[Schoenberg, Arnold. (1874–1951)] Walter, Bruno. (1876–1962)
Gurrelieder, Part III - Additional Woodwind Parts in Walter's Hand
Autograph musical manuscript in the important conductor's hand, giving supplementary clarinet, bassoon and trombone parts for a section of Part III of Schoenberg's Gurrelieder. 2 pp. The first leaf gives clarinet 1 and 2 and trombone 1 and 2 parts for the section between rehearsal numbers 67 and 68; the second leaf gives clarinet 1, 2, and 3 and bassoon 1, 2 and 3 parts for the section between rehearsal numbers 70 and 72. The autograph is identified at the lower right in another hand and dated November 29, 1935, Grosser Konzerthaussaal.Gurrelieder is a large cantata for five vocal soloists, narrator, chorus and large orchestra, composed by Arnold Schoenberg, on poems by the Danish novelist Jens Peter Jacobsen. Schoenberg began composing the work in 1900 as a song cycle for soprano, tenor and piano, using a lush, late-romantic style. He worked on this version sporadically until around 1903, then abandoned it and returned in 1910. Whereas Parts One and Two are clearly Wagnerian in conception and execution, Part Three features the pared-down orchestral textures and kaleidoscopic shifts between small groups of instruments favored by Mahler in his later symphonies. Schoenberg also introduced the first use of Sprechgesang (or Sprechstimme), a technique he would explore more fully in Pierrot Lunaire of 1912.
Franz Schreker conducted the premiere of the work in Vienna on 23 February 1913. Bruno Walter had hoped to perform the Gurrelieder in Munich in 1913, but the plan was not realized until after World War I.
Gurrelieder is scored for an unusually large orchestral and vocal ensemble, including very large woodwind and brass sections, three 4-part male choruses and a mixed choir. The present clarinet, bassoon and trombone parts are additional orchestrations by Walter, which fill in rests in those parts with doublings of the men's choir parts. This suggests that Walter may have performed the piece with reduced forces or not enough male singers.
"Walter never concealed his antipathy to atonality and serialism; nevertheless, the compositions that Schoenberg wrote early in his career were of great interest to Walter, as they were to many Viennese musicians and music-lovers. 'Schoenberg unquestionably outranked us all as a composer,' Walter recalled decades later, 'and he was also able to create more of a stir in Vienna's musical life than anybody else.'" (Erik Ryding, Rebecca Pechefsky, "Bruno Walter: A World Elsewhere," p. 58) (17411)
Manuscript Music Classical Music