Lecture: SINGET! German composers
by Audrey Wong
Tonight's lecture is inspired by the upcoming Motion Picture Academy Awards presentation. Talk about apples and oranges - how can one compare a blood & guts period macho sandal epic (set in ancient Rome), an ethereal other-worldly spiritual art/action film (set in China), a gritty frank hyper real-life drama (set in Mexico and the US), a down-to-earth local-hero feel-good story (set in Southern California), and a warm magical tingly sexy-romantic fairytale (set in France)?
Well, we are performing a program of music by German composers. Isn't this a nice homogeneous group? NOT! Our concert - and this lecture - will illustrate the "diversity" in this seemingly narrowly-defined genre.
Although we may pick a "favorite" tonight, we don't have to decide who's The Best on the program. I will highlight some of the differences between these composers and in the spirit of the Academy Awards declare each of them a "winner" in some unique categories. Proceeding chronologically:
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) is the only woman composer on tonight's program. She was likely the only recognized woman composer back in her 12th century. Hildegard lost out to Schütz for the "oldest composer" title, living a life of 81 years compared to Schütz's 87; but she easily wins as "Most Interesting Character." All of our other composers had musical backgrounds - even the academic Schütz, who originally trained to be a lawyer. Hildegard was a clairvoyant who saw her first vision when she was 3 years old. Her visions were accompanied by illness, which led her parents (members of the nobility) to seek refuge in a monastery for their handicapped daughter.
She entered the cloistered life at the age of 8, when she was given as a companion to a noblewoman named Jutta von Sponheim. Jutta had renounced the world and chosen to live as a recluse in a cell (a very comfortable cell, built by her father) adjacent to a Benedictine cloister near Mainz. Hildegard was enclosed with Jutta. Other daughters of local nobility were sent to the cloister, and Jutta's hermitage grew into a small convent. This community of women provided Hildegard her first experience in musical production because the sisters could perform the divine office themselves. Before that, Jutta and Hildegard depended on the monks for that service. Hildegard took the veil at age 15 and at age 38, upon Jutta's death, became abbess of the community. This was in 1136.
A few years later, in 1141, Hildegard experienced a flash of blinding light accompanied by a voice from heaven, calling her to record and relate what she saw and heard in her visions. Thus began her writings on many subjects - not only religions themes but also natural history, medicine, and lyric poetry - which were read so far and wide. She had never studied music or musical notation, but in the 1140s began to compose music. Other composers may have worked for dukes and princes, Hildegard became such a celebrity that she consulted with popes and monarchs.
Her fame drew so many followers to her convent that she relocated to a larger facility, and even opened a second branch nearby. Between 1158 through 1170 - beginning when she was 60 years old, and after she had already spent over 50 years in the cloister - she undertook a series of preaching journeys to monastic communities as far as 120 miles away. This was an astonishing feat for any woman of such advanced age, not to mention one who had had a history of sickness throughout her life.
Hildegard of Bingen is our only composer who was nominated for sainthood. Although she has not been officially canonized by the Church (they have very stringent requirements) in 1324 Pope John XXII gave permission for her "solemn and public cult." Catholic dioceses in Germany celebrate Hildegard's feast on September 17, the anniversary of her death.
Moving right along ... Jakob Handl (1550-1591) takes the title of the "Least German" of our German composers. Of course this begs the question "What determines German? This discussion is enough for an entire lecture by itself. After my research took me all the way back to proto-Germanic peoples dating from 1000 BC, moving down from Scandinavia to the shores of the Baltic, near the mouth of the Vistula (now northern Poland), I was halfway considering turning this lecture into a mini-anthropology/ geography lesson. The complexity of such an exposition discouraged me. But here are some bullets of general information:
By "German" we mean German-speaking.
The "German" nation that we can easily find on a world map today didn't really exist until the latter half of the 19th century, with the establishment of the 2nd Reich in 1871. At that time, Austria was excluded from the German federation.
Up until then the boundaries of the German empire were very elastic. At the height of the First Reich, the medieval years from the mid-10th through the mid-13th century, "Germany" included the eastern part of France, all of Italy, part of Yugoslavia, Switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and part of Poland.
Until the establishment of nationalism in the late 19th century, citizens identified with their local territory - they were Saxons, Prussians, Bohemians, Austrians, Slavs, and so on.
We included Jakob Handl in the category of German musicians. He was born in Carniola, in Slovenia (the part of Yugoslavia just below Austria) which was at that time under the reign of the Hapsburgs - the Austrian family who held the imperial throne of the German empire for several centuries. Some music historians argue that Handl should be considered Slovenian (because of his birthplace) or Bohemian (because he composed his greatest works in Prague). The fact is, he operated in what was then Germany. We name him the "Least German" because most of his works are in the Latin language. Moreover, his technique of composition is a fusion of Netherland and Venetian styles. He is often identified by his Latinized name "Jacobus Gallus."
Our next composer, Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612), takes the title of the "Most Under-rated Today." Hassler was one of the first to follow what became a century-long tradition of German musicians studying in Italy. At age 22 he left Nüremburg for Venice, where he became a pupil of Andrea Gabrieli and a fellow student of Giovanni Gabrieli. He held prestigious positions - was even wooed by the sponsor of Heinrich Schütz - but stayed with his employers, who renewed his contract. (Just like major-league sports.) He worked for powerful patrons in Augsburg and later in Dresden. He was also a professional organist who diversified his trade by venturing into instrument building. He and his musical brothers Jakob and Kaspar were ennobled, granted a coat of arms, and more importantly granted the privilege of copyright by the emperor. His compositions appeared in the most prominent anthologies. His Latin works are considered among the finest German compositions of his time.
He had a brilliant career yet today is one of our lesser-known composers, certainly not a household name. He's sort of like a ballplayer who is extremely skilled, successful and popular in his day, maybe even gets elected to the Hall of Fame; but who is forgotten over time because he didn't do anything spectacularly memorable like hit 70 homeruns in a season or let a ball slip through his legs in a critical World Series game. Hans Leo Hassler - "Most Under-rated Today."
Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) is the oldest composer on the program, dying at the age of 87. He claims the "Longest Career" distinction tonight, and we also recognize him as the "Most Widely Traveled" musician. Schütz followed the example of Hassler and traveled to Venice, where he studied with Giovanni Gabrieli from 1609-1613. He returned to Germany and worked as court organist at Kassell then moved to Dresden where he eventually became the director of the largest and most important musical establishment of Protestant Germany.
Considered the greatest German composer of his century, his first published compositions were Italian madrigals. He was clearly an Italophile in his work - adopting the techniques of Gabrieli and later of Monteverdi, while successfully achieving a perfect balance between the Italian style and the Lutheran polyphonic tradition.
He took many trips abroad - returning to Venice in 1628 and making three trips to Copenhagen between 1633 and 1644. Although another composer on our program, Siegfried Strohbach, actually surpasses Schütz in the number of statute miles traveled, we still declare Schütz the "Most Widely-Traveled" musician because his journeys - all in the line of duty - were remarkable treks in that they took place when Germany was being torn apart by the Thirty Years War.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is named "The Most Under-Rated In His Time." One of the greatest composers (some say THE greatest) of the Baroque period, Bach is known to all beginning music students as the first of the Three Bs. Johann Sebastian Bach - what do we immediately think of when we hear his name - Leipzig? Fugue? Well-Tempered Clavier? Twenty children? We recognize that famous E.G. Haussman portrait of a fine, upstanding, serious, rather conservative-looking older gentleman with the white ripply hair that looks like - well, that looks like a Bach wig.
In our day J.S. Bach is famous, celebrated ... immortal, even. And yet, in his day, his situation was very different. He was under-appreciated, overworked, and underpaid. He moved from job to job, looking to improve his situation. It is ironic that Bach's illustrious present-day reputation is so identified with Leipzig because when the town fathers hired Herr Bach, they felt they had been unsuccessful in getting the best candidate and had to "settle for a mediocre one".
After Bach's death much of his estate went to his adult sons. His widow and her three unmarried daughters were reduced to poverty and lived off meager handouts from the town of Leipzig. Some of Bach's manuscripts were sold as cheese wrap. As for his music, the fugal style of composition that Bach had perfected declined immediately as it was replaced by the simpler works of the Art Galant. For more than seven decades Bach's music was virtually forgotten, until Felix Mendelssohn sparked a Bach revival in 1829 by staging the first performance of the St. Matthew Passion since its premiere.
Plug: Be sure to attend our performance of the St. Matthew Passion on June 9th or 10th. Details are inside your programs.
Bach is also the winner of the "Most Fuddy-Duddy" or "Non Rolling Stone" title. Of all our composers, including Abbess Hildegard, Bach traveled the least. Except for his famous 200-mile journey to Lübeck, to hear Buxtehude play - when he was a callow 20-year-old, Bach's range of operation was confined to a rather small area of East Germany. The distance between his birthplace and his deathplace was about 100 miles - about one roundtrip between Palo Alto and Berkeley.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) takes the award for the composer who's life is "Best Suited For A Movie Biography." Being born in Hamburg, he was actually Saxon; but after leaving school he certainly led the life of a Bohemian, eking out a living playing in sailors' taverns and dancing saloons. His career took off at age 20, when he toured North Germany with Hungarian Gypsy violinist Eduard Reményi. He composed his first substantial work and was introduced to famous and influential musicians, including Robert and Clara Schumann. We know of the great mental turmoil he suffered over his love for Clara, turmoil which increased with Robert Schumann's madness and attempted suicide. After Robert's death, Brahms and Clara never married and he remained a lifelong bachelor.
Is there anyone here who remembers the movie "Song of Love"? It was made in 1947, with Robert Walker, Paul Henried, and Katherine Hepburn as Brahms, Robert and Clara Schumann. If someone does produce a new film about Brahms's life, such a film would certainly win the Oscar for best soundtrack.
Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) wins hands-down as the "Most Under-rated by Himself." He was born in Austria, before Austria was severed from the German federation. At age 13 he was sent to live in a monastery, after the death of his father in 1837. Peasant background, together with orphan status and intense religious environment shaped a personality that was simple, naive, trustful, deferential, pious, and insecure. He constantly sought father-figures to help him. A perpetual student, he had a mania for taking exams and gaining diplomas or testimonials, as if he needed official confirmation of his skills and talent.
He was a celebrated organist/improviser, winning acclaim in Austria and abroad. As a composer he suffered because his large orchestral works were always compared with Wagner. He was extremely sensitive to and distracted or disoriented by remarks from music critics and some of his "helpful" colleagues who suggested ways to make his works more popular. Fame as a composer came to him only late in life, at age 60. Only in his later years was he recognized with grants and honorary degrees, such endorsements as were of utmost importance to him.
Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian, AKA Max, Reger (1873-1916) is named the "Most German" because he was influenced by the most German of influences. As a young student his models were the Three Bs - Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. At age 15, he visited the Bayreuth Festival and came away resolved to devote himself to music. Considered the most important organ composer after Bach, he felt it was his duty to carry on the tradition of Bach, Mendelssohn and Schumann.
His productive years were spent in Wiesbaden, Munich, Leipzig, and Meiningen. But unlike his models he traveled more extensively abroad; concert tours took him to the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Hungary, Russia and England.
Hugo Distler (1908-1942) could have taken the "Most German" title but he didn't live long enough. He clearly claims the "Shortest Life" award - dying at age 34, a year younger than Mozart, the most famous of early burnouts.
Distler's brief musical career was certainly easy to follow on map - he was active in Nüremburg, Leipzig, Lübeck, Stuttgart, and Berlin. His productive period was disrupted by Nazi hostility towards those who acknowledged the Church, and to church music. His work was denounced by the State as "degenerate art." Pressures of war, harassment by the authorities, and the constant threat of recruitment into military service all contributed to his depression and eventual suicide.
Siegfried Strohbach (b. 1929) is the only living composer on tonight's program. He earns the distinction of being the "Least Known" because we have been able to find very little biographical material about him. If it weren't for the technology handicap allowed Schütz - modern aircraft makes traveling so much easier nowadays - Strohbach would be the most-widely-traveled composer since he moved from his native East Germany to Tasmania, where he lives today.
The "German music" that you hear tonight will be very different, one from the other, just as their composers were different - in time, space, personal history, beliefs and temperament. Vive la différence! Can anyone tell me how to say that in German?
