Nachtgeflüster WoO VII/23
for voice and piano
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Text: Franz Evers
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1.
| Reger-Werkausgabe | Bd. II/2: Lieder II, S. 76. |
| Herausgeber | Stefan König, Dennis Ried. Unter Mitarbeit von Alexander Becker, Nikolaos Beer und Christopher Grafschmidt. |
| Verlag | Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart; Verlagsnummer: CV 52.809. |
| Erscheinungsdatum | Oktober 2021. |
| Notensatz | Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart. |
| Copyright | 2021 by Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart and Max-Reger-Institut, Karlsruhe – CV 52.809. Vervielfältigungen jeglicher Art sind gesetzlich verboten. / Any unauthorized reproduction is prohibited by law. Alle Rechte vorbehalten. / All rights reserved. |
| ISMN | M-007-24652-5. |
| ISBN | 978-3-89948-404-5. |
Franz Evers: Nachtgeschwätz, in:
id.: Deutsche Lieder, G. Grote’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Berlin
Franz Evers: Nachtgeschwätz, in: Sonnenblumen, ed. by Karl Henckell, 3. Jg. (), issue 20, Verlag Karl Henckells Comp., Zürich and Leipzig , p. [1].
Copy shown in RWA: DE, Karlsruhe, Max-Reger-Institut/Elsa-Reger-Stiftung.
Note: Die vier Jahrgänge der Sonnenblumen – eine bibliophile Loseblatt-Sammlung mit Bildschmuck von Fidus – waren in Besitz Regers. Im Oktober 1899 äußerte er gegenüber Josef Hösl, es fänden sich “schöne Sachen darin, die direkt zum Komponieren reizen” (Brief vom 24. Oktober 1899). Regers Exemplar des vierten Jahrgangs ist in den Meininger Museen/Max-Reger-Archiv erhalten. Mit Bleistift sind einige Gedichte zur Vertonung angestrichen, darunter Wenn lichter Mondenschein…, Helle Nacht und Hütet Euch!. In Helle Nacht ist in der 2. Strophe das Wort “weint” unterstrichen und übermalt, die dritte Strophe ist ausgestrichen und wurde von Reger auch nicht vertont. In Hütet Euch! ist zudem das Wort “Eros” (Strophe 3) unterstrichen.
Note: In der Erstausgabe innerhalb der Rubrik “Nachtgesänge”.
Note: In Regers Vorlage ist das Gedicht zwei- statt einstrophig.
Note: Das Gedicht erschien ferner in Ludwig Jacobowskis Sammlung Neue Lieder der besten neueren Dichter für’s Volk, S. 24.
Note: Der in allen Ausgaben vorhandene Titel Nachtgeschwätz wurde von Reger geändert.
1. Composition and Publication
From mid-1900 Reger increasingly published shorter organ and piano pieces as well as songs in music and arts periodicals, in order to disseminate his works more widely and to gain a new audience1. After he had placed a single song (In verschwiegener Nacht WoO VII/20) in Redende Künste in June 1899, a first contribution for the Neue Musik-Zeitung, Nachtgeflüster WoO VII/23 appeared at the beginning of July 1900; this was dedicated to that periodical. Reviews of Reger’s works had appeared in the Neue Musik-Zeitung since 1899, but there is no record of when and how he came into contact with it, which was published by Stuttgart publisher Carl Grüninger. The date of composition of Nachtgeflüster, the first setting of a poem by Franz Evers, followed by twelve others, is not known. Reger had the text of the song from the belles lettres anthology Sonnenblumen by August 1899 at the latest.2
On 6 July 1900, a day after the publication of Nachtgeflüster, Reger sent a new selection of musical scores to the periodical, and explained in his covering letter: “Enclosed you will find 4 piano pieces & 5 songs. You will find that in the same, I have made only very modest & the most minor demands of the singer and pianist; therefore technically, the pieces will certainly not be too difficult for your readers. […] For the song Brautring 2 printed pages, all the other 4 songs 1 printed page each. With the greatest pleasure I will also send you more songs & piano pieces later on – until everything has been published as inserts, I have long since sent you another instalment of such pieces & songs. […].” (Letter)3 Although the engraver’s copies do not survive, from Reger’s comments on the estimated number of printed pages, we can conclude that he also submitted Brautring WoO VII/25, because he thought that each of the songs Süße Ruh WoO VII/24, Geheimnis WoO VII/26, Mädchenlied WoO VII/27, and Hoffnungslos WoO VII/28 would fit on one page. The song Sonnenregen WoO VII/29, two pages in print, could have been composed at a later date and submitted afterwards, at least its date of publication was considerably after the five other songs: the latter were published in rough succession and alternating with the first two of what was ultimately ten piano pieces4 between September 1900 and March 1901 5, Sonnenregen on the other hand only in July 1902. In November 1900 the Neue Musik-Zeitung also published a detailed article on Reger’s life and work by his friend and organist Karl Straube 6. In August 1902 Reger’s music inserts appeared there for the last time with the songs Sehnsucht and Kindergeschichte which were incorporated into the collection Twelve Songs op. 66 7 shortly afterwards.
As text sources for his songs WoO VII/23–29 Reger chose exclusively contemporary poems: he found (Frieda Laubsch) and Hoffnungslos (Willibald Obst) in the “Texte für Liederkomponisten” column, which the Neue Musik-Zeitung itself published. He probably also found the by Marie Madeleine (Freifrau von Puttkamer) in a periodical.8 Brautring, Geheimnis, and Sonnenregen by Anna Ritter also came from the 1900 volume of poetry , in which Reger had placed great hopes. However, he now felt “very disappointed” by this.9
In June 1910 the Leipzig music publisher Paul Zschocher approached Reger with the idea of newly publishing some songs and piano pieces which had previously been issued as music inserts in anthologies. Reger himself took on the task of checking through everything and calculated “a fee of 50 M for [his] trouble”.10 The copyright agreement signed by the composer on 29 June lists alongside the “10 Klavierstücke[n]” from the Neue Musik-Zeitung, which were combined with two further pieces and now issued as Blätter und Blüten, and “Kleine Lieder: 8 Lieder”, which had been published before in the Neue Musik-Zeitung and by the Taubald’sche Bookshop in Weiden.11 These were the songs WoO VII/23 to 29 and the Wiegenlied WoO VII/19 published in 1899 in Weiden. The latter, however, was not included in the anthology and was published in 1910 as a new publication by Bote & Bock. Instead, Um Mitternacht blühen die Blumen and Volkslied op. 79c nos. 2 and 3 and the Schlummerlied WoO VII/33 were included in the collection. These were given the title Liebeslieder. To what extent Reger was involved in the final compilation and the choice of title is not known. Reger’s revision of the songs WoO VII/23–29 essentially comprised the correction of mistakes (the addition of missing accidentals and ties, deletion of a parallel octave, etc.). The Liebeslieder were published in November 1910 with German and English text both in the original key and in an edition for low voice.12 At the end of 1928 Breitkopf & Härtel took over Zschocher’s stock of Reger editions13, also including the Liebeslieder. Later editions, however, did not include the two songs from op. 79c, as the original publisher Hermann Beyer & Söhne refused to allow them to be reprinted as part of the collection.Note: See Letter from Breitkopf & Härtel to Elsa Reger dated 11 April 1929.
2.
Translation by Elizabeth Robinson.
1. Reception
At present, there are no records of performances in Reger's time.
1. Stemma
2. Quellenbewertung
Der Edition liegt als Leitquelle der von Reger für den Verlag Paul Zschocher revidierte Druck der Lieder (»Liebeslieder«) zugrunde. Als weitere Quellen wurden deren Erstdrucke als Zeitschriftenbeigaben herangezogen. Die transponierte Ausgabe der »Liebeslieder« für tiefe Stimme entstand vermutlich ohne Regers Beteiligung und war somit editorisch nicht relevant.
3. Sources
- Erstdrucke der Zeitschriftenbeigaben
- Erstdruck der revidierten Ausgabe (in: »Liebeslieder«)
Object reference
Max Reger: Nachtgeflüster WoO VII/23, in: Reger-Werkausgabe, www.reger-werkausgabe.de/mri_work_00250.html, version 3.1.0, 23rd December 2024.
Information
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