Dance of Death (Distler)
The motet “ Dance of Death ” op. 12, 2 by the German composer Hugo Distler (1908–1942) was written in 1934 for the Sunday of the Dead . The composition, set for 4-part a cappella choir , comprises 14 sung verses, between which there are 12 spoken verses by Johannes Klöcking .
Emergence
Hugo Distler had been dealing with the subject of a dance of death game since the summer of 1932 . The last impetus for the composition in 1934 was presumably a very impressive performance of Leonhard Lechner's “ Sprüche vom Leben und Tod ” ( Proverbs of Life and Death ) and the motet “ Blessed are the dead ” by Heinrich Schütz in the Jakobikirche in Lübeck . Another source of inspiration was the Lübeck dance of death in Lübeck's Marienkirche , which was created in 1701 as a copy of a cycle of pictures from the 15th century. The destruction of the Lübeck dance of death in 1942 during World War II was to see Distler shortly before his suicide in the same year.
Text and music
The 26-year-old Distler chose verses from the cherubine wanderer by the baroque poet Angelus Silesius as a text template for the dance of death for 4-part a cappella choir, which comprises 14 choir verses and which received No. 2 within the Sacred Choral Music op.12 . The 12 verses to be spoken in connection were contributed by the poet Johannes Klöcking , who is known for Distler . For their part, they represent a rewrite of the only partially preserved verses of the Middle Low German Lübeck dance of death from the 15th century and are dialogical: first the person struggling with death, then death itself.
In contrast to the relentlessly succinct spoken texts, in which death invites people of different classes and ages to dance, there are the often delicate, floating, short choral movements by Distler (in contrast, the framing choral verses 1 and 14 are somewhat longer). In some compositional means, such as syncopation designed derivative bonds or Picardischer third has Distler to methods of Renaissance back Lechners. Unlike his choral movements, however, the Distler's are polymetrical and the score does not contain bar lines, only scale lines . The performance lasts about 30 minutes. In the foreword to the first edition from 1934, Distler wrote:
- [...] “The artistic design principle resulted, entirely from the essence of the squat poetry, the greatest possible variety in the invention, consciously renouncing explicit implementation work, hence the sharp contrasts, the precise shaping of the momentary mood content, the compact, aphoristic brevity. Only a few of the small movements are satisfied with the implementation of only one dominant motif; a sentence like the fifth saying, which I would be inclined to overwrite "Frau Welte" after the famous statue at the St. Sebalduskirche in Nuremberg - a naked female figure of blooming beauty: that's how Frau Welt seems to face the beholder is particularly typical for this type of design ; but her back is eaten away by snakes and worms, a picture of transience. How else could that ghostly round dance, those "Passacaglia" in the truest sense of the word, for whose fantastically colorful, incalculable "changes" the same "ostinato" beats the beat: "Seems fresh, benevolent, healthy, beautiful and splendid; spoiled, dead and dead tomorrow? "
The premiere of the “ Dance of Death ” took place on September 24, 1934 in the Katharinenkirche in Lübeck under the direction of Bruno Grusnick . For the second performance of the “ Dance of Death ” (Kassel, November 1934), Distler also composed short variations of the song “ Es ist ein Schnitter, says der Tod ” for flute solo, which have been partially performed since then, inserted between spoken and sung verse.
Individual evidence
- ↑ cit. n. LP-text Hugo Distler: Totentanz u. a., Münchner Motettenchor, headed by HR Zöbeley, FSM 53 228 EB, recorded in 1980
- ↑ Information from Bärenreiter-Verlag ( Memento of the original from March 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
literature
- Barbara Distler-Harth: Hugo Distler. Life path of an early completed . Schott Music, Mainz 2008, ISBN 978-3-7957-0182-6 , p 185 a. 195.
- LP-text Hugo Distler: Totentanz u. a., Münchner Motettenchor, headed by HR Zöbeley, FSM 53 228 EB, recorded in 1980