Athalia (Mendelssohn)

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Athalia is incidental music that Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy composed in the years 1843–45 on behalf of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. For the play Athalie by the French playwright Jean Racine . The work has the opus number 74. To understand how this work was created, three historical layers must be taken into account:

  • the underlying biblical story from the second half of the 9th century BC Chr.,
  • the Athalia drama by Jean Racine (1691) and
  • Mendelssohn's incidental music with the setting of the choral parts (1843–45) (in three versions).

The biblical material

The action takes place in the 9th century BC. At the time of the two Jewish empires Israel (northern Reich ) and Judah (southern Reich , with the capital Jerusalem ), about seven generations after David . Judaism lives in a deep religious conflict: some became supporters of Baal , others tried to maintain the monotheistic belief in Yahweh (cf. Mendelssohn's oratorio Elias ). The Athalia material is dealt with in two places in the Bible: in the 2nd Book of Kings, Chapter 11, and in the 2nd Book of the Chronicles in Chapters 22-23. The differences in the presentation of the Athalia story are slight. The following dates correspond to the chronology of R. Liwak 2004; they can deviate from older dates by up to five years.

Athalia is the daughter of King Ahab of Israel, who became a Baal follower under the influence of his Phoenician wife Jezebel and who introduced the Baal cult in Israel. Athalia becomes the wife of King Joram of Judah from the house of David (r. 852-845), who, under her influence, also falls away from the Yahweh faith and becomes a follower of Baal. For this he is punished by God through severe defeats in wars, the loss of his sons (except for Ahaziah) and a fatal illness, from which he perishes miserably.

His only surviving son Ahaziah reigned only a few months after Joram's death in 845; he is killed by Jehu , king of the northern kingdom. Athalia then has all of Joram's grandchildren, i.e. the potential successors on the royal throne of Judah, killed in order to exterminate the house of David, to strengthen her own position of power and to finally enforce the Baal cult in Judah. Only one grandson escapes the slaughter through the work of Josabeth, a sister of Ahaziah and daughter of Joram: The infant Joas is saved, hidden in the temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem and there secretly raised by the high priest Joad (Jojada), husband of Josabeth.

Since under Athalia's reign 845-840 - she is not officially appointed queen - the influence of the Baal followers is increasing, Joad, who is responsible for the priests ( Kohanim ) and Levites , allies himself with the Hundred leaders Judas and ventures with a part of the People's revolt against Athalia. His bargaining chip is Jehoash, whom he publicly crowns on the steps of the temple as the rightful King of Judah at the age of only seven (840). In doing so, he ensures the legitimate continuation of the house of David, on whose continued existence the fulfillment of the divine promises for the people of Israel depends. Athalia and her followers have to admit defeat; she is killed the same day.

Joash ruled for around 40 years (approx. 840–801), initially as an orthodox king. Later he also became a Baal follower and even had the prophet Zechariah (not to be confused with the prophet of the same name with his own biblical book), the son of Joad and Josabeth, killed.

Racine's drama

The Athalia material was edited dramatically and musically several times, e.g. B. in Handel's oratorio Athalia (1733, HWV 52). Reischert 2001 lists a total of 31 musical versions. The most important dramatic version is that of Jean Racine (1639–99), who used the subject in his last drama in 1691. Handel's libretto also goes back to this.

Racine tries to implement the style of ancient Greek tragedy . This implies the unity of place and time: In fact, the drama only deals with the day of Joash's coronation as king, which also becomes the day of death for his grandmother Athalia; the entire action of the drama takes place in and in front of the temple. The prehistory is made clear by information from the actors, but above all by the explanations of the (speaking) choir , which, in keeping with the ancient tragedy, observes the events at the end of each of the three acts and places them in a larger context. The choir is made up of girls from the Levi tribe, the choir leaders are Sulamith (a daughter of Joad, an invention of Racine) and Joad's wife Josabeth.

Racine refers to the biblical material given, but expands it to include prophetic components that herald the coming of the Messiah and relate to the Revelation of John .

Mendelssohn's incidental music

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy composed his music for Racine's Athalia (op. 74) on behalf of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. In several versions in the years 1843–45. Friedrich Wilhelm was very interested in having ancient and other important dramas performed at his court. During this time Mendelssohn was its general music director and court composer for several years . When performing the dramas, the choral parts should be set to music; in addition, overtures and inter-act music had to be composed. In addition to the music for Athalia (op. 74), Mendelssohn's works on Antigone (op. 55), Midsummer Night's Dream (op. 61) and Oedipus auf Kolonos (without opus number) were created.

First version

In a first version (1843) Mendelssohn only set the choral parts of Racines Athalia , in the original French; He consistently occupied the choir exclusively with female voices, which were only accompanied by the piano. The work was never performed in this version because the king wanted a performance in German. In this letter, Mendelssohn also emphasizes that his music should be performed privately by the king and not intended for a public performance.

Second version

The actual drama texts had long been available in a German translation by Ernst Raupach (1784–1852). In 1842 the king commissioned him to translate the choral parts. Mendelssohn could not make friends with this translation because it did not seem suitable for a setting, which is why he used the French original in his first version. Finally, Mendelssohn translated the choral parts himself and set this original version to music.

He did not stop at changing the text basis, but also revised his first version very thoroughly from a musical point of view: male voices were introduced in the choirs, the piano setting was expanded to become a full orchestral setting, and melodic lines were also changed. However, this second version still essentially consisted of the setting of the choral parts at the end of the three acts and a short final chorus. A performance was scheduled for September 1843. Although the amended score was available on time, it was not performed. Antigone and the Midsummer Night's Dream were brought forward.

Third and final version

Only in May 1844 were the performance plans taken up again, on the occasion of an upcoming visit by the Russian Tsarina (née Charlotte von Prussia ) to Berlin. Mendelssohn, who was in London at the time, was asked by the king to write an overture to Athalia , which he completed by mid-June despite his numerous London commitments (the overture, however, has hardly any motivic ties to the rest of the work). In addition, he sent an extended version of the final chorus and an instrumental war march of the priests to Berlin. However, the performance was postponed several times until his return.

After further expansion of the final chorus and the tightening of other vocal passages, the work was finally premiered on December 1, 1845 in the Royal Theater in Berlin-Charlottenburg privatissime. On January 8, 1846, the first public performance took place in Potsdam . Although the Athalia music was not printed during Mendelssohn's lifetime, it was performed several times in Germany and even in England (first in French, then in English).

Musical form

In the final form, Mendelssohn's Athalia comprised very different forms: instrumental movements ( overture , war march ), solos and ensembles for sopranos and alto, choirs (SATB, SA, TB) with orchestra as well as melodramatic sections with the union of music and spoken text (e.g. B. the vision of the high priest ). The setting is largely syllabic (syllable and tone coincide) and is therefore easy to understand. Characteristic choral themes are used as interjections throughout the piece, they add a lot to the overall character.

Since the overall performance of Racine's drama with Mendelssohn's music lasted more than three hours, the music began to be separated from the drama at an early stage. Racine's non-choral texts were replaced by explanatory text that was supposed to combine the musical elements. Mendelssohn's friend, the singer, actor and director Eduard Devrient (1801–1877) published interim speeches as early as 1849, two years after Mendelssohn's death , which have since been used almost always in the performances of Athalia .

literature

  • Jean Racine: French-German Complete Edition. Translation by Wilhelm Willige, Luchterhand, Darmstadt 1956.
  • Armin Koch: Introductory text for the CD “Athalia”. Interpretation by Helmuth Rilling with the Gächinger Kantorei and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hänssler 2002.
  • Alexander Reischert: Compendium of musical subjects. Bärenreiter 2001.
  • Rüdiger Liwak: Israel and Judah. In: The New Pauly. Supplement 1, 2004.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Letter from Mendelssohn to Klingemann dated June 12, 1843.

Web links