RWA Volume II/2 – Biographical context
Stefan König, Dennis Ried
1.
The years 1898 to 1901 marked Reger’s breakthrough as a composer. After a difficult physical and psychological crisis, he had returned from Wiesbaden to his parents’ house in Weiden. There he was able to concentrate on his composing without outside obligations, and he succeeded in consolidating things both artistically and personally. In just three years he composed over 40 works and numerous arrangements. His artistic productivity was helped not least the lack of distractions. An increasing sense of confidence also resulted in the successful conclusion of his search for a publisher which Reger had embarked upon after George Augener (London) had lost interest in his works. Thanks to an introduction from Richard Strauss, who initially recommended him as an arranger, then also as a composer,1 Reger met Otto and Eugen Spitzweg, the managing directors of the Munich publisher Jos. Aibl. In spring 1899 the company published works including his opp. 19–23, 28, and 30 –32, and in summer the first piano arrangements of songs by Richard Strauss (RWV Strauss-B1). Over the following years, Aibl could be relied on by Reger to publish his works, most of which he submitted in groups. As early as March 1899 the debts which he still had remaining from his period in Wiesbaden were almost paid off.2
In his works, Reger focussed primarily on three areas: major organ works, chamber music, and songs. In Weiden he composed works for organ including seven Chorale fantasias (opp. 27, 30, 40 nos. 1–2, 52 nos. 1–3), the Sonata in F sharp minor op. 33, Fantasia and Fugue on B-A-C-H op. 46 and Symphonic Fantasia and Fugue op. 57, in chamber music the Cello Sonata in G minor op. 28, the Violin Sonata in A major op. 41, Four Sonatas for solo violin op. 42, the Clarinet Sonatas in A major and F sharp minor op. 49 nos. 1 and 2, the Piano Quintet in C minor op. 64 and the String Quartets in G minor and A major op. 54 nos. 1 and 2. As well as this, Reger composed choral works and songs, the latter often individual works slotted in amongst the long progress of composing organ and chamber music. The extent of a collection was often not clear at the beginning. Reger, who was “always on the search for texts” 3, more often gradually gathered together songs he had composed into one opus, or divided them between several (see opp. 35 and 37). Over time the song collections became more extensive; opp. 51 and 55 (1900/01) already contained 12 and 15 songs respectively. The order of the songs was always decided upon subsequently by the composer (see the respective histories of each work’s composition).
Whilst Reger had set 19th century classics in the songs he composed in Wiesbaden (Friedrich Rückert, Emanuel Geibel),4 in Weiden he turned almost exclusively to contemporary lyric poetry, for which he held great musical hopes. At the beginning of 1900 he stated: “Equally I find the complaints in our “favorite German magazines of the snobbish cultured elite” [...], that there are no longer any ‘poets’, simply laughable! e. g. what marvellous truly poetic images of the very first rank our new German poets such as D. von Liliencron, J. O. Bierbaum, R. Dehmel, E. Bodmann, Anna Ritter, O. Wiener etc. etc. have created! [...] I find that our modern lyric poetry [...] has become much more sensitive! Much finer too!” 5 A central criterion for Reger’s choice of texts was not the poetic work of art, but “the basic mood and the intensity of feeing elicited by the text” 6. The texts followed an “aspiration to an ‘inwardness’ [‘Innerlichkeit’]” ubiquitous in contemporary lyric poetry, with which “more subtly perceived emotions were given expression” 7. Reger developed his approach to this modern lyric poetry in his Weiden songs in the sense of an “art of impression and nerve” 8, in which harmonious floating states, ambivalences, and nuances are created. The desire to “formulate a ‘modern language of feelings’” 9 was accompanied by the renunciation of melodic cantabile qualities and a turning towards the modern ‘declamatory’ song.10
As Reger was still without access to artistic circles in Weiden, he satisfied his great need for texts mainly through music, literature, and interdisciplinary arts magazines. He found texts for his songs in, for example, Stimmen der Gegenwart (Monatsschrift für moderne Literatur und Kritik, edited by Max Beyer and Martin Boelitz), in Die Gesellschaft (Münchener Halbmonatsschrift für Kunst und Kultur, edited by Arthur Seidl) and in the “Texte für Liederkomponisten” column in the Neue Musik-Zeitung. Around 1900 he also made his first contact by letter with poets (Anna Ritter, Richard Braungart), who sent him texts to set.
As a performer of his songs, Reger was firstly able to interest Josef Loritz, a baritone who had studied in Munich and was the conductor of the Regensburg Liederkranz. In 1899, at the age of 35, he began a career as a singer and gave concerts with Reger several times over the following years.11 Other early performers of Reger’s songs included Susanne Dessoir (née Triepel) and Maria Hösl, the sister of his friend the violinist Josef Hösl. But to be able to promote his works actively, it was necessary to move away from tranquil Weiden: “I have to go to a center of music”,12 Reger wrote to the organist Georg Stolz. From early on he had his sights on Munich, where he was able to make his debut as a pianist in December 1900.13 On 1 September 1901 Reger and his parents left the provincial Upper Palatinate and moved to the Bavarian capital with its cultural high-life.
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: RWA Volume II/2 – Biographical context, in: Reger-Werkausgabe, www.reger-werkausgabe.de/rwa_post_00034, version 3.1.0-rc3, 20th December 2024.
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