Maria, Himmelsfreud WoO VI/12

for mixed voice unaccompanied choir

Content

Maria, Himmelsfreud

Text: Heinrich Bone

Creation

Weiden, Dezember 1899

Status

–

Dedication

–

Performance medium

Mixed choir [Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass]

Work collection

Original work

Versions

1.

Reger-Werkausgabe	Bd. II/8: Gemischte Chöre a cappella I, S. 64–65.
Herausgeber	Alexander Becker, Christopher Grafschmidt, Stefan König, Stefanie Steiner-Grage.
Verlag	Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart; Verlagsnummer: CV 52.815.
Erscheinungsdatum	Juni 2018.
Notensatz	Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart.
Copyright	2018 by Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart and Max-Reger-Institut, Karlsruhe – CV 52.815. Vervielfältigungen jeglicher Art sind gesetzlich verboten. / Any unauthorized reproduction is prohibited by law. Alle Rechte vorbehalten. / All rights reserved.
ISMN	M-007-18831-3.
ISBN	978-3-89948-302-4.

Maria, Himmelsfreud

Work

Maria, Himmelsfreud’

by Heinrich Bone

Also for

[Maria, Himmelsfreud…] op. 61d No. 7

1. Composition and Publication

Maria, Himmelsfreud was commissioned by the Regensburg Cathedral music director Franz Xaver Engelhart for a collection he edited, Marienlob. Fourteen composers, including Josef Rheinberger and the Regensburg Cathedral organist Joseph Renner jun., each contributed an unaccompanied choral setting.¹ Reger probably worked on his contribution at the end of 1899; the date given in the new edition of the chorus published in 1954², of “13. XII. 1899” presumably repeats the date of completion from the autograph engraver’s copy, which probably remained with the publisher and now appears to be lost.

The suggestion to set a text by Heinrich Bone may possibly have come from Engelhart. Reger could have taken it from the widely available Regensburg Catholic hymn books Benedicite and Cäcilia ³; he owned a copy of at least the latter – probably a present on his confirmation in 1884.⁴ Maria, Himmelsfreud is the only double setting within the Marienlob. The other setting, also for four parts, but compositionally considerably easier and a less chromatic version of this text, which opens the collection, is by Engelhart himself.

The correction stages are not documented in Reger’s correspondence. The collection Marienlob was published in 1900 by the publisher Martin Cohen in Regensburg, possibly in the second half of the year.⁵ It was published with the marking “Heft I”, but the collection was not continued.⁶

2.

Translation by Elizabeth Robinson.

For information on this collection, see Fritz Wagner/Heinrich Kammerer, Angelus durus seiner Domspatzen. Franz Xaver Engelhart (1861–1924). Domkapellmeister und Komponist. Eine Skizze seines Lebens und Wirkens sowie ein Verzeichnis seiner Werke, Deggendorf 2011 (= Komponisten aus Niederbayern, Vol. 2), pp. 98–100.

Wiesbaden, Breitkopf & Härtels Partiturbibliothek no. 3728.

Benedicite. Katholisches Gesangbuch. Vierstimmige Bearbeitung der außerliturgischen Gesänge, ed. Baptist Molitor, Regensburg et al 1894 and Cäcilia. Katholisches Gesang- und Gebetbuch, ed. Joseph Mohr, 17th unaltered edition, Regensburg 1883.

The copy went from a private collection in Weiden to the Augustinian church there, and after its secularization to the Stadtmuseum Weiden (see “Auf den Spuren von Max Reger – Augustiner-Geschenke führen zu spannender Recherche”, in Der neue Tag, Weiden, 11 August 2010; article signed “ps”).

In Hofmeisters Musikalisch-literarischem Monatsbericht über neue Musikalien, musikalische Schriften und Abbildungen ist die erste Auflage von 1900 nicht verzeichnet.

See Wagner/Kammerer (see note 1), p. 99.

1. Early Reception

In November 1900 Franz Xaver Haberl, the General President of the Allgemeiner Cäcilienverband, reviewed the Marienlob in the society’s publication Musica sacra. In this he described the contributions by Reger and Renner jun. (Gnadenmutter, höre mich) as “hedge roses and chromatic undergrowth”, in which “the soft and fine texts were almost suffocated by the meanderings of the voices, difficult-to-sing intervals, striking, but unpleasant sequences of chords”. In particular Reger’s setting was “written in an extremely unsingable way and chromatically over-seasoned”; it was “out of the question” that the pieces could be used in worship (review). Furthermore, Engelhart’s collection also received a critical review in the Cäcilienvereins-Katalog, the Selbständige Beilage zum Cäcilienvereinsorgane (Fliegende Blätter für katholische Kirchenmusik). The catalog, begun in 1870, for which the General President was also responsible, provided information about music editions and writings on church music recommended by the society. Conceived “as an orientation guide for organists and church musicians”, it appeared quite selective, for “works which were not included had very little chance of being performed in the national sphere where the society held sway” ¹. For the assessors panel of the Cäcilienvereins-Katalog, which judged works according to criteria of compatibility with the musical requirements of the society and singability, but not according to artistic criteria², the choruses by Reger and Renner jun. were the sole stumbling block: Alois David Schenk rejected both pieces as “harmonically too turgid” and excluded them from what was otherwise his “vote for inclusion”; for Friedrich Schmidt, Haberl’s predecessor as General President, it was “not possible to recommend the otherwise valuable collection for inclusion in the catalog in view of the two last songs (Reger and Renner jun.)”. Haberl himself, tipping the scales, added his positive vote to the declaration of intent of the publisher Cohen, “that in a new edition he would omit numbers 13 and 14”. (Reviews) However, all further known editions were issued unaltered, including the two rejected pieces.³

Following these criticisms Reger made contact with Joseph Renner, writing to him for the first time in November 1900. He emphatically praised his Organ Sonata in C minor op. 45, likewise slated by Haberl in the Monatschrift für Gottesdienst und kirchliche Kunst ⁴ and recommended to his colleague: “In your place I would not get angry about the review in Musica sacra! Whether Herr H. [= Haberl] looks on the ‘unhealthy and secessionist’ direction in music with goodwill or not is completely unimportant! None of us indeed has asked him for his opinion!⁵ We modern musicians demand more than diatonic ‘triad vegetables’ […]. The ‘diatonic drops of oil’ are good for those who have a weak stomach!” (Letter dated 3 December 1900) Despite his opinion “that that periodical is without any influence on our musical life”, with the composition of his Opus 61 collection Reger again endeavored to seek coverage in Haberl’s Musica sacra and an inclusion in the Cäcilienvereins-Katalog (see Opus 61, Early reception).

2.

Translation by Elizabeth Robinson.

Raymond Dittrich, “Die Autographen von Max Reger in der Bischöflichen Zentralbibliothek Regensburg”, in Max Reger (1873–1916) – Spuren in Regensburg. Zum 100. Todestag des Komponisten, accompanying booklet to the exhibition in the Bischöfliche Zentralbibliothek Regensburg […] 9 May to 14 July 2016 (= Bischöfliches Zentralarchiv und Bischöfliche Zentralbibliothek Regensburg: Kataloge und Schriften, ed. Camilla Weber, Vol. 36), p. 29f.

See Fritz Wagner/Heinrich Kammerer, Angelus durus seiner Domspatzen. Franz Xaver Engelhart (1861–1924). Domkapellmeister und Komponist. Eine Skizze seines Lebens und Wirkens sowie ein Verzeichnis seiner Werke, Deggendorf 2011 (= Komponisten aus Niederbayern, Vol. 2), p. 49ff.

In August 1910 the Marienlob was advertised in Hofmeister (82 Jg., p. 192) as a new publication from the publisher Ernst Gehrmann & Co. in Leipzig, who had taken over part of the publisher Cohen around 1906. In the same period an edition was also published under the imprint Jos. Aibl’s Sortiment (Munich/Regensburg/Leipzig). In both cases these were probably unaltered re-issues with new title pages. The edition also explicitly entitled “second edition”, printed c. December 1920 by Th. Cieplik (Bytom) (listed in Hofmeister 92 Jg., p. 196), the successor of the church music publisher Cohen, still contained all 14 compositions in the collection; likewise the following edition by Böhm & Sohn [c. 1936].

6. Jg., no. 3 (March 1901), p. 104.

In his first letter dated 26 November 1900 after receiving the review in Musica sacra, Reger had spoken to Renner about “a man whom I do not know” and announced that he wanted “to write to Dr. Haberl and ‘enlighten’ him about this critic” (Brief). The fact that Haberl himself was the author of the review in Musica sacra, was probably revealed to him as a result by Renner. However, there does not seem to be a reply. Two years later Reger, furious about a review of his Monologe for organ op. 63 (in 14 Jg. [1902], no. 10 [October volume], p. 111), did actually write a letter to Haberl to encourage him to sack the responsible critic, who had “slept through the last 200 years of our musical development”. But here, too, the review was very probably by Haberl himself (see Jürgen Libbert, “Ein unbekannter Brief von Max Reger an Franz Xaver Haberl”, in Die Oberpfalz. Monatsschrift für Geschichte, Schrifttum, Volks- und Heimatkunde 104 Jg., Vol. 1 [January/February 2016], pp. 15–25, here p. 18; with the publication of Reger’s letter to Haberl of 15 October 1902).

This text is currently only available in German.

1. Stemma

Die in Klammern gesetzten Quellen sind verschollen.

2. Quellenbewertung

Der Edition dient als Leitquelle der Erstdruck der Partitur. Zudem wurden die Stimmen des Erstdrucks herangezogen. Diese gehen jedoch vermutlich nicht unmittelbar auf Reger zurück – dass dieser neben der (verschollenen) Partitur auch einen separaten Stimmensatz beim Verlag als Stichvorlage einreichte, erscheint im Rahmen der Sammelpublikation eher unwahrscheinlich. Bei editorischen Entscheidungen wurden die Stimmen daher nur nachrangig berücksichtigt. In den zu Regers Lebzeiten erschienenen Titelauflagen des Erstdrucks finden sich keine Änderungen.

3. Sources

Stichvorlage (verschollen)
Erstdruck (Partitur und Stimmen)

Object reference

Max Reger: Maria, Himmelsfreud WoO VI/12, in: Reger-Werkausgabe, www.reger-werkausgabe.de/mri_work_00219.html, version 3.1.4, 11th April 2025.

Information

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