Singing to the artists
The Ceremonial Song to the Artists based on Schiller's poem , op. 68 ( MWV D 6 ) is a secular choral work by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy for male choir and brass . The poem Die Künstler by Friedrich Schiller served as a text template .
The piece
Mendelssohn wrote the Festgesang in 1846 for the opening of the first German-Flemish Song Festival in Cologne , where it was performed by 2000 participants. The brass orchestra contains the following parts: 2 trumpets in Eb, 2 trumpets in Bb, 2 horns in Eb, 2 horns in Bb, 4 trombones, 1 tuba and 1 ophicleide. It can be assumed that all votes were cast multiple times. The brass section accompanies a four-part male choir and a four-part solo male quartet. A performance of the composition in B flat major takes around seven minutes.
In this composition, the music is mostly the servant of the text; only rare exceptions break through the homorhythmic progression of vocal and instrumental parts. Only the introduction of the wind instruments is purely instrumental, otherwise they are set homophonic to the voices or serve as an answer or echo. The voice guidance is usually kept relatively simple through repetitions of notes and second progressions, dots give a march- like or fanfare-like character and thus loosen the flow. The festive character of the piece is reinforced by the wind line-up alone, and especially towards the end it sways through the fanfare-like wind accompaniment and hymn-like halves of the male choir. In summary, Mendelssohn uses his compositional means sparingly but effectively.
Related compositions
Franz Liszt set the same section of text to music under the title To the Artists . His composition also includes a solo male choir, but with a large orchestra. The reference to Mendelssohn's Festgesang becomes particularly clear in the first version of the work, which has been revised several times . It is, however, almost twice as long and a lot heavier, more dramatic composition, which was received enthusiastically by Richard Wagner , not least because of this .
The celebratory song for the artists should not be confused with the festival song for the Gutenbergfest ( MWV D 4 ), also by Mendelssohn .
literature
- Schiller and the music Helen Geyer, Wolfgang Osthoff, Astrid Stäber, Böhlau Verlag Cologne Weimar, 2007 - 414 pages
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Wagner's letter to Franz Liszt, Zurich, March 4, 1854, printed in: Richard Wagner, Complete Briefe , Vol. 6, January 1854-February 1855, ed. by Hans-Joachim Bauer and Johannes Forner, Wiesbaden 1986, pp. 88–93.