Symphony No. 6 for two chamber orchestras by

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 ...

was written in 1969. It was written while the composer was living in

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

and marks a departure in the composer's symphonic output: whilst the previous five symphonies were more straightforwardly lyrical, the Sixth Symphony has a more overtly political theme, in common with other Henze works of this period. Henze himself said it was written using

experiences of a bourgeois who had been writing music to the ruling class for 20 years to compose against the bourgeoisie. Instead of nostalgia and
scepticism Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...
I wanted affirmation, direct avowal of revolution.

Henze included quotations from the song of the Vietnamese Liberation Front, 'Stars in the Night', first heard played on the banjo and also from

Mikis Theodorakis Michail "Mikis" Theodorakis ( el, Μιχαήλ "Μίκης" Θεοδωράκης ; 29 July 1925 – 2 September 2021) was a Greek composer and lyricist credited with over 1,000 works. He scored for the films ''Zorba the Greek'' (1964), '' Z'' ...

' 'Song of Freedom' on the

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

. Henze later improvises on the Cuban dance rhythm 'Son' which he contrasts with the more traditional sound of the European orchestra. However Henze himself has described the work overall as "a

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

symphony" but with "a Pagan body" and whose "pulse and blood are black" It was first performed on 26 November 1969 by an orchestra assembled for the occasion at the

University of Havana The University of Havana or (UH, ''Universidad de La Habana'') is a university located in the Vedado district of Havana, the capital of the Republic of Cuba. Founded on January 5, 1728, the university is the oldest in Cuba, and one of the firs ...

, with the composer conducting. In 1972 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 ...

recorded it, again under the baton of the composer. In 1994 Henze rewrote the improvised passages in full, and the revised symphony was premiered by the

Munich Philharmonic Orchestra The Munich Philharmonic (german: Münchner Philharmoniker, links=no) is a German symphony orchestra located in the city of Munich. It is one of Munich's four principal orchestras, along with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Rad ...

under

Ingo Metzmacher Ingo Metzmacher (born 10 November 1957 in Hanover) is a German conductor and artistic director of the festival KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen in Hanover. Life Ingo Metzmacher is the son of the cellist Rudolf Metzmacher and the research biol ...

. It is in three sections, although these run contiguously.

Movements

''Part I'' #♩ = 92 #un poco meno mosso (Fig. D, p. 23)Edition Schott, 1969 #meno mosso (p. 32) #Corona (p. 39) #meno mosso del tempo I (Fig. P, p. 51) ''Part II'' #Lento (Fig. T, p. 63) #"Song to Freedom" (Fig. V, p. 69) #Largo (Fig. X, p. 77) #♩ = 66 (p. 78) #♩ = 66 (p. 83) #♩ = 92 (p. 88) ''Part III'' #piu mosso (p. 102) #meno mosso (Fig. MM, p. 110) #piu mosso, con fuoco (Fig. OO, p. 113) #♩ = 100 (Fig. SS, p. 121)

References

{{Authority control 1969 compositions 6 Compositions for chamber orchestra