''Vier Tondichtungen nach A. Böcklin'' (Four

tone poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement (music), movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. T ...

s after

Arnold Böcklin Arnold Böcklin (16 October 182716 January 1901) was a Swiss Symbolism (arts), Symbolist Painting, painter. His five versions of the ''Isle of the Dead (painting), Isle of the Dead'' inspired works by several late-Romantic composers. Biography ...

), Op.

128 128 may refer to *128 (number), a natural number *AD 128, a year in the 2nd century AD *128 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC *128 (New Jersey bus) *128 Nemesis, a main-belt asteroid *Fiat 128, also known as the Zastava 128, a small family car **SEAT ...

, is a composition in four parts for orchestra by

Max Reger Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (19 March 187311 May 1916) was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher. He worked as a concert pianist, a musical director at the Paulinerkirche, Leipzig, Leipzig University Chu ...

, based on four paintings by Arnold Böcklin, including ''Die Toteninsel'' ('' ''Isle of the Dead''''). He composed them in

Meiningen Meiningen () is a town in the southern part of the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in the region of Franconia and has a population of around 26,000 (2024).

in 1913.

Background and history

While

s were a common genre around 1900, including many works by

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; ; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer and conductor best known for his Tone poems (Strauss), tone poems and List of operas by Richard Strauss, operas. Considered a leading composer of the late Roman ...

, Reger typically wrote more abstract music. He described his '' Eine romantische Suite'', Op. 125, and the tone poems after Böcklin as "Ausflug in das Gebiet der Programmusik" (Excursion in the realm of program music). Reger composed the four tone poems in

Meiningen Meiningen () is a town in the southern part of the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in the region of Franconia and has a population of around 26,000 (2024).

from end of May to July 1913, after planning it from October 1912. He dedicated the work to Julius Buths. The score and parts were published by Bote & Bock in September 1913. Reger conducted the first performance in

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

on 12 October that year, with the Städtisches Orchester (municipal orchestra).

Structure and scoring

The four parts are in contrasting tempo, slow–fast–slow–fast. Both slow movements, 1 and 3, are marked ''Molto sostenuto (aber nie schleppend)'' (but never dragging), both fast movements ''Vivace''. The work is scored for a symphonic orchestra of three flutes (including (piccolo), two oboes (including Cor Anglais), two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, harp, three timpani and more percussion, solo-violin, strings (

divisi In musical terminology, ''divisi'', or as typically printed ''“div.,”'' is an instruction to divide a single section of instruments into multiple subsections. This usually applies to the violins of the string section in an orchestra, although v ...

in I). The pieces can be played individually or as "a quasi-symphony".

Der geigende Eremit

' (''The Hermit Fiddler'', literally: The hermit playing violin) is based on a painting ''Der Einsiedler'' (''The Hermit'') that Böcklin made in Florence in 1884. A solo violin is contrasted by a group of strings playing '' con sordino'' and another group playing not muted. The "ethereal violin" has been compared to Ralph Vaughan Williams' '' The Lark Ascending'', composed in 1914. Klaus Uwe Ludwig wrote an arrangement of the movement for viola and organ, which was published by Breitkopf.

Im Spiel der Wellen

' (literally: In the play of the waves) is based on a painting ''Im Spiel der Wellen'' (''Playing in the Waves'') that Böcklin made in 1883. Like the painting, the music evokes the shimmering foam of surf in sunlight, and the play of

naiad In Greek mythology, the naiads (; ), sometimes also hydriads, are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water. They are distinct from river gods, who embodied ...

s and Triton. A reviewer compares the movement to Debussy's '' La mer'' written a few years earlier, noting that "Reger pursued the flamboyant realm of mythical creatures". Both works have a similar "sparkling orchestral character".

Die Toteninsel

' (''Isle of the Dead'') is based on a painting of the same name that Böcklin made in five different versions between 1880 and 1886. The painting has been regarded Böcklin's most famous work, with a title not by Böcklin himself, but the art dealer Fritz Gurlitt.

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

characterized the painting as expressing ''Sympathie mit dem Tode'' (sympathy with death), typical for the ''

fin de siècle "''Fin de siècle''" () is a French term meaning , a phrase which typically encompasses both the meaning of the similar English idiom '' turn of the century'' and also makes reference to the closing of one era and onset of another. Without co ...

''. A composition based on the painting by Andreas Hallén appeared in 1897, others followed, including a piece of the same title by Serge Rachmaninoff in 1909. Reger writes "long-held but shifting sonorities", using the orchestra like an organ. Max Beckschäfer arranged Reger's movement for organ in 1984. He played it first at the Marktkirche Wiesbaden in 1985, along with the organ part of his arrangement of Reger's '' Hebbel Requiem''.

Bacchanal

' is based on a painting ''Bacchantenfest'' (Feast of the Bacchants), painted around 1856. It may recall the "folly of earlier orgiastic times", or the longing of an older person to still be part of them. Reger, who called his own experience "Sturm und Trank" (storm and drink), as pun on "

Sturm und Drang (, ; usually translated as "storm and stress") was a proto-Romanticism, Romantic movement in German literature and Music of Germany, music that occurred between the late 1760s and early 1780s. Within the movement, individual subjectivity an ...

", used conterpoint, harmonic development and refined instrumentation to achieve a dazzling painting in sound.

Later performance

The work was performed in the official opening concert of the ''Reger-Jahr'' (Reger year) 2016 in Leipzig, where Reger died in 1916, played by the orchestra of the Musikhochschule Leipzig.

References

Cited sources

* * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

*
Max Reger / 4 Tondichtungen nach Böcklin

Universal Edition Universal Edition (UE) is an Austrian classical music publishing firm. Founded in 1901 in Vienna, it originally intended to provide the core classical works and educational works to the Austrian market. The firm soon expanded to become one of t ...

* Maureen Buja
Music and Art: Arnold Böcklin
interlude.hk

Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (; "Central German Broadcasting"), shortened to MDR (; stylized as mdr), is the public broadcaster for the federal states of Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. Established in January 1991, its headquarters are in Leipzig, wi ...

(MDR)
Max Reger: Vier Tondichtungen nach Arnold Böcklin, op. 128
(in German) Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landestheater

reger-in-leipzig.de {{italic title Symphonic poems Orchestral compositions by Max Reger 1913 compositions Music based on art Orchestral suites