Poem (music)

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The designation poem (French poème 'work of poetry', Russian Поема ' poem ') in the title of a composition is intended to emphasize its proximity to ideas about poetry. During the decades before and after 1900, it found a certain distribution, especially in the French and Russian-speaking areas; a specific generic outline cannot be determined.

The term

The designation “Poem” as a composition title appears for the first time during the 1880s. It is initially limited to the French and Russian language areas; it seems to have penetrated other languages ​​only considerably later ( Georg Schumann : Im wrestling for an ideal (1916)). “Poem” is often used in parallel to purely technical genre names such as “Sinfonie” or “Overture” as an uncommented work title (Ernest Chausson, Poème) . Orchestral works without reference to a specific literary text predominate among the early compositions; Occasionally there are text-bound vocal compositions ( Gabriel Fauré : Poème d'un jour ; Ernest Chausson : Poème de l'amour et de la mer) .

An independent musical genre never seems to have emerged. Sigfried Schibli writes in Alexander Scriabin and his music that the "[...] generic names Etude, Prelude, Poème, Nocturne, Albumblatt etc. have become largely interchangeable in the late 19th century" - the hypothesis implied in this formulation that "Poème" I actually denoted a genre before the late 19th century, of course, has no basis. Michail Druskin suggests that the meaning of this designation is to be sought more in the associative than in the analytical features of the scores: "Scriabin understood the poem as a poetic tone poem about the struggle of the spirit".

The association spectra of the word are clearly different in Russian and French. In the French-speaking world, “poème” is a general generic term for any form of poetic text, regardless of the genre and language. The predominant meaning is “poetry”; but also the imprint "Poème en prose" ( " prose poem ") is common. This includes works that are as opposed to one another as Homer's epics or Mallarmé's prose poems . In French, “Poème” only establishes the general relationship between a composition and ideas in poetry. - In Russian literature, on the other hand, “ poema ” is a clearly defined generic term. It describes expansive narrative poems that would be called " Versepos " or " Versroman " in German . What is meant, however, is a specifically Russian expression of the genre, whose classic works by Alexander Pushkin ( Eugen Onegin , (1823-1830), Ruslan and Lyudmila (1820) and many others) and Michail Lermontow (The Demon (1841)) come. For the Russian-speaking audience, the title of the work “Poem” creates an inevitable reference to this Russian literary tradition. This relationship is complicated by the familiarity of the educated Russian bourgeoisie with French culture before the October Revolution and by the fact that Scriabin in particular gave his “Poem” compositions French titles.

Other uses

It should be noted that the French term “Poème symphonique” is a direct translation of the term “ symphonic poem ” coined by Franz Liszt in the middle of the 19th century (in the English-speaking world, “Symphonic poem” or “Tone poem”). From this, however, it cannot be consistently inferred that a symphonic poem always translates a concrete literary text into music, but the poem only evokes general associations with poetic ideas: Even the compositions Orpheus (1853-1854), which Liszt explicitly called "symphonic poem" and Prometheus (1850–1855) do without a specific literary model. On the other hand, Scriabin wrote a poem Le Poème de l'Extase , which is interrelated, albeit complicated, with the orchestral piece of the same name.

In the course of the 20th century, terms such as “poem” or “poème” were increasingly used to replace the terms “ Lied ”, “Song”, “Chanson”, “Mélodie”, etc. Here, “Poem” is no longer a term for the composition rich in associations, but refers to the text set to music with emphatic sobriety. After Richard Wagner had given his Wesendonck lieder from 1857–58 the title Five Poems for Female Voice and Piano , this method was used sporadically during the 1920s and 1930s (several times in Albert Roussel : Deux poèmes chinois (Two Chinese poems) op. 47 (1932), Deux poèmes de Ronsard (Two poems by [Pierre de] Ronsard ) op. 26 (1924) etc.); it is found more frequently from the 1940s ( Elliott Carter : Three Poems of Robert Frost (1942); Aribert Reimann : Five Poems by Paul Celan (1960), Tre Poemi di Michelangelo (1985)).

Works (selection)

The composers are sorted by year of birth. Original titles are in italics, translated titles are straight and in quotation marks.

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)

  • Poème d'un jour op.21 (No. 1 Rencontre; No. 2 Toujours; No. 3 Adieu) . Songs for voice and piano (1880)

Zdeněk Fibich (1850-1900)

  • Poème op. 39a (1893), arranged for various instrumentations. Originally Lento for piano from op. 41 (No. 14 of Volume IV); the name Poème goes back to an arrangement by Jan Kubelík (1908).

Vincent d'Indy (1851-1931)

  • Poème des montagnes op.15 for piano (1881)
  • Souvenirs. Poème op.62 for orchestra (1906)
  • Poèmes des rivages. Symphonic Suite op.77 for orchestra (1921)

Ernest Chausson (1855-1899)

  • Poème de l'amour et de la mer op.19 for voice and orchestra (1882–1890, rev. 1893)
  • Poème op.25 for violin and orchestra (1892–1896)

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

  • Jeux . Poème dansé en un acte (ballet music) for orchestra (1912)

Alexander Glasunow (1865-1936)

  • "Lyric Poem" for orchestra in D flat major op. 12 (1884)
  • Poème épique for orchestra (1933)

Georg Schumann (1866–1952)

  • In the struggle for an ideal. Symphonic Poem op.66 for large orchestra (1916)

Granville Bantock (1868-1946)

  • Pagan Poem for flute and piano (1930)

Albert Roussel (1869–1937)

  • Symphony No. 1 Le Poème de la forêt op.7 (1904–1906)

Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)

  • Piano works
    • Deux Poèmes op.32 (1903, orchestrated by D. Rogal-Levitsky)
    • Poème tragique op.34 (1903)
    • Poème satanique op.36 (1903)
    • Poème op.41 (1903)
    • Deux Poèmes op.44 (1905)
    • Poème fantasque , No. 2 from: “Three Pieces” op. 45
    • Poème ailé , No. 3 from: “Four Pieces” op. 51
    • Poème and Poème languide , Nos. 1 and 3 from: “Three Pieces” op. 52
    • Poème , No. 1 from: "Two Pieces" op. 59 (1910)
    • Poème-Nocturne op.61 (1911)
    • Deux Poèmes op 63rd (Masque , Etrangeté ; 1911)
    • Deux Poèmes op.69 (1913)
    • Deux Poèmes op.71 (1914)

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

  • La Valse : Poème choréographique pour orchester (1906–1920)

Frank Bridge (1879-1941)

  • 3 Poems H. 112 for piano (1913/1914):
    1. Solitude
    2. Ecstasy
    3. Sunset

Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936)

  • Poema Autunnale for violin and orchestra (1920–1925)

Ernest Bloch (1880-1959)

  • Poems of the Sea for orchestra (1922)
  • Poème mystique , violin sonata (1924)
  • Two Last Poems for flute and orchestra (1958)

Edgard Varèse (1883-1965)

  • Poème électronique for tape (1958)

Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884-1920)

  • Poem for flute and orchestra (1919)

Xavier Montsalvatge (1912-2002)

  • Poema concertante for violin and orchestra (1951)

Georgi Swiridow (1915-1998)

  • Poema pamyati Sergeya Yesenina ("Poem in memory of Sergei Jessenin ") for tenor, choir and orchestra (1955–1956)

György Ligeti (1923-2006)

  • Poème symphonique for 100 metronomes (1962)

Alfred Schnittke (1934–1998)

  • Poème for piano and orchestra (1953, lost)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sigfried Schibli: Alexander Scriabin and his music. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-492-02759-8 . P. 35
  2. ↑ Christoph Hellmundt (Ed.): Alexander Skrjabin. Letters. With contemporary documents and an essay by Michail Druskin. Reclam, Leipzig 1988, ISBN 3-379-00360-3 . P. 8
  3. ↑ op. 21 at klassika.info
  4. ↑ Scriabin catalog raisonné
  5. ↑ 3 Poems, H.112 (Bridge, Frank) : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project