Evening song (Rheinberger)

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Abendlied is a composition for mixed choir with 6 voices by Josef Gabriel Rheinberger . It comes from the "Three Spiritual Songs" op. 69,3. Josef Rheinberger wrote the first version of his short choral work, which is considered to be his most popular work of all, at the age of 15 on March 9, 1855.

text

Stay with us
because evening is about to come,
and the day has come to an end. ( Lk 24.29  Lut )

History of origin / revisions

Rheinberger wrote a first copy of the evening song on March 9, 1855, one month before Easter and two weeks before his 16th birthday. At the age of twenty-four he revised his motet (including eliminating some tone repetitions and modifying the tempo) and published it as op. 69 No. 3 with Simrock in Berlin.

Work editions

The standard edition is the Simrock edition from 1873. In addition, the Carus-Verlag has published a Latin version created by Josef Rheinberger in 1878 (“Mane nobiscum quoniam advesperascit, inclinata est iam dies”). This was created for a performance on Easter Monday of the year 1878 in Munich's Allerheiligen-Hofkirche ; at that time it was not allowed to sing in German there.

music

The motet composition for a 6-part mixed choir (soprano I + II, alto, tenor I + II, bass) is in F major; Andante molto is the tempo designation above the notes . Almost without exception, the Bible text is syllabic singing (one syllable per note).

The female voices begin homophonically with a prolonged first syllable (three quarters “stay”) on the tonic , one bar later the male voices answer in A minor (with the same rhythm); This evasion into the minor parallel of the dominant has a decisive influence on the tonal effect of the opening bars and sets the harmonic development in motion. This leads to a first melodious climax (lead note f ″) with a lead twist to the dominant C major (“because it will be evening”), which is followed by a descending sequence , which then swings up to the top note g ″ in soprano. At the same time, the harmony gives way to the double subdominant in E flat major and modulates in a few steps to a half-close in G major. After this pause in D major, the soprano begins a little fugato with the text “and the day has declined”, which is imitated by all voices. After the implementation of all voices Anticipated and descending leads "o stay with us," the Old into a kind of reprise , which is greatly shortened and around the old motif adds. There is no sequencing and after two bars - this time starting with the bass - the shortened fugato ("and the day has declined") is repeated. After a fallacy in the tonic parallel, a four-fold sequence begins with the descending motif “o stay with us”, before the soprano answers the sequence in a high register and again leads to a fallacy. This ends very effectively in the forte. In slower movement (half notes prevail) the soprano melody now steps down the space of an octave (from f ″ to f ′) tone for tone and leads into the final F major. The almost homophonic movement of the final bars and the decrescendo underline the effect as a conclusive conclusion.

The piece takes about three to five minutes.

Edits

In 2005, the Munich composer Johannes X. Schachtner created an obligatory accompaniment with contrapuntal independent voices. This exists for the organ (in church music practice as a support for the choir) and as a concert version with a small orchestra (flute, clarinets, horns and strings).

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