The book with seven seals

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The book with seven seals is an oratorio by the Austrian composer Franz Schmidt, completed in 1937 and premiered in Vienna in 1938, based on motifs from the biblical Revelation of John .

On February 23, 1937, Franz Schmidt wrote the last note of his oratorio in his home in Perchtoldsdorf and put the date below it. Years had passed since the first sketch before he could complete what would become his greatest work.

History of origin

In the four small preludes and fugues for the organ from 1928, some parts of the work are already presented, such as the Alleluia and the Lord's final address. While two sketchbooks for the opera Notre Dame and sketches for other works were found, only a draft of the second part of the oratorio is available on two sheets of music. Even if the creation cannot be followed exactly, Schmidt himself gave a detailed report on the progress of the work on the score: it lasted two years (1935–1937).

Franz Schmidt finished the prologue on October 15, 1935. When writing the first part, he had to interrupt work from January 1, 1936 to July 1, 1936. Already seriously ill at the time, he stopped working on the composition to wait for his recovery. At the turn of the year 1936/37 the score had grown to the sound of the seventh trumpet . After its completion on February 23, 1937, the work waited just over a year for its world premiere on June 15, 1938 under Oswald Kabasta : Erika Rokyta , Enid Szantho , Anton Dermota , Joseph von Manowarda and Franz Schütz on the organ were soloists ; Rudolf Gerlach-Rusnak sang the musically demanding part of Johannes . The singing association of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna had taken on the difficult choral part . The orchestral part, which was also difficult, was performed by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra .

It is known from stories that Schmidt had been thinking for a long time about setting some Bible passages to music that he wanted to combine into an oratorio. He is said to have selected letters from the apostle Paul for this, and he also thought of setting the Song of Songs to music . It is not clear from a musicological point of view who drew his attention to the Revelation of John . Both Oswald Kabasta and Raimund Weissensteiner are mentioned in this context.

When Schmidt had finally decided in favor of Revelation, he consulted other translations in addition to his home Bible, which contained the translation according to Martin Luther , in order to obtain a beautiful and clear text from it. It cannot be proven who wrote the freely added text passages that do not come from the Bible. In any case, Schmidt claims in his preface to the premiere that he has not made any changes to the biblical text. Literally he says: "So, with the exception of the Elision known above" - ​​what is meant here are the strokes he made in the Apocalypse - "kept exactly to the original ..." However, that Schmidt cared a lot for the sounding word comes from this shows that even while the score was being written down, changes were made to individual words, for example in the prologue, where instead of “a chair stood there in heaven” “a throne stood there in heaven” appears. In the purely musical part, too, you can see the traces of improvements that Schmidt made until he seemed to have succeeded in the final form.

occupation

The work requires the following soloists and orchestras:

  • Vocal soloists: A hero tenor for the part of John, a deep bass for the part of the Lord's voice and a soprano, alto, tenor and bass each for the other solo parts
  • Choir: sopranos, old men, tenors and basses in the largest possible cast
  • organ
  • Orchestra: 2 flutes, small flute, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet (alternating with D clarinet), 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, strings (as strong as possible )

literature

  • Albert Arbeiter: Introduction to the Book with Seven Seals. Self-published, Judenburg 1958, 2nd edition Bregenz
  • Elisabeth Birnbaum: Bible reception in 1938: Franz Schmidt's "Book with Seven Seals", in: feinschwarz.net, July 31, 2020.

See also

Web links