.

Helene tritt ein, morgendlich Helene enters, dressed in morning gekleidet. clothes. Sie geht zur Tante und spricht She goes to the Aunt and speaks into ins Hörrohr. the ear-trumpet.

Helene: Helene: Guten Morgen, liebe Tante. Good morning, dear Aunt. Wie geht es Dir? How are you? Ich werde Dir etwas Gesellschaft leisten. I will keep you company.

160 Hindemith HIN UND ZURUCK ©1927 Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG, Mainz, Germany ©Renewed All Rights Reserved Used by permission of European American Music Distributors LLC, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott Music

153 154

Die Tante versteht nicht, zuckt The Aunt doesn’t understand, shrugs die Schultern und strickt weiter. her shoulders, and keeps knitting.

Helene setzt sich an den Frühstückstisch. Helene sits at the breakfast table.

Helene: Helene: Froh und früh erwacht. Happy and early awakened. Sie gießt sich Tee in die Tasse. She pours tea into the cup for herself.

Froh und früh erwacht, Happy and early awakened, froh und früh. happy and early. Sie steht auf. She gets up.

Froh und früh. Happy and early. Früh froh erwacht, Early happy awakened, früh – o – ü – o – ü – oh Early [play on the changing vowels] erwacht, awakened, früh und froh, early and happy, Früh froh, früh froh erwacht. Early happy, early happy awakened. Früh...froh...so früh...und froh... Early...happy...so early...and happy... erwacht, erwacht. awakened, awakened.

Robert: Robert: kommt approaches Guten Morgen! Good morning!

Helene: Helene: Bist Du schon so früh aus dem Geschäft Are you already back so early from zurück? work?

Robert: Robert: Ja, ja, weil Du doch heut Geburtstag hast. Yes, yes, because your birthday is today. Eine kleine Aufmerksamkeit! A little token! Er gibt ihr ein Paket. He gives her a package.

Helene: Helene: Wie nett das von Dir ist! How nice that is of you! Helene entnimmt dem Paket einen Zopf. Helene takes a braid out of the package.

Robert: Robert: Auch Du sollst nicht leer ausgehn. And you too shouldn’t go empty- handed.

155

Er gibt der Tante auch ein Paketchen. He gives the Aunt a small package too. Sie sieht ihn an, versteht nicht, She looks at it, doesn’t understand, zuckt die Achseln und strickt weiter. shrugs her shoulders, and knits again.

Helene: Helene: Ach! Das hab ich mir schon lang Ah! I have wished so long for one of gewünscht. these.

Es klopft. Someone knocks.

Robert: Robert: Herein. Come in.

Das Dienstmädchen kommt mit einem The servant girl comes with a letter Brief und spricht: “Hier ist ein Brief and says: “Here is a letter für die gnädige Frau.” for Madam.”

Helene: Helene: Geben Sie her! Give it here! Nimmt dem Mädchen den Brief rasch ab, Quickly takes the letter from the servant girl, sucht ihn zu verstecken. tries to hide it. Mädchen ab. Servant girl exits.

Robert: Robert: Was versteckst Du da? What are you hiding there? Was ist das für ein Brief? What kind of letter is that?

Helene: Helene: Nun, ganz einfach ein Brief. Now, simply a letter.

Robert: Robert: Von wem ist dieser Brief? From whom is this letter?

Helene: Helene: Der Brief ist.... The letter is....

Robert: Robert: Von wem ist dieser Brief? From whom is this letter?

Helene: Helene: von meiner Schneiderin. From my dressmaker.

156

Robert: Robert: Du lügst, gestehe, von wem You are lying, confess, from whom ist der Brief, is the letter, von wem, von wem ist from whom, from whom is der Brief? the letter? Gestehe! Confess!

Helene: Helene: Von meiner Schneiderin! From my dressmaker!

Robert: Robert: Zeig’ her! Show it here!

Helene: Helene: Weh mir! Woe is me!

Robert: Robert: Her mit dem Brief! Ha! Give the letter here! Ah!

Helene: Helene: Was fällt dir ein? Ha! What has gotten into you? Ah! Der Brief ist von meinem Geliebten. The letter is from my lover.

Er reißt ihr den Brief fort. He tears the letter from her.

Robert: Robert: Nun weiß ich alles, oh, welches Drama, Now I know everything, oh, what a drama, furchtbare Rache! terrible revenge!

Helene: Helene: Nun weißt Du alles, nun weißt Du alles! Now you know everything, now you know everything! [Robert and Helene sing together.] Robert: Robert: Falscheste der Kröten! Falsest of toads! Hinterlist’ger Igel! Deceitful hedgehog! Gräßliches Ichneumon! Dreadful mongoose! Tück’sches Krokodil! Treacherous crocodile! So stirb! So die!

Helene: Helene: Was wird er beginnen? What will he begin? Sicher will er schießen! Surely he will shoot! Zieh nicht die Pistole! Don’t draw the pistol! Ach, ich ster....[be] Ah, I die....

157

Er erschießt sie. Helene tot am Boden. He shoots her. Helene is dead on the floor. Er läßt entsetzt die Waffe fallen. He drops the weapon, horrified.

Die Tante setzt bei dem Knall ihr Hörrohr an, The Aunt picks up her ear-trumpet at the shot, hört aber nichts, zuckt die doesn’t hear anything, shrugs her Schultern shoulders, und strickt weiter. and knits again.

Der Professor kommt mit The Professor comes with dem Wärter. the Orderly.

[Robert, the Professor, and the Orderly sing together.] Robert: Robert: Schon nagt an mir der Reue Zahn, The tooth of remorse is already gnawing at me, der Reue Zahn the tooth of remorse. Es bohrt der Wurm, The worm bores, es bohrt der Wurm der Vergeltung the worm of retribution bores sich in mein Gewissen ein, -sen ein, -sen ein. into my conscience, into, into.

Professor: Professor: Mir scheint, man braucht mich hier nicht mehr, It appears, one no longer needs me here, mir scheint, man braucht mich nicht mehr. It appears, one no longer needs me. Mir scheint, mir scheint, It appears, it appears, man braucht mich nicht mehr, one no longer needs me, mir scheint, man braucht mich hier nicht mehr, it appears, one no longer needs me here, nicht mehr, nicht mehr. no longer, no longer.

Krankenwärter: Orderly: Veronal, Adalin, Pantopon, [intones a list of medications] Bromural, Trigemin, Aspirin, Lysoform, Baldrian.

Der Professor trägt mit dem Wärter The Professor and the Orderly carry Helene hinaus. Helene out.

158

Robert: Robert: Nun will auch ich nicht länger leben! Now I too no longer want to live! Er springt zum Fenster hinaus. He jumps out of the window.

Es wird dunkel. It grows dark. ------

Aus der Versenkung erscheint, From under the stage appears, magisch beleuchtet, ein Weiser mit magically alight, a sage with a Bart. Er singt ruhig und ein wenig beard. He sings calmly and a little larmoyant. Dazu spielt hinter der Szene tearfully. A harmonium accompanies ein Harmonium. him backstage.

Der Weise: The Sage: Man hat nicht an den Eingriff höh’rer Macht One didn’t think about the gedacht. intervention of a higher power. Sie ist durchaus dagegen, It [the higher power] is completely against this, daß der Mensch sich wegen that Man should kill himself Kleinigkeiten umbringt. because of trifles. Unbedingt Absolutely muß etwas geschehn. must something be done. Von ganz droben gesehn As seen from above, ist es ohne Belang, it is of no importance ob des Menschen Lebensgang whether a man’s life von der Wiege vorwärts irrt, wanders forward from the cradle bis er verdirbt, until he dies, oder ob er erst stirbt or whether he dies first und nachher geboren wird. and is born afterwards. Laßt uns darum das Schicksal rückwärts drehen. Let us therefore turn Fate backwards. Ihr werdet sehen, You will see, die Logik weicht nicht um ein Haar, the logic is not a hair removed, und alles wird gut, wie es vorher war. and everything will be good, as it was before.

Er verschwindet. Es wird hell. He disappears. It grows light. ------

Robert steigt wieder zum Fenster herein. Robert climbs back in through the window.

Robert: Robert: Nun will auch ich nicht länger leben! Now I too no longer want to live!

Der Professor kommt mit dem The Professor comes with the Wärter, Helene (tot) tragend. Orderly, carrying the dead Helene.

159

[Robert, the Professor and the Orderly sing together:] Robert: Robert: Es bohrt der Wurm sich der Vergeltung The worm of retribution bores, in mein Gewissen ein. into my conscience. Schon nagt an mir der Reue Zahn. The tooth of remorse is already gnawing at me.

Professor: Professor; Mir scheint, mir scheint, man braucht mich, It appears, it appears, one needs me, mir scheint, man braucht mich hier nicht mehr, it appears, one needs me here no longer, man braucht mich hier nicht mehr. one needs me here no longer.

Krankenwärter: Orderly: Aspirin, Trigemin, Bromural, [intones a list of medications] Pantopon, Adalin, Veronal.

Der Professor kniet bei der Toten nieder, The Professor kneels down by the dead one, hebt ihren Arm hoch und betrachtet ihn lifts her arm up and examines it durch sein Hörrohr. through his stethoscope. Der Professor mit dem Wärter ab. The Professor and the Orderly leave. Die Tante zuckt mit den Schultern, The Aunt shrugs her shoulders, setzt ihr Hörrohr an, hört nichts. picks up her ear-trumpet, hears nothing. Robert hebt entsetzt die Waffe auf. Robert picks up the weapon, horrified. Helene springt auf. Helene jumps up. Robert schießt. Robert shoots. steckt den Revolver ein [He] puts away the revolver.

[Helene and Robert sing together:] Helene: Helene: Ich ster....[be] I die.... Zieh nicht die Pistole! Don’t draw the pistol! Sicher will er schießen! Surely he will shoot! Was wird er beginnen? What will he begin?

Robert: Robert: So stirb! So die! Falscheste der Kröten! Falsest of toads! Hinterlist’ger Igel! Deceitful hedgehog! Gräßliches Ichneumon! Dreadful mongoose! Tück’sches Krokodil! Treacherous crocodile!

160

Robert: Robert: Nun weiß ich alles, oh, welches Drama. Now I know everything, oh, what a drama. Er gibt ihr den Brief. He gives her the letter.

Helene: Helene: Der Brief is von meinem Geliebten. The letter is from my lover.

Robert: Robert: Zeig her! Show it here!

Helene: Helene: Weh mir! Woe is me!

Robert: Robert: Her mit dem Brief! Give the letter here!

Helene: Helene: Was fällt Dir ein? What has gotten into you?

Robert: Robert: Du lügst, gestehe, von wem You are lying, confess, from whom ist der Brief? is the letter?

Helene: Helene: Von meiner Schneiderin! From my dressmaker!

Robert: Robert: Was ist das für ein Brief? What kind of letter is that?

Helene: Helene: Nun, ganz einfach ein Brief. Now, simply a letter.

Das Dienstmädchen kommt, The servant girl comes, Helene gibt ihr den Brief. Helene gives her the letter.

Robert: Robert: Was ist das für ein Brief? What kind of letter is that?

Helene: Helene: Ein Brief. A letter.

Robert: Robert: Was versteckst Du da? What are you hiding there?

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Helene: Helene: Geben Sie her! Give it here!

Das Mädchen spricht: The girl says: “Hier ist ein Brief für die gnädige “Here is a letter for Madam” Frau” und geht hinaus. and goes out.

Robert: “Herein” Robert: “Come in.” Es klopft draußen. There is a knock outside.

Helene: Helene: Ach! Das hab ich mir schon lang gewünscht. Ah! I have wished so long for one of these. Sie packt den zopf in ihr Paket. She packs the braid in her package.

Die Tante zuckt die Achseln, The Aunt shrugs her shoulders, sieht Robert an, looks at Robert, versteht nichts. understands nothing. Er nimmt ihr das Paket fort. He takes the package away from her.

Robert: Robert: Auch Du sollst nicht leer ausgehn. And you too shouldn’t go empty- handed.

Helene: Helene: Wie nett das von Dir ist. How nice that is of you.

Robert: Robert: Eine kleine Aufmerksamkeit! A little token! nimmt Helene’s Paket [He] takes Helene’s package. Weil Du doch heut Geburtstag hast, ja. Because today is your birthday, yes.

Helene: Helene: Bist Du schon so früh aus dem Geschäft Are you already back so early from zurück? work?

Robert: Robert: Guten Morgen! Good morning! ab [He] exits.

Helene: Helene: Ah! So früh und froh erwacht. Ah! So early and happy awakened. Sie setzt sich an den Frühstückstisch. She sits at the breakfast table. Froh früh erwacht. Happy early awakened. Froh und früh erwacht, Happy and early awakened, froh und früh erwacht, happy and early awakened,

162 froh erwacht. happy awakened. Froh und früh, früh und froh. Happy and early, early and happy. Froh erwacht. Happy awakened.

Sie steht auf. Die Tante zuckt She gets up. The Aunt shrugs die Schultern, her shoulders, versteht nicht und strickt. doesn’t understand and knits. Spricht der Tante ins hörrohr. [Helene] speaks into the Aunt’s ear- trumpet.

Helene: Helene: Ich werde Dir etwas Gesellschaft leisten. I will keep you company. Wie geht es Dir? How are you? Guten Morgen, liebe Tante. Good morning, dear Aunt.

Sie geht ab, die Tante bleibt allein. She leaves, the Aunt remains alone. Die Tante niest: “Ptschü-haa,” The Aunt sneezes: “Choo-ah,” strickt weiter. keeps knitting.

Vorhang. Curtain.