Mansfeld Oratorio

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At the Bach celebration in 1950, Ernst Hermann Meyer gave a lecture in line with the Marxist-Leninist inheritance theory (see background) on Johann Sebastian Bach - No end, a beginning .

The Mansfeld Oratorio is a composition by Ernst Hermann Meyer (1905–1988) for soloists, choir and orchestra based on words by Stephan Hermlin (1915–1997).

Following the form of the oratorio in general, it is a multi-part dramatic setting of an action, which in this case has no spiritual but rather secular character: the story is based on the “ Per aspera ad astra ” principle typical of socialist realism of the Mansfeld mining from the Middle Ages to the establishment of socialism on German soil interpreted in the sense of hereditary theory . Meyer is considered one of the most important representatives of this ideology in the field of music.

The protagonist is “the miner” himself, who has endured wars for centuries, fights against exploitation and, in the end, with the help of brave Soviet soldiers, realizes the long-cherished dream of socialism: “ Because the work was ours… ”.

The Mansfeld Oratorio was composed in 1950, completed in the same year and premiered on the occasion of the 750th anniversary celebration of the Mansfeld copper-slate mining industry. In the GDR it was a national cultural asset that had its place in the music curriculum and was kept alive through performances and recordings. It was largely unknown in the Federal Republic of Germany.

With its compliant attitude towards Stalinism and the current party line of the SED , it came under pressure in the political wobbly course of the following years. In his text ... “five hundred million and Mao Tse-tung ” are sung about who will free the brothers in the Saar and Ruhr. After the schism between the Soviet Union and China in 1960, of course, nothing more was heard of that.

It is considered a prime example of socialist realism in the field of music. Bertolt Brecht described it to Paul Dessau in November 1952 as a lard substitute and artificial honey.

Notes / individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Dittmar: The party, the party is always right . In: Die Welt , January 7, 1997
  2. ↑ Peter Bockelmann: African artificial honey . In: Die Zeit , No. 48/1973

literature

  • Golan Gur: Classicism as Anti-Fascist Heritage: Realism and Myth in Ernst Hermann Meyer's Mansfelder Oratorium (1950) . In: Kyle Frackman, Larson Powell (Eds.): Classical Music in the German Democratic Republic: Production and Reception. Rochester: Camden House 2015, pp. 34-57