Ferdinand Hiller digital realisations

[Alan Howe]

Yes: yet more tantalising glimpses of Hiller's compositional processes - thanks very much!

[tpaloj]

Es muss doch Frühling werden, for men's chorus and orchestra, Op. 136

Hiller composed a setting of Emanuel Geibel's poem Hoffnung around 1864–67 for men's chorus and orchestra. In this realisation I've used the piano accompaniment as I could only find the vocal score online.

A powerful work and a powerful poem, I felt Hiller had done great justice to the setting. The music captures well the strong opposing sentiments of harsh winter and gentle spring. Especially accomplished to me are the alternating stanzas of the beginning and the fugato starting from Allegro con fuoco towards the coda. A worthwhile work I feel should deserve a real recording!

The piano is Noteperformer, and for the digital voices, I experimented for the first time with Cantamus voices.

Youtube link

[Reverie]

This is very interesting Tuomas and well done for trying it and with a great deal of success imo. How did you find working with Cantamus? Do they need a fairly clean typeset PDF or would an original MS suffice?

[Mark Thomas]

As Martin has already written, this is quite an achievement. If I say it's "surprisingly" convincing, the surprise is at what the software can achieve, not in your musicality or ability Tuomas!

[tpaloj]

Thank you! I used musicxml transfer after editing the piece in Dorico, so I did no editing in the editor of Cantamus itself. Just the conversion process. For this 13 minute piece with 4 choir staves, the render took a full 30 minutes. So, it takes a while. Strangely, after about 7 minutes of music, the playback of voices became garbled for some reason. I had to split the files in half and render the two parts of the music separately to prevent it.

Also, I found out Cantamus didn't always know what to do with rit. and stringendo instructions, and in some cases failed to notate them in its playback. There is perhaps something I'm missing in this regard as I'm just starting to learn this tool's capabilities. Might be something one can fix in Cantamus's editor.

[Ilja]

As much as I understand the limitations of Cantamus, you have to admit that it's a huge leap forward in the digital rendering of voices. And in this case, it's particularly rewarding; Hiller's music is always interesting to get to know. Thank you!

[tpaloj]

Der Spielmann, Ballade mit Intermezzi für eine Violine mit Orchesterbegleitung

Today, we have a very curious and obscure piece from the ever industrious Hiller. This work is essentially a set of seven (rather brief) interludes to a ballade by the author Johanna Baltz (1849–1918). The autograph full score and piano arrangements of this work* include snippets of Baltz's text, but unfortunately the full text is not preserved with these materials.

As far as I can tell, the existence of this work has never been brought up in any listings or catalogues of Hiller's music before. I've been unable to find out if it was ever performed, either.

The work is scored for solo violin and orchestra. The full orchestra, which includes double woodwind, two horns and trumpets each, a timpani and strings, is only used in three of the seven movements. For the most part, the accompaniment is kept to strings only. To my mind, I quite like the violin writing throughout this work, especially in Nrs. 2, 4 and 5.

Due to very poor resolution of the digitized scans, I was not fully able to transcribe the text into the score in the video, so there are a few missing words here and there. Let me know what you think!


YOUTUBE LINK: https://youtu.be/pHf5jr_qt4Y

* Found in the collections of the Historisches Archiv Köln, under shelf number Best. 1051. [A60 - 1 Paket Noten - ohne Datum.] Materials consist of a full score, clavierauszug and a set of performance parts.

[cypressdome]

What a fascinating work. From the text you were able to transcribe did you get an understanding about the subject matter of Baltz's ballade?

[tpaloj]

What a fascinating work. From the text you were able to transcribe did you get an understanding about the subject matter of Baltz's ballade?

Based on the available fragments (and to make some broad assumptions), the ballade appears to depict the artistic and/or spiritual awakening of its protagonist.

Much of the action appears to be obscured by the missing portions of the text. Only at start do we get a bigger picture of where the action begins, that is, in a forest at night. Some sort of a sound or sensation is experienced which awakens the senses of the protagonist. Then, a violin's melody is heard from afar (Nr. 2). After this, some sort of loss or a deep feeling is experienced, perhaps a religious one (Nr. 3)? The playing of the violin represents Spring and the awakening of love (Nr. 4/5). The text concludes with the symbolic approach of morning dawn (Nr. 7).

Introduction

So still [...] vom Wald umkränzt
Vom Silberlicht des Mond's beglänzt;
Verlassen von dem lauten Schwarme,
Ihr Tags hier lautes Leben schuf.
Die milde Nacht auf Gottes Ruf
Umfängt die Welt mit weichem Arme.
 
Ein süßes Duften steigt empor.
Es prangt im vollen Blüthenflor
Dort im [...] die alte Linde
Am Erkenfenster leis und sacht
[...], gute Nacht!
Dem wunderholden [...].

Schon [...] sinnt, sie blickt hinan,
So still der Mond die [...]!
Hinwandelt in dem Himmelsgarten
Zu dieser Stunde hörte sie
Jüngst zaubervolle Melodie —
Sie lauscht in ahnungssel'gen Worten.
 
Sie lauscht ihr dunkles Auge glüht
Die [...] sie ins [...] blüht;
"O [...] zurück!" so fleht sie leise
Bringst du die Antwort, Abendwind?

Nr. 2

Auf weicher Schwinge trägt erbend'
Ihr zu die sehnsuchtsvolle Weise.

Nr. 3

So blickt sein Auge weltentrückt
Und schaut in weite, dunkle Fernen.

Nr. 4

Spiel auf! Von Lenz und Liebe sag
Daß dies uns all ihr Zauber werde!

Nr. 5

Horch! da ertönt der Geige Klang,
wie ein berührend Liebeswerden.

Nr. 6

Was ich empfand, die Lust, die Qual
[...] Sangs erklingen lassen!

Nr. 7

Dir lenkt ein Höherer die Hand
Erleuchtet dich mit seinem Lichte
Schau etc.      den Morgensegen! —

[tpaloj]

Psalm 126

Ferdinand Hiller's setting of Psalm 126, composed for alto solo, chorus and orchestra, was composed during August 1853 and finished on the 22th at Brühl. Lasting around 12 minutes, the work was premiered on 25 October 1853 in Cologne. A second performance took place in January 1854. The orchestration is standard for the period, although unconventionally, trumpets are omitted altogether.

In its premiere, the work was very well received. It was never published, however. Below, I've included a review of the premiere, which appeared in the Rheinische Musik-Zeitung on 29 October 1853. The review goes to describe each of the four numbers of this work in some detail.

In my realisation, I've typeset the work following Hiller's MS score, and attempted to give some life to the "singers" by realising those parts with Cantamus synthetic voices.

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/4RDKtrkY9cQ

Die Composition des 126. Psalms von Ferdinand Hiller besitzt alle die Vorzüge durch die sich des Meisters Arbeiten dieser Gattung, namentlich sein Oratorium allgemeine Anerkennung errungen haben. Die musikalischen Gedanken sind edel und entsprechen dem Sinn der herrlichen Dichtung; ihre Form und künstlerische Durchbildung ist klar und fliessend, die Mittel des Solo und Chorgesanges getragen von reicher Orchestration sind von der sichern Hand des erfahrenen Künstlers in schöner und äusserst wohlthuender Weise entfaltet. In dem ersten Chor wird der Zustand der Seele die sich ans langer Noth und Gefangenschaft endlich errettet sieht, und das neue Glück noch nicht fassend, sich wie vom Traume befangen findet, in sinniger Weise ausgedrückt. Das Glück ist noch ein zukünftiges und aus der Mitte des Leidens heraus wird es nur vorgestellt. Auf dem dunkel gehaltenen Grunde einer getragenen Orchestration heben sich in wehmüthig sanfter Klage die Stimmen des Chors ab, sie steigern sich nur bei den Worten "dann wird unser Mund voll Lachens sein" zu einem freudigen Ausdruck, bald wieder zur Trauer und zu dem Gefühl zurücksinkend, dass ihnen, wie später das Leiden, so jetzt noch das Glück nicht mehr denn ein Traumbild ist. Das Recitativ einer Altstimme vermittelt den Uebergang zur Erinnerung an die grossen Thaten Gottes, denen das Volk oft seine Erlösung verdankte. Hell und schön ist die Ausführung dieses Chores gehalten, wenn auch in der Erfindung der Motive vielleicht nicht so bedeutend, als das folgende. Dieses, ein Alt-Solo mit Chor, bildet den Kern und den Schluss des Ganzen: "Die mit Thränen säen, werden mit Freuden ernten"; hier nimmt die Composition einen höhern Schwung. Die Läuterung der Seele durch Leiden und die sanfte Freude nach überstandenen Schmerzen kommen hier zum vollkommenen Ausdruck und die edele empfundene und schön geführte Cantilene der Altstimme, das Eingreifen des Chorgesanges der bald capella, bald mit Orchester-Begleitung das Motiv aufnimmt und weiter entwickelt, machen einen höchst wohlthuenden und wahrhaft harmonischen Eindruck. Das Ganze maassvoll in seinem Umfang wie seinem Inhalt nach, ist eine schöne Gabe, womit der Meister nach langer Abwesenheit bei seiner Rückkehr die Freunde ächter Musik beschenkt hat.

[eschiss1]

His setting of Psalm 125 (Op.60, for tenor, chorus and orchestra) by contrast was quite popular and republished often, it seems. (Listed in HMB as Psalm 25 but in Worldcat and IMSLP as Psalm 125.) (He wrote two other settings of Psalm 126, published in 1844 and 1871 (Israels Siegesgesang) respectively...)

[tpaloj]

His setting of Psalm 125 (Op.60, for tenor, chorus and orchestra) by contrast was quite popular and republished often, it seems. (Listed in HMB as Psalm 25 but in Worldcat and IMSLP as Psalm 125.) (He wrote two other settings of Psalm 126, published in 1844 and 1871 (Israels Siegesgesang) respectively...)

Indeed! Thanks for the additional info, and, if one hasn't had enough Psalm 126 with their morning cereal yet, I did also finish a video of Israels Siegesgesang a few years ago: Youtube link