Triumph song (Brahms)
The “Triumph Song” op . 55 is a work for baritone solo, choir and orchestra by the German composer Johannes Brahms (1833–1897), premiered in 1872 . Brahms composed the work on the occasion of the German victory in the war with France in 1870 and dedicated it to the German Emperor Wilhelm I. The textual basis, taken from the Revelation of John and prophesying the downfall of Babylon , is deliberately used here to reinterpret political events. Due to its patriotic time-bound nature, the "triumph song" disappeared from the repertoire after the First World War, despite its musical qualities, and is now one of the composer's most unknown works.
Origin and historical classification
Brahms began composing the “Triumphal Song” in the autumn of 1870 under the impression of the German victories in the war with France in 1870 , especially at the Battle of Sedan . The first part was completed towards the end of February 1871 after the imperial proclamation. Movements 2 and 3 were composed by Brahms in Lichtental near Baden-Baden after the peace treaty in the summer of 1871. The first print of the "Triumphlied" was published in 1872 as Brahms' op. 55 by Verlag N. Simrock in Berlin (at the time directed by Fritz Simrock ). It bears the dedication “Reverently dedicated to His Majesty the German Kaiser Wilhelm I by the composer” . Originally, the Bismarck admirer Brahms had even planned to dedicate the work to Kaiser and Chancellor together and provided the subtitle “To the victory of the German arms” . The autograph score is in the possession of the Biblioteka Jagiellońska , Cracow . In 1873 - also with Simrock - an arrangement by the composer for piano four hands was published.
Johannes Brahms' “Triumph Song” is not isolated in music history. Other well-known contemporary composers also wrote patriotic works on the occasion of the German victory, including Richard Wagner (" Kaisermarsch "), Max Bruch ("Das Lied vom Deutschen Kaiser" op. 37) or August Klughardt ("Die Grenzrichtigung" for male choir op. 25) ). This group of patriotic compositions from the early days also includes works such as Carl Reinthaler's “Bismarckhymne” op. 29 (1874), the “Fraternization March ” op. 287 by Johann Strauss (Son) , the “King's Psalm”, composed in 1891 for the emperor's birthday, op 71 Heinrich von Herzogenberg's or the 1893 cantata “ Helgoland ” by Anton Bruckner .
Work description
Cast and duration of performance
The “Triumph Song” is set for an eight-part choir, baritone solo and orchestra. The orchestra consists of 2 flutes , 2 oboes , 2 clarinets , 2 bassoons , 1 contrabassoon , 4 horns , 3 trumpets , 3 trombones , tuba , timpani and strings . An organ can be added ad libitum .
The performance lasts about 22 to 26 minutes.
Text and music
Brahms took the text for the “Song of Triumph” from the 19th chapter of the Revelation of John . There the triumph over the city of Babylon is glorified; the statements can easily be reinterpreted in terms of the German victory over France.
The three-movement, monumentally solemn work continues the type of the baroque cantata. The double choir , which is often used alternately, also refers to baroque practice . Handel's role model is unmistakable , especially his “Dettinger Te Deum”, which Brahms greatly appreciated (when Brahms took over the direction of the concerts of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna in 1872 , he put this work on the program of the first event). Bach's cantata choirs also form the background , such as his double-choir cantata fragment “ Now is salvation and strength ” BWV 50.
1st movement ( lively and solemn )
Alleluia! Salvation and praise, honor and strength be to God our Lord. For his courts are truthful and just. Alleluia!
The main theme of the festively excited movement, which begins in D major with a short instrumental introduction, is a motivic (and for the listener hardly immediately recognizable) play around the melody " Heil dir im Siegerkranz ". It is in the wake of polyphonic choir and orchestra performed , interrupted by Hallelujah objections. The conclusion, again in D major, is a powerful 8-part hallelujah. Brahms only set the first words of verse 2 from chap. 19 of the Revelation of John ( Rev. 19,2 LUT ) For his judgments are truthful and just , the drastic continuation of the biblical text that he condemned the great harlot, which can be reinterpreted in this context for Paris , is in a unison instrumental movement (bar 70 / 71), which is made evident by a corresponding handwritten underlay in Brahms's personal copy of the score.
2nd movement ( moderately busy )
Praise our God, all his servants, and those who fear him, both great and small. Alleluia! For almighty God has taken over the kingdom. Let us rejoice and be happy, and give him honor.
The second, in itself three-part movement of the “Triumphal Song” begins in G major. The choir is mainly used antiphonically , i.e. in the form of two responding choirs with 4 voices each. The second part is performed in close fugato . In the third part, which is dominated by triplets , the veiled cantus firmus of the chorale sounds in the wind instruments " Nun danket alle Gott ". The movement fades away in G major.
3rd movement ( lively )
And I saw the sky open. And, behold, a white horse, and the one sitting on it was called Faithful and Truthful, and judges and wars with righteousness. And he treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of Almighty God. And has written a name on his garment and on his waist, thus: One king of kings, and one lord of lords. Alleluia. Amen!
After a few fortissimo beats by the orchestra, the baritone soloist, who is only used in this part, takes over the vocal opening of the again three-part movement with And I saw heaven opened . The splendid finale is formed by an extensive, contrapuntal, Hallelujah double choir. The movement begins in D minor and ends in D major.
premiere
The first performance of the first part took place on April 7, 1871 on the occasion of a Good Friday concert "In memory of those who fell in battle" in Bremen Cathedral under the direction of the composer following his " German Requiem " (conducted by Carl Reinthaler ). The Weser newspaper then described the first part of the "triumph song" as a "real victory song" , "worthy of a great people" .
The first full performance of the "Triumphal Song" was on June 5, 1872 in the Grand Ducal Court Theater in Karlsruhe under the direction of Hermann Levi , at the same time as his farewell concert. It all began with Beethoven's 8th Symphony , and Clara Schumann also played her husband's piano concerto, among other things . At the end of the concert was the "triumph song", conducted from the manuscript. Julius Stockhausen took over the baritone solo .
Brahms was very impressed by the premiere (despite the relatively small choir) and wrote on June 9, 1872 from Lichtental to his Viennese friend, the surgeon Theodor Billroth : “ I have hardly ever had the impression that everyone overflowed with his duties do. Everyone sang and played as if the whole thing depended on him alone [...]. So I will not easily hear my song, which is designed for larger masses, with more pleasure. The people really did it like our soldiers in France, where a thousand in their place, as well as their usual hundred thousand, did their best. The piece was so wonderfully bold and lively that I could hardly be surprised that it sparked so much [...] . "
After the premiere in Karlsruhe, Clara Schumann noted: " Johannes' triumphal song is probably the deepest and greatest thing that has been created in the genre of church music since Bach ."
Reception in the 19th century
Within two years, the "triumph song" had performances in Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Leipzig and Zurich, followed by numerous other performances on festive occasions outside of Germany. The effect of the work, which goes beyond the German-patriotic reference, is proven by successful performances of the “Triumphal Song” in Switzerland. Brahms himself conducted it at the Zurich Music Festival on October 20, 1895 on the occasion of the inauguration of the new Tonhalle . A report by his Swiss friend, the poet Joseph Victor Widmann , shows that the self-critical Brahms had a positive attitude towards his work even more than 20 years after the composition : “ The joyful satisfaction that the successful performance gave him was so great that he was on the way home from the concert itself began to speak of this creation of his own, which seemed strange to him. He drew my attention to individual things in it and asked me, among other things, whether I had heard it right out, as in the second choir with the melody "Well thank you all, God!" Victory will be rung with all the bells, and a festive Te Deum will swing over the country ”.
Even musicologists of the Wilhelmine era did not, however, express unreserved approval. In 1892 the Bach biographer Philipp Spitta , who was a friend of Brahms, wrote : “ [...] only one nature of ore is able to sympathize with the colossal structure of this incomparable monument and not to feel its force as a burden. " Heinrich Reimann wrote in 1897:" If the work, in spite of the large number of choirs and rich instrumental resources, and despite the extraordinary enthusiasm that sustains it, cannot produce the transfigured, sublime effect of the Requiem, it is because it the work lacks some variety. "
Wagner and Nietzsche
A special facet in the history of the reception of the work is the fact that it helped to trigger the rift between Friedrich Nietzsche and Richard Wagner . The philosopher brought the score of the work to Wagner, who was fundamentally antipathetic to Brahms. On August 6, 1874, Cosima Wagner wrote in her diary: “ Our friend N. brings Brahms' triumphant song. R. laughs out loud that music is made on the word 'justice' ”. Two days later she noted: “In the afternoon we play the triumph song of Brahms, great horror at the poverty of this composition, which our friend Nietzsche praised, Handel, Mendelssohn and Schumann wrapped in leather [...]. “The philosopher's sister, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, reported:“ In the spring we heard Brahms's 'Triumphal Song' in the beautiful cathedral of Basel, which made a great impression on my brother. He now took the score to this triumphant song with him to Bayreuth - as I thought at the time, unsuspectingly, that Wagner might misunderstand this. Later, however, I found the following record about Wagner in my brother's notes: 'The tyrant accepts no other individuality than his own and that of his confidants. The danger for Wagner is great if he does not accept Brahms etc. [...] '. "
In a later, often-cited attack on Brahms in 1879, Wagner obviously referred to the “triumph song”: “ I know famous composers who, at concert masquerades, are you today in the larva of the bailiff, tomorrow with Handel's Hallelujah wig, another Sometimes as a Jewish Csardas player, and then again as a solid symphonist [...]. "
Reception after the First World War
After the events of World War I and the end of the German Empire, the "triumph song" was no longer interested and was not only forgotten, but was even deliberately avoided. Nothing about that changed during the National Socialist era with their preference for the work of Wagner and Bruckner over Brahms. Biographers and musicologists in the 20th century mostly recognize the musical qualities of the work, sometimes refer to a (too) close dealings and show more or less obvious discomfort because of the “quite violent reinterpretation” of biblical words on political events. In fact, Brahms satisfied his hatred of the French, which he shared with many intellectuals around 1870/71, compositionally by referring to Paris a line from the Apocalypse, which is there referring to Babylon: "that he condemned the great whore" ( Revelation 19: 1).
The first recording of the "Triumphlied" on record was only published in 1983 as part of a complete recording of Brahms' oeuvre on his 150th birthday. Currently (as of 2009) only a few recordings are available (under the conductors Michel Plasson at EMI , Gerd Albrecht at the Chandos label and Giuseppe Sinopoli at DGG ; the Naxos label has a recording of the four-hand piano version with Silke-Thora Matthies and Christian Köhn ) . Concert performances are very rare. As an example, a list of performances by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna shows the following performance dates: 1872, 1887, 1895, 1898, 1905, 1910 and 1983. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Compiègne armistice (1918) there was a performance in the Sankt Johannis Church in Würzburg by the oratorio choir Würzburg .
The original version of the first movement was found in 2012
In 2012, while working on her dissertation in the music archive of the Bremen Philharmonic Society, Katrin Bock rediscovered performance material from the premiere of the first movement in 1871. It proves that Brahms made considerable changes in the final version printed in 1872, which not only affect the key (in the original version C major), but also the musical text and scoring. For example, in the D major version, double bassoon and tuba were added to support the bass. In total there are more than 300 deviations from the D major version.
This allows Brahms research new insights into the creative process of the composer, who almost always destroyed sketches and original versions of his works.
literature
- Daniel Beller-McKenna: Brahms and the German spirit . Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Mass. u. a., 2004, ISBN 9780674013186 , pp. 98-132.
- Alfred von Ehmann: Johannes Brahms. Thematic directory of his works . 1st edition (second unaltered reprint), Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden, 1933/1980, ISBN 3-7651-0170-2 .
- Karl Geiringer: Johannes Brahms. His life and work . Bärenreiter, Kassel u. a., paperback edition of the 2nd expanded edition, 1974, ISBN 3-7618-0470-9 , pp. 333-335.
- Klaus Häfner: The "Triumphal Song" op. 55, a forgotten composition by Johannes Brahms . In: Badische Landesbibliothek Karlsruhe (Ed.): Johannes Brahms in Baden-Baden and Karlsruhe. Exhibition catalog, self-published by Bad. Landesbib. Karlsruhe, 1983, ISBN 3-88705-008-8 , pp. 83-102.
- Max Kalbeck : Johannes Brahms . Volume II, new print, Breitkopf & Härtel, Tutzing, 1921/1976, ISBN 3-7952-0187-X , p. 346ff.
- Kurt Pahlen : Oratorios of the World . Munich, Heyne, 1987, ISBN 3-453-00923-1 , pp. 110/111.
- Peter Petersen : About the 'triumph song' by Johannes Brahms. In: Die Musikforschung 52, 1999, pp. 462–466.
- Werner Oehlmann: Reclam's choir leader . 2nd edition, Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart, 1976, ISBN 3-15-010017-8 , pp. 465-467.
Individual evidence
- ^ Triumphal song, information on sources and editions, Brahms Institute Lübeck
- ↑ M. Kalbeck, p. 413.
- ↑ M. Kalbeck, pp. 359/360.
- ^ Hans Gal (ed.): Johannes Brahms Briefe . Fischer Taschenbuch Verl., Frankfurt a. M., 1979, ISBN 3-596-22139-0 , p. 88
- ^ Berthold Litzmann: Clara Schumann - An artist's life . Volume 3, Leipzig 1910. Quoted in K. Häfner, p. 87
- ^ A b Daniel Beller-McKenna, p. 102
- ↑ Joseph Victor Widmann: Memories of Johannes Brahms . Rotapfel-Verlag Zurich and Stuttgart, 1980, ISBN 3-85867-100-2 ; P. 111.
- ^ Philipp Spitta: Johannes Brahms . In: About the music: Sixteen essays . Berlin 1892, p. 414. Quoted from K. Häfner, p. 87.
- ^ Heinrich Reimann: Johannes Brahms . Berlin 1897, p. 45. Quoted in K. Häfner, p. 87/88.
- ^ Cosima Wagner: The diaries . Vol. 1 1869–1877, Munich / Zurich 1976, p. 843 f.
- ^ Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche: Wagner and Nietzsche at the time of their friendship. Munich 1915, p. 202 ff.
- ↑ Richard Wagner: About poetry and composing. In: Bayreuth leaves. 1879.
- ↑ K. Pahlen, p. 111
- ↑ Peter Petersen : About the 'Triumphlied' by Johannes Brahms. In: Die Musikforschung 52, 1999, p. 463 ff.
- ↑ K. Häfner, p. 83.
- ↑ List of performances of the Wiener Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde ( Memento of the original from April 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Oratorio Choir: As if Gods Wept Main-Post from November 12, 2018
- ^ Announcement nmz, May 30, 2013
- ↑ http://www.uni-bremen.de/aktuelle-meldung/einzelbeispiel/article/sensationsfund-johannes-brahms-bremer-triumphlied-wiederentdeck.html?cHash=ded08fbec295c1e212b582f804adef42
Web links
- Song of Triumph : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Introduction by Daniel Beller-McKenna (English)
- Sibylle Ehrismann : How Switzerland learned to sing , with information on the role of the triumphant song in Switzerland
- Information at classicalarchives.com (English)