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Fruhlingsfeier
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The blood of the dead Adonis turns into an anemone (Ovid, Met. X 735)
(1609), by
Hendrick Goltzius
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English
| Rite of Spring
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Catalogue
| TrV 220
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Opus
| 56, No. 5
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Text
| Heinrich Heine
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Language
| German
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Composed
| September 22, 1906
(
September 22, 1906
)
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Dedication
| Composer's Mother, Josephine
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Scoring
| Voice and piano
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"
Fruhlingsfeier
" (English:
"Spring Festival" or "Rite of Spring"
) is a
song
composed by
Richard Strauss
using the text of a poem with the same name by
Heinrich Heine
(1797-1856), the fifth in his
Opus
56 collection, (TrV 220) which was published in 1906. Originally written for piano and voice, Strauss wrote an orchestral version in 1933.
Composition History
[
edit
]
Strauss set three of Heine's poems in his six Opus 56 songs, the poem
Fruhlingsfeier
being from Heine's collection
Romanzen
(1839?42).
Startling and vivid, it depicts one of the wildest and most colorful of Spring rituals, the festival of
Adonis
...In addition to being the ideal of manly beauty, Adonis was the God of vegetation whose death and return to life represent decay in winter and its revival in Spring.
[1]
Jefferson believes that "This is the most uninhibited of Strauss's lieder so far as the words go, and certainly he matched these words to perfection in his later
orchestral
setting"
[2]
The orchestral version was written for
Viorica Ursuleac
in 1933. With this song "he had reached his ultimate formula in transparent coloring of a big song supported by big orchestral forces" and "..it is a virtuoso song in every respect, and given the right kind of agony in its interpretation, the final six repetitions of "Adonis!" can wring the heart". Del Mar also believes that the song "...remains in its orchestral version one of the most passionately colorful of Strauss's Lieder".
[3]
Lyrics
[
edit
]
"The poem expresses the ecstacy of the Spring festival of Adonis: its title could be translated as...
Rite of Spring
, and Heine's poem expresses the cyclic ritual death motif.
Fruhlingsfeier
is a paen of pagan worship from Strauss's beloved Greece".
[4]
Strauss added four repetitions of the name "Adonis" to the last verse.
Fruhlingsfeier
|
Rite of Spring
[5]
|
Das ist des Fruhlings traurige Lust!
Die bluhenden Madchen, die wilde Schar,
Sie sturmen dahin mit flatterndem Haar
Und Jammergeheul und entbloßter Brust:
"Adonis! Adonis!"
Es sinkt die Nacht. Bei Fackelschein
Sie suchen hin und her im Wald,
Der angstverwirret widerhallt
Vom Weinen und Lachen und Schluchzen und Schreien:
"Adonis! Adonis!"
Das wunderschone Junglingsbild,
Es liegt am Boden blaß und tot,
Das Blut farbt alle Blumen rot,
Und Klagelaut die Luft erfullt:
"Adonis! Adonis!"
|
This is the spring-tide's mournful feast;
The frantic troops of blooming girls
Are rushing hither with flying curls,
Mourning they smite their bare white breast,
Adonis! Adonis!
The night has come. By the torches' gleams
They search the forest on every side,
That echoes with anguish far and wide,
With tears, mad laughter, and sobs and screams,
Adonis! Adonis!
The mortal youth so strangely fair,
Lies on the cold turf pale and dead;
His heart's blood staineth the flowers red,
And a wild lament fulfills the air,
Adonis! Adonis!
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Orchestral arrangement
[
edit
]
Strauss finished the orchestral arrangement on September 3, 1933 whilst staying at the Hotel Rez in
Bad Wiessee
(during the same visit he also orchestrated
Mein Auge
and
Befreit
).
[6]
The premier of the orchestral version was given on 12 October 1933 in Berlin with Strauss conducting the Berlin philharmonic, Viorica Ursuleac the soloist.
[7]
References
[
edit
]
Notes
- ^
Del Mar, page 353.
- ^
Jefferson, page 72.
- ^
Del Mar, page 354.
- ^
Jefferson, page 72.
- ^
Translation by
Emma Lazarus, 1887
.
- ^
Trenner, page 541.
- ^
Trenner, page 542.
Sources
- Norman Del Mar
,
Richard Strauss. A Critical Commentary on his Life and Works
, Volume 3, London: Faber and Faber (2009)[1968] (second edition),
ISBN
978-0-571-25098-1
.
- Jefferson, Alan. (1971)
The Lieder of Richard Straus
s, Cassel and Company, London.
ISBN
0-304-93735-5
.
- Trenner, Franz (2003)
Richard Strauss Chronik
, Verlag Dr Richard Strauss Gmbh, Wien,
ISBN
3-901974-01-6
.
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