A German Requiem (Brahms)
Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 (English: A German Requiem) is a large-scale work for chorus, orchestra, and soloists, composed by Johannes Brahms between 1865 and 1868. Ein deutsches Requiem is sacred but non-liturgical. It is comprised of seven movements, which together last 70-80 minutes, making Ein deutsches Requiem Brahms's longest composition.
History
Brahms's mother died in February 1865, a loss that painfully grieved him and that may well have inspired Ein deutsches Requiem. Brahms's lingering feelings over Robert Schumann's death in July 1856 may also have been a motivation, though his reticence about such matters makes this uncertain.[1]
By the end of April 1865, Brahms had completed the first, second, and fourth movements. The second movement used some previously abandoned musical material written in 1854, the year of Schumann's mental collapse and attempted suicide, and of Brahms's move to Düsseldorf to assist Clara Schumann and her seven children.
Brahms completed all but what is now the fifth movement by August 1866. Johannes Herbeck conducted the first three movements in Vienna on December 1, 1867. Though the partial premiere went poorly, all six movements then extant were premiered in the Bremen cathedral six months later on Good Friday 1868, with Brahms conducting and Julius Stockhausen as the baritone soloist. The performance was a great success and marked a turning point in his career.[2]
Brahms added the fifth movement in May 1868. It was first sung in Zurich on September 12, 1868 by Ida Suter-Weber, with Friedrich Hegar conducting the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra. The final, seven-movement version of Ein deutsches Requiem was premiered in Leipzig on February 18, 1869 with Carl Reinecke conducting the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Chorus, and soloists Emilie Bellingrath-Wagner and Franz Krükl.
Text
Brahms assembled the libretto to Ein deutsches Requiem himself. In contrast to the traditional Roman Catholic requiem mass, which employs a standardized text in Latin, Ein deutsches Requiem derives its text from Martin Luther's German Protestant Bible.
Brahms's first known use of the title A German Requiem was in an 1865 letter to Clara Schumann in which he wrote that he intended for the piece to be "a sort of German Requiem". Brahms was quite moved when he found out years later that Robert Schumann had planned a work of the same name.[3] German refers primarily to the language rather than the intended audience. Brahms told Karl Reinthaler, director of music at the Bremen cathedral, that he would have gladly called the work A Human Requiem.[4]
Although the Requiem Mass in the Catholic liturgy begins with prayers for the dead ("Grant them eternal rest, O Lord"), Ein deutsches Requiem emphasizes comforting the living, beginning with the text "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." A comparable sacred, humanist worldview persists through the work.[5]
Movements
- (Blessed are they that mourn)
- (For all flesh is as grass)
- " (Lord, make me to know mine end)
- " (How lovely is thy dwelling place)
- " (And ye now therefore have sorrow)
- " (For here have we no lasting home)
- " (Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord)
Orchestration
Ein deutsches Requiem is scored for:
- Soprano and baritone soloists
- Mixed chorus
- 2 flutes and piccolo
- 2 oboes
- 2 clarinets
- 2 bassoons and contrabassoon
- 4 horns
- 3 trumpets
- 3 trombones
- tuba
- harp (one part, preferably doubled)
- timpani
- organ (ad libitum)
- strings
Notable orchestrational devices include the first movement's lack of violins, as well as piccolo, clarinets, one pair of horns, trumpets, tuba, and timpani; and the use of harps at the close of both the first and seventh movements, most striking in the latter because at that point they have not played since the middle of the second movement.
Unifying motif
Ein deutsches Requiem is unified compositionally by a three note motif of a leap of a third, followed by a step in the same direction. The first exposed choral entry presents the motif in the soprano voice (F-A-B♭). This motif pervades every movement and much of the thematic material in the piece.[6]
Notable recordings
Listed alphabetically by conductor
- Claudio Abbado conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (Germany). Recorded live in 1992 and released in 1993 by Deutsche Grammophon.
- Gerd Albrecht conducting the Danish National Orchestra (Denmark). Released in 2003 by Chandos.
- Frieder Bernius conducting the Stuttgart Classical Philharmonic Orchestra (Germany). Recorded in 1997 and released in 2002 by Carus-verlag.
- Philippe Herreweghe conducting the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées (France). Recorded live in 1996 and released in 1996 by Harmonia Mundi.
- Craig Jessop conducting the Utah Symphony Orchestra (U.S.A) & Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Recorded February 1999 and released in October 1999 by Telarc. Recorded in English.
- Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker and Wiener Singverein (Germany). Recorded in 1964 and released in 2002 by Deutsche Grammophon.
- Otto Klemperer conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra (England). Recorded in 1961 and released in 1999 by EMI Classics.
- Rafael Kubelík conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Recorded live in 1978 and released in 2002 by Audite.
- Kurt Masur conducting the New York Philharmonic (U.S.). Recorded live in 1995 and released in 1995 by Teldec.
- Andre Previn conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (England). Recorded in 1986 and released in 2002 by Apex.
- Wolfgang Sawallisch conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (Germany). Released in 1995 by Orfeo.
- Carl Schuricht conducting the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (Germany). Recorded in 1959 and released in 2004 by Hanssler Classic.
- Robert Shaw conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (U.S.A). Recorded in 1990 and released in 1992 by Telarc.
References
- Steinberg, Michael. "Johannes Brahms: A German Requiem on Words from Holy Scripture, op. 45." Choral Masterworks: A Listener's Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, 68-74.