Requiem (Dvořák)
Antonín Dvořák's Requiem op. 89 ( B 165), composed in 1890, is a full-length work for four soloists in the voices soprano , alto , tenor and bass , choir and orchestra in a large romantic line-up including organ and percussion instruments such as gong and bells . In terms of its size, the Requiem is not intended for use in church services, but for the concert hall. It is based on the canonical text of the Catholic funeral mass , which Dvořák has divided into 13 parts for this work.
The work was commissioned by the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival . The commission dates back to 1888, but Dvořák only found time to compose two years later because of other projects. He wrote the first drafts for the Requiem on January 1, 1890. After an interruption due to several trips abroad, he completed the composition at the end of October 1890. The first performance took place on October 9, 1891 in Birmingham .
The work moves between silent prayer and religious ecstasy . At the height of his creative power, the means of musical drama are available to the composer as well as meditative and lyrical tones and a broad spectrum of timbres . Dark colors such as bass clarinet , English horn and four-part male choir play a special role. The performance of the work is about 94 minutes.
Musical core idea
A musical motto that appears again and again from the first to the last bars gives the work a great thematic cohesion. It is about playing around a tone (at the beginning of the dominant tone f) by a small second up and down in syncopated rhythm. It seems like a painful sigh that pervades the whole work, but z. B. also as a powerful counterpoint in which Dies Irae carries violent dissonances . In the Tuba Mirum, this motif is voiced by the trumpet alone, followed by a dissonant excessive triad and a gong strike - which creates a downright frightening mood. And at the end of Agnus Dei , after an ecstatic, then dying “lux aeterna luceat eis” the work ends as it began: with the lamenting motif in gloomy B flat minor.
sentences
- Requiem aeternam, B flat minor
- Graduals
- Dies irae, B flat minor
- Tuba mirum, E minor
- Quid sum miser
- Recordare, Jesu pie, D major
- Confutatis maledictis, G minor
- Lacrimosa
- Offertory, F major
- Hostias, F minor
- Sanctus, B flat major
- Pie Jesu, G minor
- Agnus Dei, B flat minor
Web links
- Requiem (Dvořák) : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
Individual evidence
- ↑ (o. Vf.): Antonín Dvořák Requiem op.89 , in: CD supplement: Dvořák Requiem István Kertész , Decca 1989, p. 18.