Lyrie Symphony rn Seyen Songs, After Paems by Rabindranath
Transcrição
Lyrie Symphony rn Seyen Songs, After Paems by Rabindranath
Lyrie Symphony rn Seyen Songs, After Paems by Rabindranath Tagore. Op. 18 prestigious condr-rcirng appointments, rncluding those at the Vienna Volksoper (where he led ihe Vrennese premiere of Richard Strauss's Sa/ome), the Hofoper (where he workeci along- Alexander Zem!insky tc 1922 the Neues Deirtsches Theater in Prague {later renamed ihe Deutsches Landestheater). side Mahler), and, fi'om 1911 Among lhe array of powerful talents popi;lat ing iurn-o{-the-20ih-cen Lury Vienrra was Alexander von Zemlinsky. (He wouid rirop the Aparl irom nrs 16-year tenure in Prague, Zemlinsky rended to mo're frequently {rcm one arisiocratic "von" after World War l.) He post to anotheq and he sometimes became swept up in aesthetic disagr-eements and per- rnstructed and charnpioned a heady roster oI conrposers, whose works would become better rernembered than his own. He took a young sonal rivalries. lnevitably he ran afoul of the Nazis, Arnold Schoenberg under his wtng, laught him signed to the list of forbidden "degenerate musici' personaily, and ernplo;,red him as a nrusjcal assistant. (Schoenberg's Op. 1, a set o{ songs, is His mother was ihe issue of a mixecl Sephardic- anci during those dark years his oeuvre was con* Turkish Muslim man-iage and his father, born a dedicateci to his "teache r-and friend Alexander von Zernlinsky"; in .1901 Catholic, had converled to Judaism. lf such a pedigree hadn't done Zemlinsky in after the the two became brothers-in-lav; when Schoenberg nrarried rise o{ ihe Nazis, his promoting of co,'nposers whose works were moi'e braslrly mi:dernist than his own would ha're proveci insuoerable, A few months after the Anschluss, Zenrlinsky and hrs rvife fled from Vienna, vra Prague, to Zemlinsky's sister L4athiide.) Alban Berg and Anton Webern were amcng his srudents in the ari of oi'chestration, and in 1900 his friend Gustav l"4ahier conducted the premiere of Zemlinsky's Es war einnal ,.. (Once {Jpon a Tine .. New York, where he found little success before .), Lhe second c{ his eight operas, ai ihe he was djsabled by a stroke, in 1939. His death Vienna Hofoper three years later r,vent iargeiy unnoticed, Zemlinsky aiso promelted his conrposercoileaques {rom the codrum, and by ali ln Sepiember I922 Zemiinsky ad'"'ised his publisher, Emil Hertzka: accounis v,",as a refined concjuctor of not clnl;,, the classics but also of mr-rsrc i:y the a{oremen- tionec Schoenberg (includrng the 1924 prerniere of his Erwar iung), Berg. and Webern, as well as Schuihof{, Kornqold, Wetli, KreneN, Hindemiih, Jandiek, 6nqj rnarry oth-^r nota- bles of Central Furo- pean mcderntsm. He held a succession of 30 New Yark Philharmonic ln Short Born: Oci.r[ef 4, ] 871, in Venra, Ausiria Died: l\4af ch 1 5, 194?, in Larchmoni, N,-v; York Work cornposed: Apnl 2, 1 922-Augusl 29, 1923: rire texis are {rcir ,rhe Garciener, by Rabrnd ranaih lbgore ( 1 86 1 - I 94 I ), in Hans Ffien berger's Geiman transationsoi 1914 World premiere: June 21. I924, rn Prague. the coiri:oser conduci rg lhe iSC\l Fesi va orchestra New York Philharmonic prerniere and most recent performanc€: The Uichestia's oirli; prev ous perfcrmances of th s wc'rk were December I 3-1 E. j g7g, James Levre, ccndrctoi Johanna lr4eier, soprano, Da e Dlesirrq, bar irone; Estimated duration: ca. 45 mrnLrles; This summer l've written something along the lines of the li-.d v.d. Erde.l haven't yei found a title ior it. There are seven completely interreiated songs for baritone, soprano, and orchestra, which run without a break. Some might view it as foolhardy, or even an aci of hubris, to place before ihe public a work so obviously descended from Mahler's Das Lied van der Erde, which had been unveiied in November i 91 1, six months after the death of its composer" The resembiance cannot be missed. Both are imposing examples of the About the Poet symphony-as-song-cycle, Mahieis cast in six a.k.a. Calcutta, in 1861; died there in discrete movements, Temlinsky's in seven towering figure of lndian cultural history even if his stock has fallen somewhat in the Western world. The son of a Maharashi ("great sage"), he began winning acclaim in his twenties for his poetry, some of which was radical in embracing verse forms not previously espoused by Bengali poetic traditions. While managing his father's estates, he lived in close contact with impoverished laborers, an experience that fed his humanitarian instincts and the political potency of his future writings. Prolific to a fault (his complete writings run to nearly 30 thick vol- connected ones. Both use a large orchestra with trryo alternating vocal soloists: contralto (or baritone) and tenor for Mahler, soprano and bariione for Zemlinsky. Both employ (at least ostensibly) Asian iexts of a mystical bent, in German transiation: presumed eighthcentury Chinese poems chosen by Mahler; poems by ihe Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore chosen by Zemlinsky, Antony Beaumoni. in his biography of Zemlinksy, insists: the similarities are skin deep. The form of Mahle/s work is linear, Zemlinsky's is circuiar; Mahler divides his work into six clearly separated movements, Zemlinsky prefers a through-composed, operatic stru ctu re. Fair enough, and Beaumont notes differences of ethos, too, with Mahler bidding a nostalgic adieu to the natural world while Zemlinsky traces a sensual encounter beiween a man and a woman. Still, rnost of us are iikely to remark on the works' similarities raiher than their disparities, and we may iveil The polymathic Rabindranath Tagore (born in Kolkata, 1 941) remains a umes), Tagore was also a noted painter and musician; he wrote more than 1,000 songs, one of which, "Amar Shonar Bangla" ("My Golden Bengal"), has served since 1 972 as the national anthem of Bangladesh. ln .1913 Tagore became the first non-European honored with the Nobel Prize in Literature, in recognition "of his profoundly sensitive, fresh, and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the WesU' ln 1915 he was awarded a British knighthood, which he renounced four years later to protest British colonial abuses in lndia. From 1 91 2 to 1 933 he traveled widely throughout the world, hailed on five continents as a celetrrity. The composer Alexander Zemlinsky may have first met Tagore during the poet's visit to Prague in '! 92'1. Certainly they met in 1926, during a follow-up visit there, when the festivities included Zemlinsky conducting the last mo\rement of his Lyric Symphany in Tagore's presence. November 2009 3! agree that Zemlinsky's achievement in this remarkable work is not lessened by its obvious genealogy, clarinet) and bass clarinet, three bassoons (one doubling contrabassoon), four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, xyiophone, triangle, cymbals, tam-tam, lnstrumentation: four flutes (two doubling tambourine, snare drum, bass drum, harp, ce- piccolo), three oboes (one doubling English lesta, harmonium, and strings, in addition to the soprano and bariione soloists, horn), three clarinets (one doubling E-fiat From the Premiere Shortly after the premiere ot the Lyric Symphony, during the ISCM ilnternational Society for Contemporary Music) Festival in Prague in 1924, Zemlinsky received an enthusiastic letter from his former pupil Alban Berg. Berg had known Zemlinsky since 1 905, and in 1926 he would quote his teacher's Lyric Symphony in his own Lyrrc Suife for String Ouartet. The letter itself is now missing, but Berg's preliminary draft of the letter survives: lEven ifl now at last I believe that I really know your Lyric Symphony, in ten years'time il willl be forced to admit that today I have only an inkling of the score's boundless beauties. But this can do nothing whatsoever to diminish my love, which - as it affects me in a particularly persona! way - is that true love which overcomes me only in the case of a small, select body of music' [...] Freed from all the secondary considerations, limitations, and obstacles that have to be surmounted in works of other genres [.."], with the Lyric Symphony (never before was a title so ambiguous & at once so meaningful) a musical [child] is born 32 New York Philha.monic - one that contains not one note too many, nor indeed one too few Texi and Translaiion Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony in Seven Songs, Atter Poerns by Rabindranath Tagore, Op. 18 I lch bin friedloq I have no peace, Dingen. Meine Seele schweift in Sehnsucht, ich bin durstig nach fernen den Saum der dunklen Weite zu O grosses Jenseils, beruhren. thirst after far-off things. ["4y soul roams in longing to touch the henr of dark distance. O vast beyond, Flote. immer, o ungeslumes Rufen deiner lch vergesse, ich vergesse I dass ich keine Schwingen zum Fliegen Erde gelesselt bin fiir alle Zeit. habe, dass ich an dieses Stilck wachsan, dein Odem kammt zu mir und raunt mir unmogliche Hoffnungen zu. Deine Sprache klingt metnem Herzen vertraut wie seine eig'ne. A Ziel in Fernen, o ungestilmes Rufen deiner Flote. lch vergesse immer, ich r/ergesse dass ich nicht den Weg weiss, dass ich das beschvtrngfe Ross nicht habe. o untamed call of your fiuie, I forget, i always forget, that I have no wings to fly, that I am chained to this piece of earth for all iime. fuil of longing and vigilant, strange land lch bin voll Verlangen und I am ich bin ein Fremder im frentden Land I am a stranger in a lch bin ruh'los, ich bin ein Wanderer in metnem and whispers impossible hopes. Your language is as famrliar to my heart as rs its very own, 0 far-off goal, o untamed call of your flute" I always forget, I forget that I do not know the way, that I do not hai.,e the winged horse. I am restless, Herzen. lm sonnigen f\ebel der zogernden Stunden, dir wird Gestalt in der Bld:ue des Htmmels. O fernstes Ende, o ungesiumes Rufen deiner Flote. lch vergesse, ich vergesse rmmer, das-* die Tiiren iberall verschlossen srnd in dem Hause, wo ich einsarn wohne, a fernstes Ende, o ungestumes Rufen deiner Flate. welch gewaltiges Gesrcht von - your breath descends upon rne I am a wanderer in my heart, In the sunny haze of the languid hours. how powerfuliy your visage iakes shape in the blue of the sky, O furthest end, o untamed call of your flute. I forget, I always forget, that the doors are shut everywhere in the house, where I dwell alone, o furthest end, o untamed call of your flute. (Please turn the paoe quielly.) November 2009 33 il Muiter, clet junge Prinz rnuss an uns'rer vorbe;kommen: wie kartn acht lch diesen Morgen auf meine Tire Arbeit geben? flechten; anziehen? Warum schausf clu mich so verwundert an, Mutter? lch weiss wohl, er wird nicht ein einz'ges Mal zu neinent Fenster aufblicken. lch weiss im Nu vtird er mir aus den Augen sein. nur das verhallende Flotenspiel wird seufzend zu mir dringen von weitem. Aber der junge Prinz wird hei uns voruberkammen, Zeig nir, wie sall mein Haar ich zeig mir, was sall ich filr Kleider unrl ich vtil! mein Bestes anziehen fitr diesen Augenblick. Mutter, der junge Prinz Mother. the young prince musi surely pass by our door: how am I to concenirate on my work this morning? Show me, how shall I braid my hair; show me, how shall I clothe myself? Why do you look at me so amazed, mother? I know weli that not even once will he glance up at my window I know he will disappear in an instant from mY view; only the vanishrng sound of the firrte will reach me, sighing from a distance. Yet the young prince wili Pass bY, and I wish io be arrayed in my finest for ihis moment. ist an uns'rer vorbeigekommen, und cJie Morgensonne blitzte an TAre Mother, the young prince has passed by our door, seinem Wagen. and the morning sun flashed from his chariot' the veil from my faCe, Gesicht, tore off the chain of rubres frorn rny neck riss clie Rubinenkette von meinem Hals and flung it into his path. und warf sie ihm in den Weg. Why do you look at me so amazed, Warum schausl du ntich so verwundert an, mother? Mutter? I know well that he did not pick up /ch r,veiss woh!, dass er meiner Kette nicht mY chain. aufhob. I know it was crushed under the zer lch vteiss, sie ward unter den Radern wheels, malnt undliess eine rote Spur in Siaube zuruck. leaving behind a red streak in the dust, lJnd rtiemand weiss, was mein Geschenk And no one knows what my gift was and who gave it. war und wer es gab. Yet the young prince did pass by Aber der iunge Prinz kam an unsrer Ti)r ,toruber OUr door I did f ling ihe jewels fronr my breast and Btust uncl ich hab' clen Schmuck van meiner inio his path. ihm in den Weg gevrorfen lch 34 strich den Sch/eier aus nteinem New York Philharmonic I swept aside ilr Abendwolke, hinzieht. immer mii dich dich Ich schmlicke und kteide den Wiinschen meiner Seele. Du bist mein Eigen, mein Eigen, You are the evening cloud, Du, die in meinen endlosen Traumen you, who dwell in my infinite dreams, Du bist die die am Himmel meiner Traume Deine Fisse sind rosigrot von der Glut meines sehnslchtigen wohnt. floating in the sky of my dreams' I bejewel and clothe you ever with the longings of my soul. You are my ownJ my own' Your feet are rosy-red Herzens, erntet. Deine Lippen sndbiiierstiss vom Geschmack des Weins aus meinem Leiden. Du bist mein Eigen, mein Eigen. Du, die meine Abendlieder Du, die in meinen einsamen kaumen wohnt. with the glow of my yearning heart. You, who gather my songs in the evening. Your lips are bittersweet with the taste of the wine of my sufferings, You are my own, my own' You, who dwell in my solitary dreams. Leidenschaft geschwbrzt, gewohnter Gast in meines Blickes Tiefe. With the shadow of my passion I have darkened your eyes, dich eingesponnen, Geliebte, in das Netz meiner Musik. Du bist mein Eigen, mein Eigen. Du, die in meinen unsterblichen Traumen wohnt" I have captured and woven you, Mit dem Schatten meiner hab'ich deine Augen Ich hab'dich gefangen und intimate guest of my gaze's depth. mY love, in the net of my muslc. You are my own' my own' You, who dwell in my undying dreams, (Please iurn the page quietly.) October 2009 35 IV Geliebte1 sangesf. Die llacht ist dunke!, die Sterne sind in Wolken verloren. Der Wind seufzt durch die Bltitter. lch will mein Haar losen, Sprich zu mir, sag' mir mit Worten, was du mein blauer Mantel wird dich wie Nacht. umschmiegen lch will deinen Kapf an meine sch/lessen clouds. The wind sighs through the leaves, want to untie my hair, my blue cloak will enfold you I like night. Brust reden. lch will meine Augen zumachen und I want to clasp your head to my breast und hier in der sussen Einsamkeit lass Herz Speak to me, my love, tell me in words what you told me in song. The night is dark, the stars are lost in the dein and have your heart speak in the sweet loneliness. lauschen, schauen. Wenn dein Worte zu Ende sind wollen wir still und schweigend sitzen. Nur die Baume werden im Dunkel flilstern, ich will nicht in dein Antlitz I want to shut my eyes and listen, I do not want to glance at your face. When your words are at an end we want to sit still and silent. Only the trees will whisper in the dark, die Nacht wtd bleichen, der Tag wird ddmmern. the night wili pale, the day will dawn. Wir werden einander in die Augen und ziehn. Geliebter. schauen jeder seines Weges Sprich zu mir, We will look into each othefs eyes and each will go his way. Speak to me, my love. V Susse, Free me from the bonds of your sweetness, Lieb! Nichts mehr von diesem Wein der Kisse, my lovel No more of this wine of kisses, dieser Nebel von schwerem Weihrauch this mist of heavy incense stifles erstickt nein Herz. my heart, Offne die Tilre, mach Platz fur das Open the doors, make place for the morning Morgenlicht. light. lch bin in dich verloren, eingefangen I am lost in you, captured in die Umarmungen deiner Zdrtlichkeit. by the embraces of your tenderness. Befrei'mich von deinem Zauber Free me from your spell und gib mir den Mut zur1ck, and give me back the courage, dir mein befreites Herz darzubieten. to offer you my freed heart. Bef rei' mich von den Banden derner 36 New York Philharmonic vt Lied und lass uns auseinander gehn; Vollende denn das letzte rrergiss diese Nacht, wenn ist. zu die Nacht um Wen miih'ich mich mit meinen Armen umfassen? Who do I uneasily clasp in my arms? Traumeiassen sr'ch nicht einfangen, meine gierigen Hdnde drilcken Leere an mein Complete the final song now and let us part from one another; forget this night, when the night is no more. Herz Dreams cannot be made captive, my anxious hands press emptiness to my heart und es zermLirbt meine Brust. and it bruises rny breast. vil Friede, mein l1erz, Peace, my heart, iass die Zeit, ftr let the time for parting be sweet, sern, /ass es nrchf einen Tod sein, sondern Vollendung. Lass Liebe in Erinn'rung schmelzen und Schmerz in Lieder. Lass die letzte Berilhrung deiner Hande sanft sein, wie die Blume der Nacht. Steh'still, steh'still, o wundervolles Ende, fir einen Augenblick das Scheiden suss und sage deine letzten Worte in lch neige mich vor dir, Schweigen. H6he, leuchten. ich hatte meine Lampe in die um dir auf deinen Weg zu let it be not a death, but, rather, comPletion. Let love melt into memory and pain into song. Let the iast touch of your hands be gentle, like the locturnai {lower' Stand still, stand still, oh wondrous end, for a moment and say your last words in silence. I bow to You, I hold up my lamp, to light you on your way. English translatron by Steven R. Cerf Translator's note: This English version is, by and large, a literal rendering of Hans Effenberger's German translation of Tagore. The attempt has been made to capture Effenbergels own neo-Romantic tdiom, ta which Zemlinsky obviously attuned his music with considerable care. - S R.C' Translation .et 1979 by The Philharmontc-Symphony Society of New York, lrtc. November 2009 37