RWA Online Blog RWA Volume I/4 – Chorale preludes; Introduction

RWA Volume I/4 – Chorale preludes; Introduction

Alexander Becker, Stefan König, Christopher Grafschmidt, Stefanie Steiner-Grage

1.

The third volume in the series of organ works includes, in chronological order, the chorale preludes Max Reger composed between c. October 1893 and November 1914 in Wiesbaden, Weiden, Munich, Leipzig, and Meiningen:

  • Chorale Prelude »O Traurigkeit, o Herzeleid« WoO IV/2 (1893)
  • Chorale Prelude »Komm, süßer Tod!« WoO IV/3 (1893)
  • Chorale Prelude »Christ ist erstanden von dem Tod« WoO IV/9 (1901)
  • Chorale Prelude »Es kommt ein Schiff geladen« WoO IV/14 (1901)
  • Fifty-two Easy Preludes on the most common protestant chorales op. 67 (1901/02)
  • Compositions op. 79b (1904)
  • Chorale Prelude »O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden« WoO IV/13 (1905)
  • Chorale Prelude »Wie schön leucht’t uns der Morgenstern« WoO IV/16 (1909)
  • Thirty Little Chorale Preludes on the most common chorales op. 135a (1914)

Reger composed chorale preludes throughout his entire career, although there were peaks in the years 1899 to 1902 (works published as periodical inserts and op. 67) and 1914 (op. 135a). Almost uniquely amongst composers around the turn of the century, he contributed around a hundred works to a genre which, although it remained alive as music in use, had largely become the domain of church music directors and organists since the 19th century. In the tension between artistic and functional demands, Reger’s chorale preludes were indeed conceived with an eye to the requirements of church music, however, they set artistic standards. As in his output as a whole, in many places large-scale works and smaller pieces are juxtaposed, and so within the chorale preludes, we find pieces of very varied character. The collections are also differentiated with regard to the performers they are intended for. With opp. 79b (compiled from periodical inserts) and 135a, Reger expanded the existing repertoire for daily worship. Quite a few pieces from op. 67 also regularly found their place in concert programs. Reger was convinced, “that no such collection of chorale preludes had been published since J.S. Bach” (Letter).

Up to August 1901 Reger wrote his chorale preludes exclusively for publication in periodicals. In the second half of the 19th century, the “tendency towards specialisation” in particular areas of interest in musical life “resulted in a considerable increase in the founding of periodicals”1, a development which was still gathering pace during Reger’s time.2 At the same time, interdisciplinary cultural periodicals aimed at a wide audience also sometimes included pieces of music in their publications.3 For composers at the turn of the century, the wide variety of periodicals offered opportunities to publicize themselves to the cultural world with the help of music inserts. In December 1900 Reger told the conductor Wilhelm Lamping: “In this respect I am not unhappy writing for periodicals, because through this, your name becomes known to people a little; in addition, I receive quite a nice payment for this. One can ‘relax’ doing this.”4

In terms of quantity, Reger’s compositions for periodicals as well as his organ compositions for daily worship as a whole reached a peak between 1899 and 1901. However, he wanted to have the chorale preludes from this time published together in a volume soon, something which was only achieved by the publisher Beyer & Söhne in 1904 with op. 79b. As early as 1893, when he wrote his first two works in this genre, Reger had considered publishing such a collection5. Only in 1901/02, however, did he bring this to fruition with his op. 67. In contrast with op. 79b, this was planned as an independent opus from the outset, even though two previously-published preludes were inserted into the continuously-numbered engraver’s copy (see op. 67 – composition). Op. 135a was likewise conceived as a volume and belongs to a broader group of sacred works (Twelve sacred songs op. 137, Eight sacred songs op. 138, Requiem WoO V/9), with which Reger reacted to the beginning First World War in summer and autumn 1914.

1
Imogen Fellinger, Verzeichnis der Musikzeitschriften des 19. Jahrhunderts, Regensburg 1968 (= Studien zur Musikgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts, Vol. 10), p. 22.
2
Fellinger (see note 1) provides information on the founding of 112 periodicals in these subject areas in the last decade of the 19th century alone for German-speaking countries. However, they were often only short-lived; see ibid., pp. 263–326.
3
See Dieter Martin and Thomas Seedorf, Integration der Künste. Lied und Lyrik in Kultur- und Kunstzeitschriften der Jahrhundertwende, ibid. (ed.), Lied und Lyrik um 1900, Würzburg 2010 (= Klassische Moderne, Vol. 16), pp. 185–214.
4
Letter dated 26 December 1900, excerpts published in Meisterbriefe, p. 79.
5
»To autumn 1894 I have ready a large collection of chorale preludes of every character! Want to see who will print it.« (Letter to Adalbert Lindner) This ambition remained unfulfilled.
About this Blogpost

Authors:
Alexander Becker, Stefan König, Christopher Grafschmidt, Stefanie Steiner-Grage

Translations:
Elizabeth Robinson (en)

Date:
1st June 2013

Tags:
Module IVol. I/4

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Citation

Alexander Becker, Stefan König, Christopher Grafschmidt, Stefanie Steiner-Grage: RWA Volume I/4 – Chorale preludes; Introduction, in: Reger-Werkausgabe, www.reger-werkausgabe.de/rwa_post_00050, version 3.1.0-rc3, 20th December 2024.

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