''Tristan'' is a six-movement

orchestral An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ...

work by the German composer

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as ...

. Scored for

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

, tape and full orchestra, its form is innovative for an instrumental concert: solo pieces for piano ("preludes") alternate with orchestral passages, which are played partly without, partly with the participation of the piano. It takes the form of a homage to Richard Wagner's opera ''

Tristan und Isolde ''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was comp ...

'', with the piano providing preludes to a series of widely divergent material, both live and on tape, including direct quotations from

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...

's First Symphony and Chopin's '' Funeral March'', a

birdsong Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs (relatively complex vocalizations) are distinguished by func ...

-like treatment on tape of a recording of a soloist singing Isolde's part and a child reading extracts from

Hilaire Belloc Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (, ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a Franco-English writer and historian of the early twentieth century. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. H ...

's English translation of

Joseph Bédier Joseph Bédier (28 January 1864 – 29 August 1938) was a French writer and scholar and historian of medieval France. Biography Bédier was born in Paris, France, to Adolphe Bédier, a lawyer of Breton origin, and spent his childhood in Réunio ...

's account of the death of Isolde, as well as a recording of a human heartbeat. Henze was both attracted to and repelled by aspects of 19th century culture, and so the passages of Wagner, Chopin and Brahms represent musical romanticism, which can be described in terms of progress, virtuosity and historicism. The tape has its own system in the score, which indicates the actual sound by means of graphic lines. The twelve-tone-set c#-d-a-d#-e-h-f-a#-f#-g#-c-g can be traced back to the three-tone constellation of major-third and minor-second, which also determine the first three notes of Richard Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" (a-f-e).

: "Tristan (1975)". In: Hans Werner Henze, Musik und Politik. Schriften und Gespräche 1955-1984. Erweiterte Neuausgabe, mit einem Vorwort von Jens Brockmeier, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, München 1984, p.227–243, here: p. 232. Commissioned by the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's Hall Orc ...

, it was premiered on 20 October 1974 under Colin Davis at the Royal Festival Hall in London. The piano soloist was

Homero Francesch Homero Francesch (born 6 December 1947, Montevideo, Uruguay) is a Uruguay-born Swiss pianist. Biography Francesch took piano lessons with Santiago Baranda Reyes in Uruguay. In 1967, he was awarded a scholarship by the German Academic Exchange S ...

, who later recorded it with the composer conducting. The six movements are: *''Prologue'' *''Lament'' *''Prelude and Variations'' *''Tristan's Folly'' *''Adagio'' *''Epilogue''

References

Further reading