Gade, Niels

Niels Gade

Comala – Dramatic Poem after Ossian, op. 12

(b. Copenhagen, 22 February1817 – d. Copenhagen, 21 December 1890)

Preface

Niels Gade’s choral ballad Comala, for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra (1845-46), was an attempt to capitalize on his great successes. Just a few years earlier he had achieved an incomparable triumph in Leipzig with his Ossian Overture and his First Symphony; the critics, including Robert Schumann, waxed ecstatic at the “Nordic tone” emanating from these strange works. It is thus hardly surprising that Gade should return to subjects from the fictitious paleo-Gaelic bard Ossian for his latest creation. As a little exercise in self-reference, he even interwove quotations and allusions from his own Ossian Overture.

Comala reveals several parallels to Schumann’s oratorio Das Paradies und die Peri, which Gade probably took as his model. Both works depart from the traditional cokncept of an oratorio, first in their unusual choice of subject-matter, second in their predominantly declamatory style. In Gade’s case, melismas are practically nonexistent; the text is set largely syllable by syllable, and the conventional tripartite subdivision is abandoned, turning Comala into a through-composed piece from beginning to end. The libretto was prepared by the Leipzig littérateur Julius Klengel. The composition falls into twelve numbers preceded by a brief instrumental introduction:

Introduction Molto moderato A mi.

No. 1 Chorus of Warriors and Bards Allegro non troppo A mi.

No. 2 Duet, Fingal and Comala Andante E ma./F ma.

No. 3 Chorus of Warriors Allegro non troppo A mi.

No. 4 Comala/Chorus of Maidens Andantino A mi/E ma./F ma.

No. 5 Ballad Dersagrena/Chorus of Maidens Andante D ma.

No. 6 Comala/Melicoma/Dersagrena/Chorus of Maidens Moderato/Allegro non D ma./Bb ma./G mi.

troppo/ Più allegro

No. 7 Chorus of Ghosts Allegro moderato C mi.

No. 8 Solo, Comala Andante C mi./C ma.

No. 9 Chorus of Warriors Allegro non troppo E ma.

No. 10 Fingal/ Chorus of Maidens Andante con moto C# mi.

No. 11 Fingal/Chorus of Maidens and Bards Andantino/Allegro maestoso E mi./E ma.

No. 12 Chorus of Bards and Maidens Allegro moderato maestoso C ma.

The dramatic structure of the libretto falls into three sections. The departing Chorus of Warriors transports the listener directly into the middle of the action (“On to the fray”), while Fingal and Comala take leave of each other in a love duet. In the final section (nos. 9-12), the Warriors return joyously from their victory, but Fingal, learning that his beloved Comala has died, orders the Bards and Maidens to sing her praises and escort her soul to the ancestors. In contrast, the middle section (nos. 4-8) depicts the tragic fate of the abandoned Comala, who, fearful for her lover, gradually descends into madness and finally dies of sorrow.

 

For more information on the piece:

Read the preface to the full score / das Vorwort zur Partitur lesen > HERE