Hymnus der Liebe op. 136
Version for baritone (or alto) and orchestra (piano reduction)
-
Hymnus der Liebe
Text: Ludwig Jacobowski
Fritz und Margarete Stein
- -
- -
1.
| Reger-Werkausgabe | Bd. II/5: Lieder V, S. 198–211. |
| Herausgeber | Knud Breyer und Stefan König. Unter Mitarbeit von Christopher Grafschmidt und Claudia Seidl. |
| Verlag | Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart; Verlagsnummer: CV 52.812. |
| Erscheinungsdatum | Oktober 2024. |
| Notensatz | Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart. |
| Copyright | 2024 by Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart and Max-Reger-Institut, Karlsruhe – CV 52.812. Vervielfältigungen jeglicher Art sind gesetzlich verboten. / Any unauthorized reproduction is prohibited by law. Alle Rechte vorbehalten. / All rights reserved. |
| ISMN | M-007-33910-4 |
| ISBN | 978-3-89948-463-2. |
Hymnus der Liebe
Ludwig Jacobowski: [Höre mich, Ewiger, Allerbarmer…], in: Litterarische Blätter, ed. by Franz Evers and Albert Kohl, 2. Jg. (), issues 1–3, , pp. 19–21, 56–58, 94–96.
unknown
Used for comparison purposes in RWA: First edition
Copy shown in RWA: DE, Karlsruhe, Max-Reger-Institut/Elsa-Reger-Stiftung, G.
Note: Der von Reger vertonte Text ist nur ein kleiner Ausschnitt aus der 1887 verfassten “Metaphysischen Dichtung” Vom Geschlecht der Promethiden.
Note: Ein halbes Jahr später in Ludwig Jacobowski, Funken. Neue Dichtungen, Verlag E. Pierson, Dresden, Juni 1891, S. [125]–152, hier: S. 146–147 (ebenfalls ohne Titel).
1. Composition and Publication
On 24 August 1914, Reger wrote to his friend Karl Straube, telling him about what he was currently composing: “You might be interested to know that I’ve not been lazy recently! The Variations with fugue on a theme by Mozart for orchestra op. 132 are long done and dusted, already engraved and the proofs already corrected; then my op. 133 is being engraved, the piano quartet (a minor)! and I’ve just sent to the engraver’s my op. 134, Variations and fugue for piano 2 hands on a theme by Telemann. (It’s a piano work in the grandest style.) Now I’m working on op. 135: ‘Hymnus der Liebe’ [‘Hymn of love’] – a wonderful text by Ludwig Jacobowsky [sic] for baritone (contralto) with orchestra.” (Letter to Karl Straube of 24 August 1914) At this point, the last of these works still bore the opus number that would later be shared by Reger’s “Thirty short chorale preludes on the most common chorales” and his Fantasy and Fugue in d minor, both for organ. The text that he set to music in his Hymnus der Liebe was taken from Ludwig Jacobowski’s “Metaphysical poem” entitled Vom Geschlecht der Promethiden (“The race of the Prometheans”). Jacobowski was 19 years old when he wrote this multi-part, epic poem in 1887. He published it in 1890, both in the journal Litterarische Blätter1 and in his own volume of poems, Funken.2 The passage that Reger set to music is found in the final third of the main section of the poem, where it forms a separate paragraph.3 It is not possible to determine what exactly was Reger’s source for the text, not least since neither of the aforementioned published versions contains the title “Hymn of love”, nor is this title something that comes immediately to mind in the context of the original poem. Reger set a total of nine poems by Jacobowski to music and he presumably owned a separate copy of the text that bore the title he used.
Reger’s work on the Hymnus der Liebe coincided with the start of the First World War. The autograph engraver’s copy is dated “25 August 1914”. Shortly after war broke out on 1 August, Reger was still hoping “that this terrible war business will soon be over”. (Letter to N. Simrock (Richard Chrzescinski) of 3 August 1914) When he sent the engraver’s copies of the orchestral score and the vocal score to his publisher on 4 September, he told them – quite against his usual custom – “The engraving of this work, op. 136, isn’t urgent”; “[...] if op. 136 appears next spring, that would be perfectly fine”. (Letter to N. Simrock (Wilhelm Graf) of 4 September 1914) The reason for this schedule can be found in a letter dated 19 December 1914 that he wrote to his friend, the singer Anna Erler-Schnaudt, who had obviously been asking about it: “My op. 136 will be published by Simrock in the summer! It would be paradoxical if a ‘Hymn of love’ were to be published now – the text deals very sensibly with human kindness, i.e. loving one’s neighbour!” (Letter to Anna Erler-Schnaudt of 19 December 1914) Reger didn’t receive the proofs until 2 June 1915, but decided that there was still time to correct them, because he did not intend Hymnus der Liebe to be published “until after the war”. (Postcard to Anna Erler-Schnaudt of 19 July 1915) The proofs remained with him for almost a year. He only checked them after the end of the next concert season, in April 1916, but then sent them back straightaway to his publisher. Reger died unexpectedly on 11 May 1916. The orchestral and vocal scores were published posthumously the following July – and thus, contrary to Reger’s wishes, still in wartime.4
2.
Translation by Chris Walton.
1. Reception
The piano version of the Hymnus was given its first performance at a charity concert on 17 October 1917 in Rudolstadt in Thuringia. The baritone soloist was Albert Fischer and the piano part was played by Fritz Busch,1 who also conducted the first performance of the orchestral version on 18 June 1918 in Jena. Elsa Reger had asked Busch to programme the work. Performing it in its piano version was a less-than-ideal solution that was presumably a result of external circumstances. Fritz Busch wrote to her as follows: “Even if the work is intended with orchestra, I hope to be able to provide the accompaniment on the piano with as many tone colours as possible. I always think it’s better for people to hear a work by Reger, even if only in a good arrangement, than not to hear it at all.” (Letter from Fritz Busch to Albert Fischer of 4 August 1916).
The Hymnus der Liebe was dedicated “to Fritz and Grethel Stein in memory of Merano 1914”. (Reger’s postcard to Fritz Stein of 5 September 1914) The Steins were friends of the Regers and had accompanied the composer to Merano in South Tyrol for a cure after his breakdown of 28 February 1914.
2.
Translation by Chris Walton.
1. Stemma
2. Quellenbewertung
Der Edition liegt als Leitquelle der Erstdruck des Klavierauszugs zugrunde. Als Referenzquellen wurden die Stichvorlage des Klavierauszugs sowie in wenigen Fällen Stichvorlage und Erstdruck der Partitur herangezogen. Der Entwurf spielte für editorische Ent- scheidungen keine Rolle.
3. Sources
- Entwurf (E)
- Stichvorlage Klavierauszug (SVK)
- Stichvorlage Partitur (SVP)
- Erstdruck Klavierauszug (EDK)
- Erstdruck Partitur (EDP)
Object reference
Max Reger: Hymnus der Liebe op. 136, in: Reger-Werkausgabe, www.reger-werkausgabe.de/mri_work_01464.html, version 3.1.0-rc3, 20th December 2024.
Information
This is an object entry from the RWA encyclopaedia. Links and references to other objects within the encyclopaedia are currently not all active. These will be successively activated.