“Twelve Songs” by Zemlinsky arranged for Soprano Solo, SATB Chorus, and Piano or Chamber Orchestra

1. Abduction (Entführung) – Stefan George
2. Summer (Sommer) – Kalidasa
3. Spring (Frühling) – Kalidasa
4. Now Is the Time (Jetzt ist die Zeit) – Kalidasa
5. The Rejected (Die Verschmähte) – Amaru
6. The Autumn Wind (Der Wind des Herbstes) – Kalidasa
7. Misery (Elend) – Langston Hughes
8. Harlem Dancer (Harlem Tänzerin) – Claude McKay
9. African Dance (Afrikanischer Tanz) – Langston Hughes
10.  Give Me a Song Again (Gib ein Lied mir wieder)– Stefan George
11. The Time of Rain (Regenzeit) – Kalidasa
12. Wanderer’s Nightsong (Wandrers Nachtlied) – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I wrote my 1993 doctoral dissertation based on this set of songs. Nearly all of Zemlinsky’s music entered the Public Domain in 2012. In 2017–2018, I completed a newly edited piano/vocal score which includes my own English translations. I also orchestrated the songs and created versions of them for soprano solo and SATB chorus. Copyright issues related to several African-American song texts—in German translation only—prevented me from making these songs available sooner. Those issues were ironed-out in 2022, so I am now pleased to make my editions and arrangements available for performance. Links to watermarked PDFs of the four scores appear below.  Please contact me via my website to request performance materials: 

Available Editions:

• Piano/Vocal Score (soprano solo and piano) – link to a watermarked PDF

• Piano/Choral Score (soprano solo, SATB chorus, and piano; each song is also available separately – see below) – link to a watermarked PDF

• Full Orchestral Score for the vocal version – link to a watermarked PDF study score

• Full Orchestral Score for the choral version – link to a watermarked PDF study score

• Instrumental Parts that work with both versions

Instrumentation – Chamber Orchestra:

Flute/Piccolo
Oboe/English Horn
Clarinet in B-flat/optional Soprano Saxophone in B-flat in songs 7–9
Bassoon

2 Horns in F
Trumpet in B-flat
Trombone
Tuba

Percussion

(Glockenspiel, Suspended Cymbal, Wind Chimes, Bass Drum, Timpani, Tom-toms [4]) 
Keyboard (Celesta/Piano)
Harp

Strings

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Duration:

ca. 17:00