RWA Online Blog Reger's orchestral versions of his own songs

Reger's orchestral versions of his own songs

Stefan König, Dennis Ried

1.

In April 1915 Reger approached Universal-Edition in Vienna1 on his own initiative with the suggestion of publishing “a very small selection” of songs in an orchestral version. (Letter dated 29 April 1915) He wanted to leave the decision about which songs should be orchestrated to the publisher. However, they seem to have left the choice to Reger, who combined his thanks for their expression of interest with his announcement that five song arrangements were complete. These were five of the songs most frequently performed by Reger himself.2 As well as Mein Traum op. 31 no. 5 and Fromm op. 62 no. 11, he chose three songs from his Weiden period: Flieder op. 35 no. 4, Glückes genug op. 37 no. 3, and Wiegenlied op. 43 no. 5. Reger explained: “[…] I have chosen such a scoring, that any orchestra, even the smallest one can perform these instrumentations; as well as this the songs are orchestrated so that they are even performable without voice. It is now extremely important to me to know that these very 5 songs are printed in my orchestrations as soon as possible.” (Brief vom 10. Mai 1915)

The manuscripts were sent to the publisher on 19 May; Reger’s plan to add two further songs of the publisher’s choice to the publication did not come to fruition. (See Brief vom 19. Mai 1915) After some disagreements regarding the author’s rights between the parties to the contract (see Reger’s postcard dated 2 June 1915), Reger received his fee on 8 June (see Reger’s postcard), but only received the proofs on 12 February 1916. (See Reger’s postcard) On 5 May, a few days before his death in Leipzig, he returned these to the publisher, to whom he also gave the manuscripts, and released the works for print. (See Reger’s postcard)3 The song orchestrations were published posthumously later that year.4

1
In 1904 Universal-Edition had taken over Aibl-Verlag and thus the rights to the works by Reger they published.
2
See the catalog of performances arranged by date, concert location, work, and performer.
3
The first printed edition of the Five Songs was published with the note on the title page: “The composer completed the orchestration of the songs in 1916 and declared the brush proofs were ready for print a few days before he passed away.”
4
These are published in Vol. II/6 of the RWA.
About this Blogpost

Authors:
Stefan König, Dennis Ried

Translations:
Elizabeth Robinson (en)

Date:
18th October 2021

Tags:
Module IISongsVol. II/2

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Citation

Stefan König, Dennis Ried: Reger's orchestral versions of his own songs, in: Reger-Werkausgabe, www.reger-werkausgabe.de/rwa_post_00023, version 3.1.0-rc3, 20th December 2024.

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