Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Friedrich Nietzsche
Recordings of 17 compositions for voice, violin, choir, piano, and piano duet
Performers
Valerie Kinslow, soprano; Eric Oland, baritone;
Sven Meier, violin;
The Orpheus Singers, dir. Peter Schubert;
Lauretta Altman, piano;
Daniella Bernstein, piano (in Manfred Meditation);
Wolfgang Bottenberg, piano (in the other works for piano duet)
Production
Artistic supervision, editing, and re-creation of scores:
Wolfgang Bottenberg
Recording supervision and digital editing:
Mark Corwin
Credits
Research assistance:
Faculties of Fine Arts and of Arts and Science, Concordia University, Montreal
Arts Faculty, University of Auckland
Performance material:
Prepared by Wolfgang Bottenberg from original manuscripts and from
Friedrich Nietzsche, Der musikalische Nachlass, ed. Curt Paul Janz, Basel 1976,
with permission of Brenreiter Music Corp.,
US agent: Foreign Music Distributors
The Compositions
1. Hoch tut euch auf
2. Einleitung
3. Miserere
4. Einleitung
5. Einleitung
6. Hter, ist die Nacht bald hin?
(2:24)
(2:12)
(6.21)
(1:36)
(1:44)
(1:21)
7. Heldenklage
8. Klavierstck
9. Zigeunertanz
10. Aus der Jugendzeit
11. Da geht ein Bach
12. Wie sich Rebenranken schwingen
13. Eine Sylvesternacht
14. Junge Fischerin
15. Manfred Meditation
16. Monodie a deux (Lob der Barmherzigkeit)
17. Gebet an das Leben
(1:59)
(2:12)
(2.59)
(2:55)
(1:34)
(1:13)
(11:13)
(3.52)
(9:22)
(4:21)
(2:23)
1. Hoch tut euch auf, for choir. Written December 1858 after a performance of
Handels Messiah. The original consists only of parts which do not always match,
and had to be completed for this performance. The text is from a German translation
of The Messiah:
Hoch tut euch auf, ihr Tore der Welt
dass der Knig der Ehren einziehe.
Lift up your heads, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors;
and the King of Glory shall come in.
2. Einleitung (Introduction), for piano duet. Probably written in 1858 when Nietzsche
became a pupil at Schulpforta, as an introduction for a larger orchestral work.
Extensive revisions were required since the young composers imagination exceeded
his technical skills.
3. Miserere, for five-part choir a capella. Written in the summer of 1860, as a
contribution for the Germania Society. The text is part of psalm 51.
4. Einleitung, for piano. Written in the summer of 1861, in connection with the
Christmas Oratorio, his last sacred composition.
5. Einleitung, for piano. This is the introduction to the Christmas Oratorio, to
establish the mood of expectant waiting before the birth of Christ. The music seems
to be influenced by the B flat minor prelude of Bachs Das wohltemperierte Klavier.
6. Hter, ist die Nacht bald hin? (Watchman, is night ended soon?), for choir. Part
of the Christmas Oratorio of 1861. The text may be by the composer:
Hter, ist die Nacht bald hin?
Dunkel deckt das Erdenreich,
Finsternis deckt die Welten
Watchman, is night ended soon?
Darkness covers the earth,
the worlds are filled with gloom.
7. Heldenklage (Heroic Lament), for piano. This is the first of a series of character
pieces for piano, written in 1862 as a contribution for the Germania Society.
8. Klavierstck, for piano. The original manuscript breaks off after twenty-three bars.
The composition heard in this performance has been revised and completed in the
style of Schumann or Chopin, who Nietzsche played frequently at that time.
9. Zigeunertanz (Gypsy dance), for piano. The influence of Liszt is unmistakable.
Part of the original manuscript is lost; the composition has been completed into what
the editor estimated were its original dimensions.
10. Aus der Jugendzeit (From the times of youth), for voice and piano. Nietzsche
was eighteen years old when he wrote this song in 1862 to a poem of Friedrich
Rckert that expresses nostalgia for lost youth. Nietzsches sensitive setting may be
a reflection of the loss he experienced in his youth through the loss of his father.
Aus der Jugendzeit
klingt ein Lied mir immerdar.
O wie liegt so weit
was mein einst war.
11. Da geht ein Bach (A brook goes there), for voice and piano. The text for this
song, by Klaus Groth, was originally in low German dialect, but Nietzsche used a
translation into high German.
Da geht ein Bach das Tal entlang,A brook moves through the valleyground
Wohin er wohl nur will?
Where leads the waters quest?
So geht mein Herz den ganzen Tag
My heart moves likewise day and night,
und steht nicht einmal still.
it never seems to rest.
Das steht erst an der Mhle still;
das Rad dreht sich herum.
Da steht es mir auf einmal still,
sag an, mein Herz, warum?
12. Wie sich Rebenranken schwingen (Like the movement of vines), for voice and
piano. The text for this song is by August Hoffmann von Fallersleben, who visited
Schulpforta in October 1863. This may have been the occasion for writing this song.
Wie sich Rebenranken schwingen
in der linden Lfte Hauch,
wie sich weisse Winden schlingen
lustig um den Rosenstrach,
13. Eine Sylvesternacht ( A New Years Eve), for violin and piano. Written during the
earliest days of 1864 for Nietzsches childhood friend Gustav Krug, who became a
composer himself and set many of Nietzsches texts to music. This is Nietzsches
only completed chamber music composition. A decade later, he used its introduction
in two large-scale orchestral works.
14. Junge Fischerin (Young fisher-maid), for voice and piano. This is the only song
by Nietzsche where, with certainty, he set his own poetry to music. He wrote the
song in 1865; he had written the poem three years earlier, in 1862. As he did with
most of his other songs, he used only part of the poem for the musical setting. The
song is durchkomponiert (through-composed), with a mixture of quiet passages and
violent exclamations. Nietzsche himself characterized it as Zukunftsmusik (music of
the future). There are two versions of this song. This is a performance of the second
version, in which Nietzsche apparently tried to make some improvements over the
first version.
Des Morgens still ich trume
und schau den Wolken nach,
wenn leise durch die Bume
zittert der junge Tag.
Die Nebel wogen und wallen,
das Frhrot drber hin.
O niemand weiss van allen
dass ich so traurig bin.
15. Manfred-Meditation for piano duet. Dated and signed by Nietzsche April 15,
1872. This is a tone-poem responding to the spirit of Byrons Manfred. With this
composition, Nietzsche wanted to show that he had, as a composer, reached a
certain maturity. He sent a copy of the score first to his friend Gustav Krug, who
praised it, and then to Hans von Blow, who replied with a devastating critique. At
first Nietzsche accepted the spirit of this negative judgement as a sign of honesty, but
gradually he recovered his confidence in the artistic value of his composition, helped
by a positive comment of Franz Liszt.
Von Blows completely negative response to Nietzsches efforts as a
composer has been accepted widely as the judgement of an expert. The
performance on this recording should give an opportunity to form, one and a half
centuries later, a more balanced opinion of the artistic merit of this work.
16. Monodie a deux (Lob der Barmherzigkeit), for piano duet. Written in February
1873 for the wedding of Olga Herzen (therefore Barmherzigkeit) and Gabriel Monod
(therefore Monodie). The composition is a reworking, with substantial extensions, of
the section dealing with the Annunciation of Mary from the sketches for Christmas
Oratorio of 1861. In a February 1873 letter to a friend, Nietzsche wrote about this
music that it should be perceived as a prognosis for a good marriage. Wagner, who