''Heliogabalus imperator'', ''allegoria per musica'' (''Emperor Heliogabalus, allegory in music'') is an orchestral 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 ...

. Composed in 1972 and revised in 1986, it is a "cinematic, circus-like" depiction of the brief, lurid reign of the teenage third century Roman emperor

Elagabalus Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus, 204 – 11/12 March 222), better known by his nickname "Elagabalus" (, ), was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager. His short reign was conspicuous for s ...

. Henze's inspiration came not from historical records but from literature, notably

Artaud Antoine Marie Joseph Paul Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud (; 4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French writer, poet, dramatist, visual artist, essayist, actor and theatre director. He is widely recognized as a major figure of the E ...

's fictional biography ''Héliogabale'' and

Stefan George Stefan Anton George (; 12 July 18684 December 1933) was a German symbolist poet and a translator of Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, Hesiod, and Charles Baudelaire. He is also known for his role as leader of the highly influential literary ...

's collection of poems, ''Algabal'', lines from which preface the score: A symphonic poem in all but name, the music is episodic in nature, depicting Heliogabalus's extravagant entry into

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

from his native Syria, as "ecstatic Arab children danced to the strident strains of barbarian music" at the head of the procession. Henze goes on to depict the overthrow of traditional morality with dynamic passages "producing all the noise, vulgarity, showiness and bestiality" of the regime, contrasting it with more reflective episodes depicting the young emperor alone, as "sun-god". The piece concludes with Heliogabalus's inevitable murder, the

Praetorian guard The Praetorian Guard (Latin: ''cohortēs praetōriae'') was a unit of the Imperial Roman army that served as personal bodyguards and intelligence agents for the Roman emperors. During the Roman Republic, the Praetorian Guard were an escort fo ...

depicted by brief snatches of German and American marches. The work lasts for about 28 minutes, and is scored for a large orchestra, with a particularly wide range of percussion (requiring five players), including

steel drum The steelpan (also known as a pan, steel drum, and sometimes, collectively with other musicians, as a steelband or steel orchestra) is a musical instrument originating in Trinidad and Tobago. Steelpan musicians are called pannists. Descript ...

tomtom TomTom N.V. is a Dutch multinational developer and creator of location technology and consumer electronics. Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Amsterdam, TomTom released its first generation of satellite navigation devices to market in 2004. ...

s, four sets of

tamtam The tamtam, sometimes spelled tam-tam, is a type of gong. TamTam, Tam-Tam, tamtam, or tam-tam may also refer to: * ''Tam-Tam'' (album), a 1983 album by Amanda Lear * Tam Tam (''Samurai Shodown''), a character from the fighting game ''Samurai Sh ...

s, a

flexatone The flexatone or fleximetal is a modern percussion instrument (an indirectly struck idiophone) consisting of a small flexible metal sheet suspended in a wire frame ending in a handle. Used in classic cartoons for its glissando effect, its sou ...

, whistles and an array of bells. It is dedicated to the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

fellow composer

Luigi Nono Luigi Nono (; 29 January 1924 – 8 May 1990) was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music. Biography Early years Nono, born in Venice, was a member of a wealthy artistic family; his grandfather was a notable painter. Nono beg ...

and to the

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an poet

Gaston Salvatore Gaston Salvatore (29 September 1941 – 11 December 2015) was a Chilean writer living in Germany and writing in the German language. Salvatore was born in Valparaíso. Among other things, he is known for his collaborations with Hans Werner Henze, ...

. The work was premièred by the

Chicago Symphony Orchestra The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) was founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891. The ensemble makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival. The music director is Riccardo Muti, who began his tenu ...

under Georg Solti on 16 November 1972. When Henze was later preparing the work to conduct himself, he removed what he described as "clumsy"

aleatoric Aleatoricism or aleatorism, the noun associated with the adjectival aleatory and aleatoric, is a term popularised by the musical composer Pierre Boulez, but also Witold Lutosławski and Franco Evangelisti, for compositions resulting from "action ...

passages. This revision was published in 1986, and given its première on 28 June 1989 at the

Villa Massimo Villa Massimo, short for Deutsche Akademie Rom Villa Massimo ( it, Accademia Tedesca Roma Villa Massimo), is a German cultural institution in Rome, established in 1910 and located in the Villa Massimo. The fellowship of the German Academy in Rom ...

by the

RAI National Symphony Orchestra The RAI National Symphony Orchestra ( it, italic=no, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI) is an Italian symphony radio orchestra, owned by the public radio and television company RAI. Its primary concert venue is the Auditorium RAI in the Piaz ...

under

Eberhard Kloke Eberhard Kloke (born 24 November 1948) is a German conductor and composer. Early life and education Born in Hamburg, Eberhard Kloke studied as a conductor at the Berlin University of the Arts and also for his degree in musicology and German St ...

. The première of ''Heliogabalus imperator'' was recorded, however it was not until 2019 that a commercial recording was issued, by Wergo Records. This was a transfer of a radio broadcast from 2014, made at the

Maida Vale Studios Maida Vale Studios is a complex of seven BBC sound studios, of which five are in regular use, in Delaware Road, Maida Vale, west London. It has been used to record thousands of classical music, popular music and drama sessions for BBC Radio 1 ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

by the

BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. T ...

conducted by

Oliver Knussen Stuart Oliver Knussen (12 June 1952 – 8 July 2018) was a British composer and conductor. Early life Oliver Knussen was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His father, Stuart Knussen, was principal double bass of the London Symphony Orchestra, and a ...

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=September 2016 1972 compositions 1986 compositions Compositions by Hans Werner Henze Cultural depictions of Elagabalus Fiction set in the Roman Empire Works set in the 3rd century