The Schicksalslied, Op. 54 (1871), by Johannes Brahms is a setting of Friederich Holderlin’s poem of the same name. It is one of three secular poems Brahms set for mixed chorus and orchestra, the others being Nanie, Op. 82 (1881), and the Gesang der Parzen, Op. 89 (1883). All three present a view of mankind and of fate that is supposed to be foreign to Brahms, the composer of The German Requiem and the motets of Opuses 29, 37, 74, and 110. The Schicksalslied has received the most attention partly because of its almost ethereal ending: the work concludes with the orchestra repeating the opening introduction. At one time Brahms intended the chorus to repeat the opening couplet of text as the orchestra performed the final measures. He allowed himself to be persuaded that this ending was not possible. As he commented in a letter, “The poem is not one from which a patchwork can be made.”
Holderlin’s poem consists of three stanzas of blank verse contrasting the conditions of celestial immortals and mankind. The first-two stanzas deal with the immortals, the third with humanity. If is the juxtaposition and the abrupt ending which have caused the poem to be considered dark, pessimistic, or bitter.
Brahms’s setting of the poem demonstrates his usual combination of careful treatment of poetic text and musical intensification of mood. Brahms set the poem as two large sections of music. The first, Langsam, comprises stanzas one and two; the second, Allegro, is stanza three. The orchestral introduction to which Brahms returned for his coda is an integral part of the first section in tempo, mood, and musical material. The Langsam sections are approximately twice the duration of the Allegro, retaining the structural proportions of Holderlin’s poem. The contrast
between the two musical sections is heightened by the fact that they are in different keys: E-flat major for the immortals and C minor for mankind.
READ the entire article.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.