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SWITZERLAND
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Introduction
Swiss music has inevitably been dominated by the cultural influences of the
two major language blocks, French and German. Up to the latter half of the
19th century, Swiss composers concentrated almost exclusively on piano and
choral music, until Hans Huber (1852-1921) introduced a Swiss awareness
into his symphonies and stage and choral works (for example, his S ymphony No.1, titled Tell). However, his idiom was still
based on German models (Brahms and St rauss), and much of the work of Swiss composers in the
20th century has followed developments in Germany or Austria: the heady
late-Romantic sensuousness of Othmar Scho eck (1886-1957), the formal severity of Willy Burkhard
(1900-1955), the 12-tone compositions of Rolf Liebermann (born 1910, and
now better known for revitalizing the Paris Opera as impresario), or the
Germanic avant-garde of such composers as Heinz Holliger (born 1939). The
one particularly Swiss emphasis in the output of these composers is the
prevalence of vocal and choral works (reflecting a strong choral
tradition), and a relatively large number of stage works.
A more obviously nationalist element appeared in the music, especially for
voice, of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) and Gustave Doret (1866-1943),
both of whom reflected the folk-music of the Suisse Romande
(French-speaking Switzerland). The former is also famous for inventing the
system of rhythmic education through physical movement with music, known as
`eurhythmics'. A further impetus to French influence was the work of the
conductor Ernest Ansermet (1883-1969), who founded the Suisse Romande
Orchestra in 1918, and with it became internationally famous for the
interpretation of modern French music and of Ma hler, and for the championing of Swiss composers.
Chief among these were Arthur Honegger
(1892-1955) and Frank Martin (1890-1974),
the most distinguished Swiss composers to date, and of international
significance. Both show a refinement of sensibility that is a French
inheritance, and the former has become permanently associated with French
music, especially by his (somewhat spurious) inclusion in the Paris group
known as `Les Six'. The third major Swiss composer of the century, Ernest Bloch, also had his musical origins
largely in French music, but not only emigrated to the U.S.A., becoming
deeply involved in musical life there, but also became the major
20th-century composer to attempt a Jewish aesthetic in his music. Willy
Burkhard once had an international reputation for his vocal and choral
works, now little known outside Switzerland. His major works reflect his
deep religious convictions and his love of Bach and the Baroque. His
uncompromising severity of technique, based on strict counterpoint and
harmonies that include the pentatonic scale and sometimes bitonality,
gradually softened, allowing a wider sense of colour and texture. His major
works are the oratorio Das Gesicht Jesajas (The Vision of Isaiah, 1933-1935), the dramatic cantata Das Ewige Brausen (The Everlasting Roar, 1936)
and the oratorio Das Jahr (The Year, 1942,
describing the four seasons). His final work, S ix Preludes (1955) for piano includes 12-note techniques.
More recent composers have followed international trends, although the work
of Klaus Huber (born 1924, and not to be confused with the equally
avant-garde German composer Niclaus Huber, or the Swiss composers Hans
Huber, 1852-1921, and Paul Huber, born 1918) continues the predominance of
vocal and choral music in the Swiss canon. He is concerned with spiritual
matters, and attempts a restatement of the soul, the spirit, over the
excess of the rational, often using medieval, religious, or mystical texts
in radical sound-patterns that emphasise spatial sense and effect. His use
of avant-garde and serial techniques moves towards a kind of mosaic of
effects, in which musical elements are gradually formed "from the
darkness". The powerful ...inwendig voller figure... (1971), has
moments of violence, spatial effects, whispered and half-formed texts, andLigeti-like clusters. Other major works include Tenebrae (1966-1967) for orchestra, with its symbol of a
solar eclipse (recalling that at the hour of Christ's death) and the Violin Concerto `Tempora' (1969-1970). In the concerto the solo
violin gradually rises out of a structured crescendo of orchestral chaos,
and pursues an essentially flowing and lyrical line interacting with or
lying on top of an evolving mobile of orchestral sounds, including guitar
and mandolin. Heinz Holliger is primarily known as the foremost oboe
virtuoso of the present day, for whom many contemporary composers have
written, but he has been active as a composer of mainly vocal and chamber
works. His earliest works follow Berg and Schoenberg, and were succeeded by a
series of small-scale vocal works using serial techniques and cyclical
structures. His later vocal work uses texts only for phonometric extraction
of sounds and for other unconventional vocal effects. A major theatre
piece, Der magische Tänzer (The Magic Dancer,
1963-1965) is of interest more for its imaginative scenario (on a text by
Nelly Sachs) than its musical virtues. A number of his later works transfer
his experience of extended techniques on the oboe to other instruments; t(air)e for solo flute is marvellously written for the
instrument, using the whole range of effects, harmonics, breathing,
treating the keys percussively.
Of Swiss composers once relatively well-known but now ignored, mention
should be made of Heinrich Sutermeister (born 1910), whose opera R omeo und Julia (1940), in an easygoing idiom, was for two decades
one of the most successful of all 20th-century operas, and of the Russian
born Vladimir Vogel (1896-1984), who developed a form of choral
declamation, embraced serial technique, and is best remembered for his
gigantic oratorio Thyl Claes (1937-1945).
At first sight there would therefore seem to be little that is obviously
Swiss classical music, but rather Swiss adjuncts to German and French
traditions. But among their diverse output many of the works ofBloch, Hon egger, and Martin do
share an aesthetic of a particular kind of neo-classicism for small forces,
infected with bright colours and vigorous rhythms and structures (an echo
of the Germanic tradition), nonetheless strong for being relatively
unobtrusive. This would seem to be a particularly Swiss combination - the
only other major composer who shares a similar aural aesthetic is the Czech Martinu, in his later works, and it is
perhaps significant that many of those were written while he lived in
Switzerland.
A common factor in many of these works has been the Swiss conductor Paul
Sacher (born 1906), to whom all lovers of music are deeply indebted for his
advocacy of contemporary music, and the extraordinary number of major works
commissioned from composers all over the world for his small orchestra (the
Basle Chamber Orchestra, which he founded in 1926), with an uncanny
recognition of which composers have something major to express. In its own
way his achievement is as remarkable as that of the composers he has
championed.
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BLOCH
HONEGGER
MARTIN
SCHOECK
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BLOCH
Ernest
born 24th July 1880 at Geneva
died 15th July 1959 at Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.
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Ernest Bloch (not to be confused with the philosopher Ernst Bloch) divided
his life between his native Switzerland (1880-1900, 1904-1917, 1930-1938)
and his adopted U.S.A. (1917-1930,1938-1959), becoming a U.S. citizen in
1924. The Franco-German inheritance was to remain an element of his musical
personality (with an occasional touch of the Swiss pastoral); American
influences are few; but above all Bloch, especially during the middle of
his life, consciously set out to be a Jewish composer. His reputation for
local colour in this genre (and the popularity of one work, Schelomo [Solomon, 1916] for cello and orchestra) has
obscured the value of the rest of his work, and contributed to his relative
neglect.
His earliest work of substance is the Symphony in C sharp minor
(1903), a large late-Romantic work indebted to Str auss, with a touch of the macabre, skilfully constructed
but of interest mainly to the insatiably curious. Impressionism is the
major influence in Hiver - Printemps (Winter - Spring,
1904-1905), while Debussy is a major
inspiration behind his only opera Macbeth (1904-1909)
which uses cyclical techniques and which was a failure at its first
production in Paris (1910), but a considerable success in an Italian
revival (1938). It has recently been re-evaluated for its dramatic and
musical qualities.
But with the Trois poèmes juifs (Three Jewish Poems,
1913-1914) for orchestra, he initiated a number of works that have become
known as the `Jewish Cycle'. In these works he tried, in an emotional
(rather than an intellectual) Romantic fashion, to create a music that
would reflect the essence of the Jewish cultural heritage rather than
employ direct quotation of Jewish folk and religious songs. Certain
stylistic traits give the music its exotic (often Middle Eastern)
`oriental' touches: the harmony employs augmented seconds, and bare 4ths
and 5ths, the melodies have long chanting lines originating in synagogue
cantor singing, the rhythms echo the Hebrew accent on the penultimate or
last syllable, and the orchestration favours brass fanfares and bright
exotic colours. Typically the violin or the cello (both instruments
well-suited to the rhapsodic, Romantic nature of the style) are utilized,
as in Baal Shem for violin and piano (1923, orchestrated
1939) or the best-known of Bloch's works, the `Hebraic Rhapsody' Schelomo (1916). The singing cello, using the contrasts
of the higher and the lowest registers and oriental touches, is pitted
against the opulent orchestral sound in wide-ranging, large-scale and
grandiose emotional moods. The symphony Israel
(1912-1916) for five solo voices and orchestra, is the only work of the
`Jewish cycle' to quote actual Jewish material.
The Vo
ice in the Wilderness
(1936) for cello and orchestra, still sometimes encountered, continues the
idea of Schelom, but is irritating in its combination of
brilliance (the powerful cadenza, the haunted orchestral landscape of the
opening) and banality (the suggestions of Hollywood film music). In ethnic
terms, the culmination of the Jewish works is the Avodath Hakodesh
(Sacred Service, 1933), imposing enough with its combination of a
Western choral tradition and elements of Middle Eastern colour, but really
too slim in musical interest to hold the attention when divorced from its
context.
These works, relying on emotional impact rather than intellectual depth,
will find a ready and undemanding response. They have rather obscured the
rest of Bloch's output, which is wider in range than is commonly supposed.
The huge `Epic Rhapsody' America (1926) for orchestra
with choral ending (designed for audience participation, and which he hoped
might become a national anthem) is a grandiose curiosity of a work,
bombastically fascinating in its mixture of neo-Baroque fanfares,
American-Indian tunes, shanties, spirituals, hymns, and quasi-jazz, but
otherwise best forgotten. A motto theme based on an American-Indian idea
with an associated rhythmic figure is also found in the much more
successful rhapsodic Violin Concerto (1938), which,
avoiding virtuoso fireworks although employing a very large orchestra, has
both oriental touches and neo-classical elements. Of his large-scale late
works, both the Sinfonia Breve (1952) and the virtually
unheard Symphony in E flat major (1954-1955) use 12-tone
themes, but in a strictly tonal milieu.
The works that listeners may find ultimately more rewarding are more
intimate in tone, and generally characterised by a gradual abstraction and
refinement of idiom, and tauter structures than the rhapsodic abandon of
the better-known music. The neo-classical C oncerto Grosso No.1 (1925) for string orchestra with piano
obbligato may have been written as a demonstration piece for students, but
it is an arresting work in its own right, with vigorous outer movements and
a gently alluring Pastorale incorporating Swiss tunes. The Concerto Grosso No.2 (1952) for string orchestra (with a
central quartet) is even more overtly neo-classical, austere and abstract.
The two Violin Sonatas (1920 and 1924, No.2 subtitled Poème mystique) have long been popular with violinists. All the
five string quartets have an emotional intensity and command of string
writing powerful enough to deserve a place in the repertoire; they use the
French cyclical structure, with movements sharing a motif, as in many of
Bloch's works. The String Quartet No.1 (1916) is violent
and lengthy, and was once greatly admired. The terse String Quartet No.2 (1945) is atonal, while the Str ing Quartet No.3 (1951-1952) is lighter and more joyful in feel
while being more concentrated in structure. The final two quartets (1953
and 1954) are introverted, spartan works, thoughtful and ethereal
(notwithstanding the strange off-key dance in No.4), tautly argued, not
immediately obvious but repaying close study. Perhaps the most successful
of these chamber works, consistent, powerful and immediate, is the Piano Quintet No.1 (1923). Using quarter-tones as an
expressive device to great effect, it moves from a driving, dark urgent
first movement, overlaid with soaring melodic lines, through a tortured
highly-charged central movement to a finale of a kind of impassioned
resolution, in music that is never allowed to stay still, and constantly
has exotic touches (high harmonics, swoops and sudden bursts). The angrier Piano Quintet No.2 (1957) has a haunting slow movement.
In all Bloch's music there is a sense of the rhapsodic, with little
suggestion of traditional thematic development, but he is at his best when
that feeling of freedom is allied to an internal logic of structure. His
overall tone has the strong emotional expression of reaching out of the
turbulence of humanity towards resolution. This essentially Romantic notion
will appeal to some more than others, and the relatively small number of
major works will probably ensure his music is left to the occasional
airing.
However, his influence, especially on American music, will endure through
the results of his extensive teaching, which included the post of director
of the Cleveland Institute of Music (1920-1925), and includedAntheil and Ses sions among his pupils.
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works include (75 published works):
- 3 symphonies (unnumbered, the last for trombone or cello and orch.); Sinfonia Breve
- 2 Concerto Grosso; violin concerto; Concerto Symphonique for piano and orch.; concertino for flute,
viola and string orch.; Proclamation for trumpet and orch.; Scherzo Fantastique for piano and orch.; Schelomo for
cello and orch.; Suite for viola and orch.;Suite Hébraïque for viola or violin and orch.;Suite Modale for flute and stings; Voice in the Wilderness for orch. with cello obbligato
- epic rhapsody America (with chorus); Evocations,Helvetia, Hiver-Printemps, In Memoriam, In the Night and other works for orch.
- 3 Suites for solo cello; 2 Suites for solo violin; From Jewish Life and Méditation Hébraïque for cello and
piano
- 2 sonatas and other works for violin and piano; Two Pieces for
viola and piano; Three Nocturnes for violin, cello and piano; 5
string quartets and other works for string quartet; 2 piano quintets
- sonata and other works for piano
- 6 Preludes and 4 Wedding Marches for organ
- Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service), Israel, and
other works for voices and orch.
- opera Macbeth
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recommended works:
Concerto Grosso No.1 (1925)
Concerto Grosso No.2 (1952)
Piano Quintet No.1 (1921-1923)
Piano Quintet No.2 (1957)
rhapsody for cello and orchestra Schelomo (1915)
String Quartet No.2 (1945)
String Quartet No.4 (1953)
String Quartet No.5 (1956)
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bibliography:
E. Bloch Biography and Comment, 1925
S.Bloch & I.Heskes Ernest Bloch, Creative Spirit: A program Source Book, 1976
D. Kushner Ernest Bloch and his Music, 1973
R. Strassburg Ernest Bloch, Voice in the Wilderness: a Biographical Study, 1977
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HONEGGER
Arthur
born 10th March 1892 at Le Havre
died 27th November 1955 at Paris
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Caught between his native German-speaking Switzerland and his regular
country of residence, France, and between the tug of modernism and the tow
of Romanticism, Honegger is now better known by name than by his music. It
is his general style that is currently out of fashion rather than his
abilities or accomplishments, and it seems likely that some of his works
will filter back into greater prominence as fashions change.
His earliest works showed the influence of the two major models of the day,
Wagner and Debussy. However, his studies
in Paris, and his return there after Swiss military service in 1916, led to
his association with movements reacting against these twin influences,
first as a member of `Les Nouveaux Jeunes' in 1918 (Auric, Poulenc, Roland-Manuel and Tailleferre),
and then (thanks to an article by Henri Collet) with the group known
universally as `Les Six' (1920), whose other members were Auric, Durey, Milhaud, Poulenc and
Tailleferre. However, the label was misleading, for Honegger was not in
sympathy with their musical mentor, Satie
, and although he occasionally worked with the group's intellectual mentor,
Jean Cocteau, and collaborated with other members of the group
(particularly Milhaud) on numerous films, these were incidental to the main
thrust of his music, and his occasional modernism was of a different hue.
The aesthetic of Paris café and jazz music of the 1920s and early 1930s was
alien to his background, although it is an indication of his wide-ranging
tastes and abilities that he could collaborate with Ibert in the Offenbachian trifle of an opera L'a iglon (1935), and sometimes echo jazz patterns (e.g. the last
movement of the Concertino for piano and orchestra,
1924).
The first work in which his individuality was established was the String Quartet No.1 (1916-1917), with a rigorous rhythmic
drive and polyphonic and contrapuntal techniques that echo Honegger's love
of Bach. From then on his music, for all its considerable diversity of
styles and influences, follows an essentially consistent pattern. The chief
characteristic is that of structural integrity and logic, the result of a
meticulous sense of craftsmanship. Sonata structures are regularly used, as
well as variation techniques and extensive thematic development (often in
sonata form with a return of the second subject before the first). The flow
is polyphonic, often emphasized by incisive rhythms; webs of melodic lines
(the melodies themselves long and flowing) or chordal structures interweave
in a 20th-century counterpart to Bach, also echoed by chorale elements. The
orchestration varies from the wildly savage and mechanistic to a
neo-classical simplicity. The emotional tone has three predominant
features: a sense of grandeur, a suggestion of mischief or fun (from the
grotesque to the macabre), and an underlying feeling of sombreness, or
tragedy (exemplified in the darker orchestral colours). The restraint that
is often a feature of his music is not just a temperamental trait or merely
a consequence of the logical craftsmanship, but also a result of the desire
to reach out to a wide audience.
Against this general structural pattern appears a temperamental contrast or
duality, overt in the earlier works, latent in the later. On the one hand
are simplicity and lyricism (and also gentle modal harmonies), on the other
aggressive rhythms, massive instrumentation, and complex polytonal
elaborations. The former is exemplified by the ImpressionistPastorale d'été (Summer Pastorale, 1920), the latter by Prélude pour `Le Tempête' (Prelude to `The Tempest',
1923), both for orchestra, and by the `mime-symphony'Horace victorieux, with echoes of St rauss and now largely forgotten. In subsequent works these
two traits co-exist.
Although he wrote extensively in all fields, his major works (and those
most likely to be encountered), fall into three areas: the short orchestral
pieces (mostly written in the 1920s), the large-scale quasi-dramatic works
(mostly written in the 1920s and 1930s), and the numbered symphonies (1930,
1942-1951). Such is the impact of the orchestral pieces, and their
conciseness and internal logic, that it seems surprising that they have not
held their place in the concert-hall. Pastorale d'été is a gentle
delight, as if trying to move away from Impressionism and still having it
caught by the coat-tails. Pacific 231 (1923) was once a cause célébre, and is still a stunning tour-de-force of motoric
depiction, inspired by a type of express steam railway locomotive (231
stands for the wheel configuration, classed by the British as Pacific). Its
unabashed futurism, far removed from Parisian models, was closer to the
Russian aesthetic of Stravinsky or Prokofiev, and the work was of enormous
influence, from the Russian Mosolov to the American Ant heil. It still stands as a touchstone to the understanding
of art in the 20th century. Rugby (premiered in the
interval of the England vs. France international rugby game of 1928) takes
the genre yet further, but musically the most impressive of these shorter
pieces is Prélude pour `La Tempête', with its wild, powerful and
violent orchestration and harmonic clashes.
In addition to operas and ballets, Honegger's dramatic works included
dramatic cantatas (large-scale `frescos') that created his reputation (with Pacific 231), and it is partly the popular decline of the
genre that has been responsible for the decline in Honegger's popularity.
The dramatic psalm Le Roi David (King David,
1921, reorchestrated for concert platform 1923), in 27 short sections in
three parts linked like other Honegger works by a narrator, succeeds by its
underlying simplicity (choruses often in only two parts, a sense of the
antique), by its mixture of styles (from quasi-Handel to Primitivism via
Impressionism, mixed with the aggression of some of the polytonal
choruses), and by the sincerity that shines through and successfully binds
them together. The dramatic oratorio/opera Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher
(Joan of Arc at the Stake, 1935, prelude added 1944), is equally
consistent, more demanding, and more powerful, offering a major opportunity
for an actress rather than a singer in the title role. The last of this
type of vocal work is an unusual Christmas cantata, Une cantata de Noël (1953), which is of considerably more depth than
most works of this type. While using carols woven into the general texture,
its moves from a sense of despair (with an unusual division between a
wordless, chordal chorus, and busier sections of the orchestra) to a
general sense of joy. For those looking for Christmas music, this would
make a welcome alternative to the usual offerings. Honegger's operatic
masterpiece is the 45-minute Antigone (1927), a
collaboration with Cocteau (after Sophocles). Honegger plays close
attention to the text, setting it syllabically (a single note being
assigned to each syllable), often with unexpected stresses. The result is a
white-hot work of relentless tension in both vocal and orchestral writing,
with scarcely a moment of repose. There are virtually no lyrical
aspirations at all, but as music drama it is concise and powerful. Single
orchestral colours often emerging for the unsettled orchestra to point up
the emotional tensions, and the chorus provides passages of climax that
serve to provide a breathing space from the flow of solo lines, if not from
the psychological anguish.
Of the five numbered symphonies, the under-rated Sym phony No.1 (1929-1930) is a good introduction to Honegger's styles
and concerns. The bleak Symphony No.2 (1942) for strings
with a trumpet chorale at the end (silent in the first performance in
occupied Paris) is not easily forgotten, its stark neo-classicism
unmistakable in intent, its closing chorale tremulously hopeful.Symphony No.3 (1945-1946) is subtitled Liturgique, referring to the mood and the movement titles rather
than any musical quotation. It is a protest at the barbarism of the times,
with a return to aggressive motoric rhythms and violence, an anguished but
moving slow movement, and an extraordinary epilogue of hope. The Symphony No.4 `Deliciae basilienses' (Delights of Basle,
1946) is a more relaxed work incorporating Swiss tunes, rhythmic but
pastoral, and not without its darker hues. The Symp hony No.5 (1951), subtitled Di tre re as each movement
ends on a D, is enigmatic, tragic and noble. The best of these symphonies
(Nos. 2, 3 & 5) are not especially easy to grasp, in spite of their
surface accessibility. Their scale seems more intimate that is customary
for the form and their idiom requires close concentration. But, with their
attendant extra-musical themes, they are powerful and thoughtful works,
worthy of a period that our art still prefers to forget.
Of his other works, the two Violin Sonatas (1916-1918,
1919), the sombre Cello Sonata (1920) and the String Quartet No.1 (1916-1917) are the most interesting
of the chamber music, while his numerous film scores include May erling (1935) and Pygmalion (1938). His strong
streak of pessimism is evident in the macabre subjects of some of the
ballets and works with voice.
Honegger was a noted music critic, and taught at the École Normale de
Musique in Paris. If his music can be criticized for eclecticism of style
and for over-meticulousness, there is no denying the sincerity of purpose
or effectiveness of his best works.
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works include:
- 5 numbered symphonies (No.3 Liturgique, No.4 Deliciaebasilienses, No.5 Di tre re); mime-symphony Horace victorieux
- cello concerto; Concerto da Camera for flute, English horn and
strings; piano concertino
- Chant de joie, 3 Mouvements symphoniques (No.1Pacific 231, No.2 Rugby), Pastorale d'été, Prélude pour `La Tempête' and others works for orch.
- cello sonata; clarinet sonatina; viola sonata; 2 violin sonatas; violin
sonatina; sonatina for two violins; 3 string quartets; Prélude et blues for harp quartet; 3 Petit suite for
various forces and other chamber music
- piano music
- many songs and song cycles
- stage oratorios Cris du monde and Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher; dramatic legend Nicolas de Flue;
dramatic psalm Le roi David; spectacle Les mille et une nuits (A Thousand and One Nights)
- 1 ballet-melodrama and 14 ballets including Skating Rink and one
collaboration with Tcherepnin
- operettas Les aventures du roi Pausole,Les petits cardinales; biblical opera Judith; operas Antigone and Charles le téméraire; opera in collaboration
with Milhaud L'aiglon; vaudeville La belle de Moudon
- 26 scores of incidental music; music for 8 radio plays; 43 film scores,
some in collaboration with Milhaud and other composers
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recommended works:
opera Antigone (1927)
dramatic psalm Le roi David (1921)
Pacific 231
(1923) for orchestra
Pastorale d'été
(1920) for orchestra
Prélude pour 'La Tempête'
(1923) for orchestra
Rugby
(1928) for orchestra
String Quartet No.1 (1916-1917)
Symphony No.2 (1942) for strings and trumpet
Symphony No.3 Liturgique (1946)
Symphony No.4 Deliciae Basiliensis (1946)
Symphony No.5 Di tre re (1951)
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bibliography:
A. Honegger Incantation aux fossiles, 1948
Je suis compositeur
, 1951 English trans. I am a Composer, 1966
A. Gauthier Arthur Honegger, 1957
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MARTIN
Frank
born 15th September 1890 at Geneva
died 21st November 1974 at Naarden, Holland
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The music of Frank Martin is slowly becoming recognised as a major musical
achievement of the 20th century, an intensely individual and personal voice
that is all the more extraordinary for its late development. Martin did not
evolve his own style until the completion of the oratorio Le vin herbé (The Doctored Wine) in 1941, when he was 51. In
marked contrast to his major Swiss contemporaries Bl och and Honegger (whose
successes came early), all his most valuable works were written after this
date, and the only 20th-century parallel is that of the Ja nácek. Like Janácek, Martin instigated no startling
innovations, but used elements of contemporary ideas to forge an idiom that
is so personal that he has had no imitators.
His works divide broadly into vocal works, mainly with orchestra and often
on religious subjects, and orchestral music, mostly for smaller forces;
there is very little piano music, and only a modest body of chamber music.
His hallmark is a wonderful lucidity, a lightness of feel, a transparency
of texture (often with very unusual instrumental combinations) that at its
best feels almost transcendental. There is little that is overtly dramatic
or exotic in colour - Martin's art is one of subtlety, which therefore
grows in stature on repeated acquaintance.
His earliest works reflect the duality of his country, being influenced
first by German Romanticism and Franck, and then after 1915 by the French
Impressionists. His search for an idiom that would satisfy him led
(1925-1932) to rhythmic exploration (oriental, Bulgarian and ancient
music), exemplified in Rhythms for orchestra (1926), and
to an interest in folk music. But at the end of this period he adopted the
12-tone principles of Schoenberg, notably
in the String Trio (1936); he was one of the first
composers outside Schoenberg's circle to do so. But the Pi ano Concerto No.1 (1933-1934, discussed below) showed how little
Martin sympathized with Schoenberg's aesthetic, for it is a dramatic,
quasi-Romantic work in which serialism is used only for the construction of
some of the thematic ideas. As his subsequent music showed, Martin was not
by temperament a serial or 12-tone composer.
Instead, he realised that the kind of harmonies and changing harmonic
patterns that he was looking for (tonal pathways in an atonal landscape)
could arise from the interaction of 12-tone principles and the traditional
major/minor triads. Thus melodic lines, constructed on the 12-tone
principle, could have the anchor of an usually static bass. Alternatively
the row could be the bass-line beneath traditional harmony. This use of
serial thematic material is the antithesis of Schoenberg's objectives, and
ensured that Martin remained an essentially tonal composer, emphasizing
harmonic concerns. The work with which he established this style was the
secular dramatic oratorio Le vin herbé ( The Doctored Wine, 1938-1941) for twelve solo voices, seven
strings and piano, and based on a modern novel treatment of the medieval
Tristan legend. Various voices individually take 12-note themes, and the
tonality, briefly established by the characteristic triads in the
accompaniment or by the bass line, is constantly in motion. The story
follows the legend closely, with its medieval twists and turns and
symbolism, and is dramatic enough to make it virtually an opera without
staging. Martin's beautiful score, sometimes restrained and formal
(expressed in the often homophonic choral writing), sometimes broadening
from this base into a more passionate expression of emotions, captures that
sense of distancing inherent in such legends. In both literary style and
musical treatment, it is an antidote to Wagner's more celebrated treatment
of the same tale, and if on first acquaintance it seems restrained, the
virtues of its subtle scoring and exact evocation of the spirit of the
original soon weave their own spell.
Le vin herbé
initiated a series of vocal works that developed its idiom. It was followed
by the dark and hauntingly expressive Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke ( Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke, 1942-1943,
also known as Cornet Rilke). The stream of the alto vocal line,
with its feel of the inflections of emotional speech, is harmonically
supported by a sparsely-used chamber orchestra that typically includes a
piano. The eventual drama is all the more powerful for the restraint. Jedermann (Everyman, 1943 orchestrated 1949) for
baritone and piano or orchestra continued the style, again with
chromatically-shifting triads. The four parts of the short oratorio In Terra Pax (1944), for soloists, two choruses and orchestra,
representing the Four Horses of the Apocalypse, express the despair of
wartime, the joys of earthly peace, human reconciliation, and the joys of
heavenly peace. The two choirs are often used antiphonally, the final
`sanctus' is particularly beautiful, and there is a haunting moment when
the tenor cries "Watchman, what of the night" over sustained high strings.
Martin then turned to the concept of a Passion work. The lengthy oratorio Golgotha (1945-1948) for soloists, chorus and orchestra,
is divided into seven `pictures' of the events of the Passion, divided by
settings of the meditations of St.Augustine. It is rather a lean work,
regularly allowing the intimate story-telling to be carried on the barest
of melodic textures, with many moments of affecting beauty. It has the feel
of something to be brought out for a special occasion, and those unfamiliar
with Martin's idiom may prefer to turn to the earlier works or theRequiem first. The scenic oratorio Le mystère de la Nativité (1957-1959), based on part of a
15th-century mystery play, is of almost operatic dimensions, and was
intended to have stage elements. Pilate (1964) for
soloists, chorus and orchestra, is a cantata drawn from the same mystery
play cycle. The sense of restraint, of the exploration of the detailed and
subtle meaning of a text rather than its immediate outward effect
culminated in the sombre but moving Requiem (1971-1972)
for soloists, chorus, organ and orchestra, whose lines swell from a grave
contemplation into passionate expression or luminous soft held major
chords, with gripping unearthly orchestral sonorities, and with snarling
percussion and half-spoken vocal lines in opening of the `Dies Irae'.
Martin transferred the ideas initiated in Le vin herbé to
the orchestra in his most popular work, the Petite symphonie concertante (1945). The instrumentation
(harpsichord, harp, piano and two string orchestras) is unusual, as with
many of Martin's later works, setting the kind of technical problem that
inspired him, and gaining the clarity needed to express the harmonic feel
and to create a matching transparency of timbre. In the same vein is the
delightful and beautiful Concerto for Harpsichord and Small Orchestra (1952), whose rocking
opening was inspired by the waves of the North Sea. In both these works the
use of rows in the opening material, the harmonies (minor thirds
predominant in the Harpsichord Concerto) and the cast of the
melodic lines give a darker hue to tonal base. This contrasts with the
other aspects of the style: the lucid orchestration, each instrument finely
placed; the rhythmic verve founded on emphatic `walking' bass lines; and
the often jaunty expression. The resulting impression is of a number of
layers of emotions occurring simultaneously; but technically this duality
of idiom is so perfectly integrated that those emotions appear as different
faces of the same coin, and it is this holistic completeness that makes
Martin's mature idiom so effective. The
Concerto for Seven Wind Instruments, Timpani, Percussion and String
Orchestra
(1949) is more rumbustious, allocating different ideas to each instrument
in dialogue in the lively first movement, and making full use of the
contrasting timbres and sonorities of the solo instruments. The middle
movement takes on the mantle of a passionate slow march, with eerie colour
combinations in the orchestration, while the finale has a Parisian bounce
and a lively series of highlights for each soloist, with a return of the
march. The proportions of the whole work, which lasts about 18 minutes,
seem perfectly suited both to its material and its orchestral composition,
a modern equivalent to the delights of the 18th-century classical concerto.
A similar clarity pervades the Violin Concerto
(1950-1951). The Études (1956) for string orchestra
maintain the general idiom, while concentrating on various techniques that
justify the title. A prelude for the whole string orchestra opens the work.
The first study passes chromatic lines between string voices, in the second
bows are discarded entirely, the third, for violas and cellos, is slow and
expressive, and the last opens with a double fugue with accompaniment,
turns to a chorale, and reverts to the fugue. Such is the skill of the
writing, there is not a hint of academicism throughout the work, and the
technical tricks serve the expressive content. Martin's religious awareness
and the refinement of instrumental texture combine in the suite Polyptyque (1972-1973) for violin and two string
orchestras, being a series of musical images reflecting the Passion of
Christ. The writing is more consciously lyrical than in the works of the
1940s, with soaring lines for the soloist, and paradoxically it sounds more
old-fashioned and less finely shaped than those earlier works. The operas Der Sturm (The Tempest, 1952-1955, based on
Shakespeare's play) and Monsieur de Pourceaugnac (1961-1962, based
on Molière) failed to establish a place in the repertoire, although the
orchestral overture to Der Sturm is sometimes heard on its own.
Well worth hearing it is, too, tone-painting a rocking sea-scape with
delicate orchestration and lyrical moments and rhythmic effects strongly
reminiscent of Britten.
In addition to these orchestral works, there are a series of rhapsodic Ballads for solo instrument and orchestra, cast in one-movement
forms divided into sections. Brilliant effects characterize the Ballade for Flute, String Orchestra and Piano (1939, orchestrated
1941), which was originally written as a competition set work. The Ballade for Piano and Orchestra (1939) is in the nature of a
discursive conversation piece, the soloist sometimes providing arpeggio
commentary, at other times taking the lead. The Ballade for Trombone and Orchestra (1940) provides a rare
concertante opportunity for the trombone, while the much later Ballade for Viola, Wind Instruments and Percussion (1972) uses the
harp and the harpsichord percussively, and is a more delicate and ethereal
work, with lyrical writing for the solo instrument. The two piano concertos
span a major part of Martin's compositional career. The P iano Concerto No.1 (1933-1934) disappeared from the repertoire
after its initial success, but it deserves better. The intimate feel of the
later concertos is evident, but the fusion of 12-tone elements and a tonal
base is less complete and less satisfactory. Rhythmically alive, it has a
long slow orchestral introduction that foreshadows later works, and
includes a 12-tone row taken up by the piano on its entry. The piano
writing is often florid, a remnant from more Romantic idioms, except when
the influence of 12-tone technique twists the melodic lines into angular
shapes. The finale combines the infectiously boisterous with a still, calm
lyricism. At the end of his career, Martin produced a work to match the
interest and delicacy of the earlier concertos. The Pi ano Concerto No.2 (1968-1969) is not so obviously immediate as
those earlier works, but at the same time seems to reforge many of his
earlier concerns: a bouncy jauntiness, moments of discursive writing for
the soloist, an infectious sense of the delight in instrumentation, a jazzy
moment for saxophone. The restrained beauty of the second movement is built
in the form of a passacaglia on a 12-note row, but again the use of 12-tone
elements and the technical facility is totally integrated into the
expressive content, which has the assured luminosity of old age.
Martin's achievement was to fuse many of the sound-patterns that had been
realised through 12-tone techniques with a predominantly tonal idiom. In
this fusion of a new aural experience and an older tradition he was perhaps
ahead of his time, without gaining the kind of attention that a pure
experimenter would command. But few have married the two so successfully
and naturally, or forged such a personal, if often self-effacing idiom. He
is primarily a composer of intimate reflection rather than display or
power, even at more emphatic moments giving a rather demure sheen to his
expression. As such, he is not a composer to grab the listener by the
scruff of the neck; rather his best works demand contemplation, a
willingness to savour, and the desire to enter a very personal musical
world.
Martin moved from Switzerland to the Netherlands in 1946, and taught at the
Cologne Hochschule für Musik (1950-1957), where Sto ckhausen was among his pupils.
---------------------------------------
works include:
- symphony; Symphonie burlesque sur des thêmes savoyards; Petit symphonie concertante for harpsichord, harp, piano and two
string orchestras
- cello concerto; harpsichord concerto; 2 piano concertos; violin concerto;
concerto for 7 wind instruments, wind quintet, trumpet, trombone,
percussion and strings; 6 Ballades for various soloists and orch.; Trois danses for oboe, harp and strings; Sonata de Chiesa
for viola d'amore and string orch.; Polyptyque: six images de la Passion du Christ for violin and 2
string orch.
- Études for string orch. and other orch. works
- 2 violin sonatas; string trio; string quartet; piano quintet; Rhapsody for 2 violins, 2 violas, and double-bass
- Fantaisie sur des rhythmes flamenco and 8 Preludes for
piano; works for two pianos
- Guitare for guitar (also versions for piano, and for orch.)
- Jedermann, Maria-Triptychon,Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke, Five Songs of Ariel and other song-cycles and songs, mostly with
orch.
- cantata Pilate; Mass for double chorus; oratoriosGolgotha, La mystère de la nativité, In terra pax and Le vin herbé; Requiem
- ballets Die blaue Blume and Das Märchen vom Aschenbrödel
- operas Monsieur de Pourceaugnac and Der Sturm
---------------------------------------
recommended works:
Concerto for Harpsichord and Small Orchestra (1951-1952)
Concerto for Seven Wind Instruments, Timpani, Percussion and String
Orchestra (1949)
Études
(1955-1956) for string orchestra
oratorio Golgotha (1945-1948)
oratorio In terra pax (1944)
song cycle Lay of Love and Death of Cornet Rilke (1942-1943)
Maria Triptychon
(1967-1968) for soprano, violin and orchestra
Petit Symphonie Concertante
(1945)
Piano Concerto No.2 (1968-1969)
Requiem
(1971-1972)
Violin Concerto (1950-1951)
---------------------------------------
bibliography:
B. Martin Frank Martin ou la réalité du rêve, 1973 (in French)
---------------------------------------
SCHOECK
Othmar
born 1st September 1886 at Brunnen
died 8th March 1957 at Zurich
---------------------------------------
Very gradually the outstanding works of a neglected minor master of the
20th century, Othmar Schoeck, are being appreciated outside Germany (he was
German-speaking) and his native Switzerland. There would seem to be three
reasons for this neglect. First, his antecedents are in the final flush of
Romanticism, that expressive introversion brought to fruition byMahler, the earlier works ofSchoenberg, and such composers as Zemlinsky, at a time when musical
attention was directed to reactions against Romanticism. Second, his art
(unlike that of the composers just mentioned) has its foundations in that
of the miniaturist, never a popular area. Lastly, his melodic invention,
while perfectly suited to his idiom, is not of the type that is instantly
memorable. Broadly, his music divides into two periods, that before the
First World War, when his idiom was lyrically Romantic, its emotions
essentially sunny though tinged with a bitter-sweet melancholy, and that
after, when the harmonic idiom became increasingly chromatic and
occasionally almost Expressionist, the central emotional concerns the
insubstantiality of life combined with a wonder at the natural world.
Although he composed a number of non-vocal works his primary achievement is
in music for the voice, expressed in over 400 songs. His fusion of music
and the underlying sense of words is uncommonly close, a last flowering of
the German Romantic tradition of Lied (hence the lack of necessity for
memorable melodies: the music rarely relies merely on surface colour). The
art of Lieder writing requires the skills of the miniaturist - the
completeness of form within a short time-frame, and the necessity of
accuracy of detail - and in this Schoeck excels. But he also wished to
express human concerns on a grander scale, and larger emotions than could
be contained in individual songs or a small collection. He therefore
evolved lengthy song-cycles, expanding the accompaniment to include a
string quartet, chamber orchestra, and full orchestra. Vocal lines do not
have obvious melodic beauty, but rather follow the inflections and rhythms
of the text, lengthened at heightened moments. Underneath this,
accompaniments regularly have a distinct independence, the support to the
meaning of the text usually achieved through harmonic interchange. Time and
time again in his songs a slight harmonic change subtly points up the text
or shifts the tone. The chromaticism is usually expressed through the
melodic lines rather than in dissonant clashes, and is inherent to
Schoeck's idiom, rather than being used for colour effects. The combination
of all these elements creates a distinctive lyrical beauty.
The most inspired of these song-cycles set the Swiss poet Gottfried Keller
(1819-1890), whose work remained an abiding influence on the composer while
inspiring Schoeck's contemporaries Delius
(A Village Romeo and Juliet) and Zemlinsky ( Kleider machen Leute). In doing so, Schoeck developed the
one aspect of late-Romanticism that has continued to fascinate the 20th
century, the relationship between the individual psychology and the
transcendental, and its concomitant, the fear of death. The first Keller
cycle, Gaselen (Ghazels - love poems, 1923) is
coloured by the accompaniment (flute, bass clarinet, trumpet, percussion
and piano) in a combination of satire and the ecstasy of love. His
masterpiece is Lebendig Begraben (Buried Alive, 1926) for
baritone and orchestra, an extensive cycle of the poetry of despair, of
being buried alive, of winter, and of the extended metaphor of the trapped
mind. Setting fourteen of Keller's poems, the cycle describes the
imaginings and the memories of the buried man, who hears the clock strike
and the sexton arguing. After the explosive opening, with an emotional
power to match that of Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony, the tone is of
gradual acceptance. The orchestral writing (which includes organ and piano)
is constantly shifting its colours and forces, often in chamber-sized
combinations. The poetry itself is unusual and memorable; with Schoeck's
passionate and sensitive setting it is unforgettable. Unter Sternen (Under Stars, 1941-1949) for lower voice
and piano sets twenty-five Keller songs divided into two parts, the first
describing the experience of the night, the second contemplating ideas of
death, into which the metaphor of light and dark is interwoven. The
nineteenth song, In der Trauer, has a Schubertian delicacy and
simplicity. In Das Stille Leuchten op.60 (1946) for lower
voice and piano Schoeck turned to the poetry of another Swiss poet of
solitude, Ferdinand Meyer. The twenty-eight songs are divided into two
groups, the first titled `Mystery and Parable', the second `Mountain and
Sea', thus moving from abstract to concrete images, a movement that clearly
attracted Schoeck in his choice of poetry. Much of the cycle is soft and
delicate, with simple accompaniments to the very fluid and solo writing,
occasionally swelling up to moments of passion. Of his other cycles, the
marvellous Notturno op.47 (1931-1934) for baritone and
string quartet is divided into five movements on a symphonic scale. All the
poems are by Lenau, except the last, by Keller. The first part sets four
Lenau songs pivoting between yearning and thwarted desire in nature and in
human life, the pivot being a long interlude for the string quartet, ended
by a magical entry of the voice with the words "The dark clouds hang down."
The second part is a nightmare, the string quartet brilliantly describing
the restlessness of the dreamer before he awakes and retells the dream,
with Expressionist extremes of vocal writing. Life as illusion forms the
theme of the third part, expressed through nature and through fears; the
fourth is dank and slow, contemplating faded love and death, with a
haunting Mahlerian change of harmony on the last word. The final part
considers solitude, with bitter-sweet textures from the string quartet
introducing an epilogue of a Keller poem contemplating the Big Dipper in
the night sky. The structure of this song-cycle is masterful, both in the
overall layout and in the complex internal connections of the poetry
chosen. The string quartet writing is rich and plastic, clearly drawn from
the sounds of the stream that forms an important image in Part I; the vocal
writing encompasses the whole range of Schoeck's expressive idiom.
Schoeck was also an important composer of stage works, whose achievement in
this field is starting to receive a wider appreciation. The central theme
in his operas and stage works (three operas, a singspiel, a
pantomime scene, a stage cantata, and a dramatic ballad) is that of an
exploration of the feminine aspect of humanity, both in the relationship
between the sexes, but also of the feminine within the masculine (what
Jungians would term the `anima'), and his various stage works explore
different aspects of this theme. His operatic masterpiece is the `music
drama' Penthesilea (1924-1925), to a libretto by the
composer after Kleist, a tight psychological drama where the masculine and
feminine principles are combined with the motivations of love and hate when
the Amazon warrior queen Penthesilea meets Achilles. The setting is
through-composed to create a music drama; the music mines the psychological
layers in rich orchestral textures, sometimes Impressionistic, almost
always sensuousness, with dramatic outbursts and very free flowing vocal
lines. Massimilla Doni (1935), based on a Balzac story
set in Venice in the 1830s, is marred by its libretto by Armin Rüeger; Venus (1920), based on Mérimée, is reportedly more
effective.
Of his orchestral works, the lovely, rich Concerto quasi una fantasia op.21 (1911-1912, usually referred to
as the Violin Concerto) for violin and orchestra
represents Schoeck's pre-First World War Romanticism, with a beguiling
violin idea in the passionate first movement, yearning tumult with a touch
of the funereal in the central movement, and a weighty finale that turns
into a lively headlong tumble with a ruminative interlude. This is such an
attractive and energetic concerto, with considerable opportunities for the
soloist, that it should be removed from obscurity. He did not turn again to
the concerto form until 35 years later. The Concerto for Cello and String Orchestra op.61 (1947) is too long
and varied in quality, but has some beautiful moments reminiscent of the
late works of Strauss. More effective is
the autumnal Concerto for Horn and String Orchestra op.65 (1951),
the flowing horn lines like a lieder voice, Falstaffian at times. The
beautiful and equally mellow `pastoral intermezzo' So mmernacht op.58 (1945) for string orchestra is in again in a
late-Romantic idiom, its programmatic description of harvesting at night
inspired by a Keller poem; this would make an interesting companion piece
to Strauss's Metamorphosen. The three of
the four movements of the Cello Sonata (1957) that were
left complete on Schoeck's death are not of the same quality.
Schoeck's achievements will never garner a wide public. But for those who
enjoy the combination of poetry of high quality and the added depth of
musical setting of great power and understanding, it may well come as a
revelation. His general late-Romantic idiom, like that of Bax, is one that is now being appreciated
once again, and it is time that Schoeck took his place as one of the
specialized masters of the 20th century.
---------------------------------------
works include:
- concerto for cello and string orch.; concerto for horn and string orch.;
violin concerto (quasi una fantasia)
- Praeludium for orch.; Sommernacht and Suite in A major for string orch.
- bass clarinet sonata; 2 violin sonatas; 2 string quartets; piano music
- nearly 400 songs including song cycles Der Postillon (with
chorus and orch.), Eichendorff-Lieder, Elegie (with chamber
orch.), Gaselen (with 6 instruments), Hafis-Lieder,Das holde Bescheiden, Lebendig Begraben, Liederzyklus,Notturno (with string quartet), Der Sänger,Spielmannsweisen, Das stille Leuchten, Unter Sternen and Das Wandsbecker Liederbuch
- dramatic cantata Vom Fischer und syner Fru ( Of the Fisherman and his Wife); Dithyrambe for double
chorus and orch.; Für ein Gesangfest for male voices and orch.; Trommelschage (Drum Taps) for chorus and orch.
- operetta Erwin und Elmire; operasDon Ranudo de Colibrados, Das Schloss Dürande, Massimilla Doni, Penthesilea, and Venus
---------------------------------------
recommended works:
song cycle Lebendig Begraben op.40 (1926) for baritone and
orchestra
opera Penthesilea op.39 (1924-1925)
song cycle Notturno op.47 (1933)
Sommernacht
op.58 (1945) for string orchestra
song cycle Unter Sternen op.55 (1941-1943)
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