Song of the Parzen (Brahms)

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Johannes Brahms around 1885

The Gesang der Parzen op. 89 was written in 1882 and is a work for choir and orchestra by the German composer Johannes Brahms (1833–1897). A section from the drama Iphigenie auf Tauris by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is set to music, which refers to the Parzen , Roman goddesses of fate.

Origin, premiere and reception

The song of the Parzen is the last composition for choir and orchestra by Johannes Brahms. More than 10 years after the cantata Rinaldo op. 50 and the Alto Rhapsody op. 51, Brahms again reverted to a text by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . According to Max Kalbeck , Brahms was inspired to compose by the actress Charlotte Wolter, who appeared in the role of Iphigenia in the Vienna Burgtheater .

The work was largely composed in the summer of 1882 during a stay in Ischl , where Brahms initially completed two chamber music works in May / June ( piano trio in C major, op. 87 , string quintet in F major, op. 88 ). The song of the Parzen was available in the particell at the end of July . On August 1, he sent the manuscript, which he described as “a very fleeting pencil drawing”, to his medical friend and music lover Theodor Billroth . Brahms replied to his positive reaction on August 6, 1882: “You do not believe how important and dear your affirmative word is to me and how grateful I am to you for it. You know what you wanted and how seriously you wanted. Actually, one should also know what has become now; But you prefer to let others tell you that and then gladly believe the friendly word. [...]. "

The excerpt from the drama Iphigenie auf Tauris set to music by Brahms can be found at the end of Act 4 (verses 1726–1766) and represents a monologue of Iphigenia in which she remembers a song her nurse used to sing when she was a child. The drama, which deals with the history of the Tantalids , experiences an intensification of the internal conflict of Iphigenia, which is faced with the urging of the Pylades to win time to flee by lying to the King of Tauris . Thematically related to the song of fate by Hölderlin , which Brahms set to music as early as 1871, the level of the raptured gods is contrasted with the people left alone or subject to the atrid curse in the song of the Parzen .

Earlier settings of this subject come from Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1809) and Ferdinand Hiller (1881), both of whom Brahms knew.

The premiere took place on December 10, 1882 in the Basel Music Hall with the choir and orchestra of the city's General Music Society. The concert was a success and the work was put back into the program after the New Year. Other successful performances soon followed in cities such as Strasbourg and Krefeld. At the first performance in Vienna on February 18, 1883, the song of the Parzen was received only cautiously. On April 2, 1883, he performed a birthday concert in Meiningen for the dedicatee, Duke Georg von Sachsen-Meiningen , who was friendly to Brahms .

The first print of Gesangs der Parzen (score, piano reduction, choir and orchestral parts) was published in February 1883 as op. 89 by Verlag N. Simrock , Berlin.

The earliest tangible recording of the Parzen's singing is a radio recording on November 27, 1948 with Arturo Toscanini , the NBC Symphony Orchestra and the Robert Shaw Chorale, which was not released on LP in 1968 (with RCA Victor ). The first record-only recording was released in 1951 under the direction of Henry Swoboda with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Chamber Choir . In 1972 a recording with the choir and orchestra of the Slovak Philharmonic under Hans Swarowsky followed . A number of other recordings from the 1980s onwards show the growing interest in the work.

Work description

Cast and duration of performance

The song of the Parzen is set for a six-part choir (without solo voices, bass and alto are each doubled) and orchestra. The orchestral line-up includes 2 flutes (including a piccolo ), 2 oboes , 2 clarinets , 2 bassoons , contrabassoon , 4 horns , 2 trumpets , 3 trombones , tuba , timpani and strings .

The performance lasts around 12 minutes.

characterization

The composition of the song of the Parzen appears compressed, the 6-stanza text, including the instrumental introduction, comprises only 176 bars. The choral setting is predominantly homophonic ; the fugal sections that are otherwise typical for Brahms are dispensed with , apart from minor imitative postponements. The overall large ensemble appears darkly colored by doubling the deep female and male voices, in the orchestra by adding contrabassoon, 3 trombones and tuba.

The work begins with a somber, imperious instrumental introduction in D minor (“Maestoso”), before the male and then the female voices begin antiphonally with the words: “The gods fear the human race!” The recurring orchestral theme leads over to the now six-part overall choir. In terms of tone painting, the sphere of the gods ("But you, you remain in eternal festivals at golden tables") is contrasted with those of people who "wait in vain, bound in the dark". The fifth stanza appears in milder tones (“Very soft and bound”) with the beginning of the text “The rulers turn their blessing eyes on entire families”. The epilogue is the softly fading sixth stanza (beginning of the text: “So sangen die Parzen”), in which Tantalus commemorates his descendants, whispered more than sung by the choir, interspersed with pauses, and with a mysterious accompaniment by high, muted strings and woodwinds (including only Piccolo flute inserted here).

On June 13, 1896, Brahms wrote to Gustav Ophüls : “I often hear philosophizing about the sixth verse of the Parzenlied. I think that the heart of the innocent listener would have to become soft and the eyes moist at the mere entry of the major; only then does humanity grasp him with complete misery. [...] "

literature

  • Max Kalbeck : Johannes Brahms . Volume III, reprint of the 2nd edition from 1915, Breitkopf & Härtel, Tutzing, 1976, ISBN 3-7952-0188-8 , p. 355ff.
  • Victor Ravizza: Symphonic Choral Works. In: Wolfgang Sandberger (Ed.): Brahms Handbook. Joint edition JB Metzler'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung / Bärenreiter, Stuttgart / Kassel 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-02233-2 (Bärenr.), P. 295ff.
  • Werner Oehlmann: Reclam's choir leader. 2nd Edition. Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-15-010017-8 , pp. 468-469.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans Gál (Ed.): Johannes Brahms: Briefe . Fischer Taschenbuch Verl., Frankfurt a. M., 1979, ISBN 3-596-22139-0 , p. 125
  2. ↑ LiederNet archive
  3. ↑ Florence May : Johannes Brahms. Vol. 2. Matthes & Seitz, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-88221-343-4 , p. 218
  4. ↑ cf. Work introduction by Stephen Luttmann, 2011
  5. ↑ cit. n. Max Kalbeck: Johannes Brahms . Volume III, reprint of the 2nd edition from 1915, Breitkopf & Härtel, Tutzing, 1976, ISBN 3-7952-0188-8 , p. 361