Rugby (Honegger)
Rugby is a symphonic movement (Mouvement symphonique no. 2) by Arthur Honegger for orchestra that describes the sensations during a rugby game. The work was composed from August to September 1928 and premiered in Paris on October 19, 1928 . The movement is called Allegro and the duration is 8-10 minutes, depending on the speed of the game.
music
The piece focuses on a rugby game, but is not program music in the actual sense, but rather a processing of impressions of a match. Honegger himself wrote:
“I love the football game very much […] but I feel more uplifted by the wilder, more sudden, more desperate and less regulated rhythm of the rugby game. I don't want to try to reproduce any phase of the rugby match symphonically, and it would be wrong to look for program music in my piece. As a musician, I just want to express game and counterplay, rhythm and color of a match in the Colombes stadium in my own language, and out of honesty I felt obliged to give my sources. "
For this purpose, Honegger based the piece on a rondo with variations as the basic form. After all, rugby becomes very compact because two parties in the orchestra each throw two different main themes, which vary somewhat over time, and thus (rhythmically seen) different layers emerge. Overall, the impression is created of a struggle in the course of which each party tries to gain the upper hand, which is expressed through all musical means, such as sixteenth-half runs, staccato passages, rattling triplets , syncopation , the exclusive forte and, last but not least, the rapid tempo is brought. For some people this sometimes gives the impression of a chaotic piece.
Others
- The play was performed once in a rugby stadium.
- A piano version of the work was published in 1929 with 300 copies.
- In 1953 Honegger received an award for sporting merits from the Association of Swiss Sports Journalists.
literature
- Harenberg, cultural guide concert . Meyers Lexikonverlag, Mannheim 2006, ISBN 978-3-411-76161-6 .