by Ian Zook
The rich tradition of choral singing had a pivotal touchstone in 1808 when composer and conductor Carl Friedrich Zelter formed the Singakadamie in Berlin. This group was limited to twenty-five singers who performed four-part songs and sought out new choral repertoire. Soon thereafter, Romantic era composers, including Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms, all composed interesting and evocative choral music that included horns. This month, we will listen to Forest and Hunting Songs of the Romantic Era, performed by the men’s chorus and the horns of the Vienna State Opera, released by The Musical Heritage Society in 1960.
The horn performers on this recording include Roland Berger, solo horn of the Vienna State Opera (coincidentally, this recording dates from his first year in that position at age 23), Friedrich Gabler, solo horn of the Vienna Volksopera and professor at the State Academy, and Roland Barr, Günter Högner, and Hans Fischer who played first, third, and fourth horns respectively in the State Opera. It is worth noting that the traditional membership of the Vienna Philharmonic is based primarily on performance with the State Opera. After successfully auditioning into the Opera and a three-year probationary period, members are then eligible to perform with the Vienna Philharmonic. Berger, Gabler, and Fischer were also students of Gottfried von Freiberg, the former solo horn of the Vienna Philharmonic.
Although this album has many selections which include horns, we will focus on two marvelous choral works, one each by Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann, which deserve our interest as performers.
Franz Schubert’s Nachtgesang im Walde (Nightsong in the Forest), D. 913 for four horns and men’s chorus, was premiered on April 22, 1827 for a benefit concert for famed hornist Josef Rudolf Lewy whose brother, Eduard, also performed. The following year on March 26, 1828, Schubert held a concert commemorating the first anniversary of Beethoven’s death. Once again, the Lewy brothers performed Nachtgesang im Walde, and Josef also premiered Auf dem Strom, D. 943 for tenor, horn, and piano, composed in honor of Beethoven.
Using text by German poet Johann Gabriel Siedle, Nachtgesang im Walde conjures an evocative soundscape of a woodland night that becomes alive with the encroaching dawn. The opening uses the horns’ sound both to reinforce the chorus and provide a gentle echoing effect, set to text descriptive of clandestine forest meetings, echoing steps, and silvery moon beams:
The mood shifts as the poem turns to the waking of dawn with the rousing sound of horns. A gallop ensues with descriptions of birds, deer, and swaying treetops punctuated by the choir’s articulation and the driving rhythm in the horns:
Robert Schumann is also well-known to hornists for his Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70 and the Konzertstück, Op. 86, both composed in his very productive compositional year of 1849. Less well-known are his Jagdlieder, Op. 137, a set of five songs for men’s chorus and horn quartet from May of the same year. The score calls for three Waldhörner with the 4th part designated for Ventilhorn. Schumann was pioneering in his use of valved horn, but likely chose the designation and assigned keys of F, E, and D for a more rustic horn sound fitting the text of these hunting songs. It also would have been necessary for the Waldhorn players to use ample hand technique as Schumann’s chromaticism frequently uses pitches outside the harmonic series.
Schumann chose to adapt poems from Heinrich Laube’s Jagdbrevier (Hunting Anthology), a collection of poems celebrating the permission for the German middle class to hunt, a luxury permitted previously only to the nobility.
The first song, Zur hohen Jagd (On the High Hunt), begins with a rousing hunting melody for the horns, who in turn provide rhythmic and tonal support for the chorus. The text is descriptive of the joys of hunting, and the gifts of the forest, as well as the sun, rain, and wind. The rollicking compound meter and thick articulation of the Vienna horn adds terrific heft to the voices:
The fourth song, Frühe (Early), is contrasting, marked Langsam and moving to the key of D minor. The horn parts are more intertwined and less homophonic, just as the voice parts have increased independent motion. Schumann bends the harmonies to create palpable tension, allowing the horns to sound a brief concluding chorale accentuated by a soaring high C#:
The final song in the set, Bei der Flasche (With the Bottle), is a celebration of the German hunting tradition, ending with the text, “For the hunt is in our blood!” The horns again provide support for the voices, breaking only to punctuate the piece with a final flourish:
The horns of the Vienna State Opera play with a lyrical and legato quality throughout, allowing their sound to surge forward with burnished excitement, and exuding all the best characteristics of our historic hunting horn.
Thank you, as always, for reading Horn on Record!
