Gurre-Lieder (Songs ofGurre) is a tripartiteoratorio followed by amelodramatic epilogue for five vocal soloists, narrator, three choruses, and grand orchestra. The work, which is based on an early song cycle for soprano, tenor and piano, was composed by the then-Austrian composerArnold Schoenberg from 1900 to 1903. After a break, he resumed orchestration in 1910 and completed it in November 1911. It sets to music the poem cycleGurresange by the Danish writerJens Peter Jacobsen (translated from Danish to German byRobert Franz Arnold [de]).
TheGurre Castle and its surrounding areas inDenmark are the settings of the plot, which involves the mediæval love-tragedy (related in Jacobsen's poems) revolving around a legend of the love of kingValdemar Atterdag (Valdemar IV, 1320–1375, German: Waldemar) for his mistress, Tove, and her subsequent murder by Valdemar's jealous wife, QueenHelvig of Schleswig, (a legend which is historically more likely connected with his ancestorValdemar I).
In 1900 Schoenberg began composing the work as asong cycle forsoprano,tenor, and piano for a competition run by theWiener Tonkünstler-Verein (Vienna Composers' Association). It was written in a lush, late-Romantic style heavily influenced byRichard Wagner andRichard Strauss. According to Schoenberg, however, he "finished them half a week too late for the contest, and this decided the fate of the work."[1] Later that year, he radically expanded his original conception, composing links between the first nine songs as well as adding a prelude, theWood Dove's Song, and the whole of Parts 2 and 3.
By the time he returned to the piece in 1910, he had already written his first acknowledgedatonal works, such as theThree Pieces for Piano, Op. 11,Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16, andErwartung, Op. 17. He had also come under the spell ofGustav Mahler, whom he had met in 1903 and whose influence may be discernible in the orchestration of the latter parts of theGurre-Lieder. Whereas Parts 1 and 2 are clearly Wagnerian in conception and execution, Part 3 features the pared-down orchestral textures and kaleidoscopic shifts between small groups of instruments favoured by Mahler in his later symphonies. InDes Sommerwindes wilde Jagd, Schoenberg also introduced the first use ofsprechgesang (orsprechstimme), a technique he would explore more fully inPierrot lunaire of 1912.[2] The orchestration was finally completed in November 1911.[3]
Franz Schreker conducted the premiere of the work inVienna on 23 February 1913. By this time, Schoenberg was disenchanted with the style and character of the piece and was even dismissive of its positive reception, saying "I was rather indifferent, if not even a little angry. I foresaw that this success would have no influence on the fate of my later works. I had, during these thirteen years, developed my style in such a manner that to the ordinary concertgoer, it would seem to bear no relation to all preceding music. I had to fight for every new work; I had been offended in the most outrageous manner by criticism; I had lost friends and I had completely lost any belief in the judgement of friends. And I stood alone against a world of enemies."[4] At the premiere, Schoenberg did not even face the members of the audience, many of whom were fierce critics of his who were newly won over by the work; instead, he bowed to the musicians, but kept his back turned to the cheering crowd. Violinist Francis Aranyi called it "the strangest thing that a man in front of that kind of a hysterical, worshipping mob has ever done."[5]
It would be wrong to assume that Schoenberg consideredGurre-Lieder a composition of no merit, however. A few months after the premiere he wrote toWassily Kandinsky, "I certainly do not look down on this work, as the journalists always suppose. For although I have certainly developed very much since those days, I havenot improved, but my style has simply got better ... I consider it important that people give credence to the elements in this work which I retained later."[6]
The first Dutch performance, directed by Schoenberg himself, was in March 1921 in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.[7] Schoenberg's champion and former pupil, theBBC programme plannerEdward Clark, invited the composer to London to conduct the first British performance on 27 January 1928, in a translation byDavid Millar Craig.[8][9] Clark had tried to have the premiere the previous year, on 14 April 1927, but these plans fell through.[10]Leopold Stokowski conducted the American premiere on 8 April 1932, with thePhiladelphia Orchestra, soloists and chorus.
Stokowski's performances on 8, 9 and 11 April 1932 were recorded 'live' byRCA Victor (see below). The 8 April performance was afflicted with ensemble and vocal errors, and the recording was never issued. The 9 April performance was recorded to 33 1/3 discs and pressed at that speed in the very short-lived series of "RCA Performance Transcriptions," The company issued the 11 April performance on the conventional 78rpm format, on 27 sides, and this remained the only recording of the work in the catalogue until the advent of the modernLong Play record. RCA Victor eventually reissued the 11 April recording on LP and CD; the 9 April performance was reissued on Pearl CDs.[citation needed][11][12] (Two 1961 Stokowski performances of the work would also be recorded live, though neither has been given an official release. The March 1961 recording, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, is in stereo.)
A performance ofGurre-Lieder without intermission runs over an hour and a half.Riccardo Chailly's 1990Decca recording, for example, lasts more than 100 minutes and takes two compact discs.[13] In 2014 theDutch National Opera in Amsterdam was the first company to perform theGurre-Lieder as a stage presentation, in a production directed byPierre Audi.[14]
The cantata is divided into three parts. Whereas the first two parts are scored for solo voices and orchestra only, the third part introduces a further two soloists, a narrator, three four-part male choruses as well as a full mixed chorus.
In the first part of the work (approx. 1 hour), the love of Waldemar for Tove and the theme of misfortune and impending death are recounted in nine songs for soprano and tenor with orchestral accompaniment. A long orchestral interlude leads to theWood Dove's Song, arguably the most famous part of the work, which tells of Tove's death and Waldemar's grief.
The brief second part (5 mins) consists of just one song in which the bereft and distraught Waldemar accuses God of cruelty. As punishment for this, God curses Waldemar and his dead men to ride across Gurre lake each night.
In the third part (approx. 45 mins), Waldemar summons his dead vassals from their graves. The undead's restless roaming and savage hunt around the castle at night is thunderously depicted by the male chorus. During this, a peasant sings of his fear of the eerie army.
Waldemar then proclaims that Tove may be watching his actions from heaven. There is a humorous interlude in the grotesque song of the fool Klaus who is forced to ride with the macabre host when he would rather rest in his grave. As the sun begins to rise, the undead begin to recess back into their graves. A gentle orchestral interlude depicting the light of dawn leads into the melodramaThe Summer Wind's Wild Hunt, a narration about the morning wind, which flows into the mixed-choral conclusionSeht die Sonne! ("See the Sun!").
Leopold Stokowski (1932), with soloistsPaul Althouse (Waldemar), Jeanette Vreeland (Tove),Rose Bampton (Wood Dove), Robert Betts (Klaus the Jester), Abrasha Robofsky(Peasant), Benjamin de Loache (Narrator) and choirs Princeton Glee Club, Fortnightly Club, Mendelssohn Club, Philadelphia Orchestra Chorus. Recorded live by RCA Victor at the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia, in two distinct versions with the same personnel, on 9 and 11 April 1932.[15]
Stokowski (1949) recorded theSong of the Wood-Dove in Erwin Stein's edition in 1949, with Martha Lipton, mezzo-soprano, and theNew York Philharmonic (Columbia Records; reissued on Cala Records).
Stokowski (1961) returned toGurre-Lieder in 1961 for performances in Philadelphia and again in Scotland, where he and theLondon Symphony Orchestra opened that year's Edinburgh International Festival with the work. Recordings of the Philadelphia and Edinburgh radio broadcasts have survived, with the 1961 Edinburgh Festival performance having been issued in 2012 on the Guild Historical label. The soloists in that performance wereJames McCracken (Waldemar),Gré Brouwenstijn (Tove),Nell Rankin (Wood Dove),Forbes Robinson (Peasant),John Lanigan (Klaus the Jester) andAlvar Lidell (Narrator) and chorus was Edinburg Royal Choral Union. (GHCD 2388/89).
René Leibowitz, Chorus and Orchestra of the New Symphony Society, Paris,Richard Lewis (Waldemar), Ethel Semser (Tove),Nell Tangeman (Wood Dove), John Riley (Peasant),Ferry Gruber (Klaus the Jester), Morris Gesell (Narrator). Vox Records 222943-311 (rec. 1953, CD issue 2005, mp3 issue August 2011).
Markus Stenz,Gürzenich-Orchester Köln,Brandon Jovanovich (Waldemar), Barbara Haveman (Tove),Claudia Mahnke (Wood Dove), Thomas Bauer (Peasant), Gerhard Siegel (Klaus the Jester),Johannes Martin Kränzle (Narrator), Domkantorei Köln, Männerstimmen des Kölner Domchores, Vokalensemble Kölner Dom, Chor des Bach-Vereins Köln, Kartäuserkantorei Köln. Hyperion Records CDA68081/2 (2015).
^Dika Newlin:Bruckner, Mahler, Schoenberg, rev. ed. (New York: Norton, 1978);ISBN978-0-393-02203-2
^Aidan Soder: "Sprechstimme in Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. A Study of Vocal Performance Practice" (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2008), p. 5;ISBN978-0-7734-5178-0.
^Malcolm MacDonald:Schoenberg (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
^Arnold Schoenberg:Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg, edited byLeonard Stein, with translations by Leo Black (New York: St. Martins Press & London: Faber & Faber, 1975);ISBN0-520-05294-3.
