Palmsonntagmorgen WoO VI/18
for five-part mixed voice unaccompanied choir
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Text: Emanuel Geibel
Herrn Georg Stolz zugeeignet
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Emanuel Geibel: Palmsonntagmorgen, in:
id.: Neue Gedichte, J. G. Cotta’scher Verlag, Stuttgart and Augsburg
unknown
Used for comparison purposes in RWA: Emanuel Geibel: Palmsonntagmorgen, in:
id.: Neue Gedichte, 11th edition, J. G. Cotta’sche Buchhandlung, Stuttgart
Copy shown in RWA: DE, Karlsruhe, Max-Reger-Institut/Elsa-Reger-Stiftung.
Note: Georg Stolz, von dem Reger den Text mutmaßlich erhielt, könnte auch durch die Vertonungen Max Bruchs, Ferdinand Hillers oder Max Erdmannsdörfers auf diesen aufmerksam geworden sein.
Note: Die dritte Strophe wurde von Reger nicht vertont (siehe Textvergleich).
1. Composition
1.1.
Palmsonntagmorgen for five-part mixed voice choir was composed in February/March 1902 at the request of the Chemnitz organist and choral director Georg Stolz. He may also have suggested the text by Emanuel Geibel, set previously by Max Bruch and Ferdinand Hiller for choir or soloist, women’s voices and orchestra; the text “links the image of awakening nature with Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem”.1 With its divisions into sections of the lines of text set, with imitative parts and chordal interpolations, Palmsonntagmorgen looks ahead to Reger’s later motets.
As can be learned from Reger’s letter of 16 August 1901, Stolz had made contact with him shortly before and reported on efforts to rehearse works in various different genres by Reger in Chemnitz – probably with a view to a concert as part of the German Teachers’ Meeting in Chemnitz in May 1902. Reger recommended the Violin Sonata in A major op. 41 instead of the Cello Sonata in F minor op. 5, announced the Organ Pieces op. 59, and pressed for a performance of the Hymne an den Gesang op. 211 by the Teachers’ Choral Society (writing). Further correspondence is incomplete; by the end of January 1901 Reger was at any rate counting on a performance of the Hymne and was more than disappointed when this did not take place: “Your laziness screams to the heavens! Have I not beseeched you to speak with Herr Pohle as soon as possible regarding a performance. No answer from you! It is very annoying!” (Writing dated 31 January)
Whether it really was an omission on Stolz’s part to engage the Teachers’ Choral Society and the City Music Choir (the commercially-organized predecessor ensemble to the City Orchestra), also conducted by Max Pohle, remains open. At any rate he immediately came up with a quite different kind of counter-proposal – a mixed chorus a cappella instead of a male voice chorus with orchestra. Evidently the program planned by Stolz had taken shape in the meantime, with works including the Symphonic Fantasia and Fugue for organ op. 57, as well as finally two unaccompanied contributions from WoO VI/11 and VI/13, four pieces from Opus 59, and a Largo for clarinet and organ (probably from the Clarinet Sonata op. 49 no. 1). Reger immediately agreed, appeased: “[… ]You are the first there for Saxony with Op. 57! From the publisher’s perspective the chorus will not be published by Whitsun, therefore I will make sure that you have the first performance in Chemnitz! […] The whole enterprise is splendid! The unaccompanied chorus will be very fine!” (Writing dated 7 February) From the information which Reger gave about the program in his answer, although it gives no further details of the “a cappella choir” we can deduce that Stolz was in the picture anyway: he may also have sent him a suggestion for the text for the work to be newly composed himself when sending him the program design.
2. Publication
3.
Translation by Elizabeth Robinson.
1. Reception
At present, there are no records of performances in Reger's time.
1. Sources
Object reference
Max Reger: Palmsonntagmorgen WoO VI/18, in: Reger-Werkausgabe, www.reger-werkausgabe.de/mri_work_00220.html, version 3.1.2, 14th March 2025.
Information
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