Reger, Max

Preface

Max Reger

(b. Brand, Upper Palatinate, 19 March 1873 – d. Leipzig, 11 May 1916)

 Psalm 100 in C minor, op. 106 (1908-09)

Original version for chorus, orchestra and organ

Preface

It was not until relatively late in his artistic career that Max Reger decided to set a sacred text as a choral symphony. On 24 January 1902 he wrote to the critic and musicographer Theodor Kroyer, “It will perhaps interest you to know that I’m now working on Psalm 149 for eight-part chorus with full orchestra and organ.” This does not imply, however, that he was occupied with its musical elaboration: he first made an intensive study of the original psalm text, “Hallelujah! Sing unto the Lord a new song.” More than ten years earlier he had already given thought to setting a psalm (Psalm 6, “O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger”) for the modest forces of mezzo-soprano, violin, and organ (he would later set the same psalm, minus some of its verses, in the like-named a cappella motet op. 110, no. 2). Nor did anything come of Psalm 149: he first had to postpone the project in order to complete Gesang der Verklärten (Song of the Transfigured, op. 71). But the idea of setting Psalm 149 remained in his mind for several years; his final reference to the text dates from June 1907. It was not until the end of that year that he abandoned the plan to set this text and asked his friend Karl Straube for a new one.

Psalm 100 was immediately accepted, and its composition proceeded all the more rapidly in view of its prospective performance during the 350th anniversary celebrations of the University of Jena. The university’s music director, Fritz Stein (1879–1961), had been an acquaintance of Reger’s since 1904 and was now a close friend, even serving as the godfather of his first child, Max Martin, in late 1907. Nothing stood in the way of a productive and inspiring period of compositional labor. The first section of the psalm was planned for Jena, and its elaboration occupied Reger from 24 April to early June 1908: “The psalm is anything but easy, but it proceeds in Tempo maestoso, so that all the coloraturas (not cholera turas) have to be done in toto – and the chorus is always supported by the organ or orchestra! […] Please, whatever you do, say the following to the privy councilors: I have not given them an occasional work, but a genuine Reger!” (letter of 6 May 1907, with Reger’s idiosyncratic emphasis).

Over the next six weeks Stein, using ad hoc performance material from Breitkopf & Härtel, had to rehearse intensively with the ensembles involved: the Jena Academic Chorus, the Singing Fraternity of St. Paul’s, and organist Kurt Gorn from the orchestra of the 71st Infantry Regiment of Erfurt, reinforced by members of the Weimar Court Orchestra. Reger asked Stein for “extra rehearsals to the brink of exhaustion” (13 June) or even “100000000000000000 rehearsals” (24 June), for “the psalm must be brilliant, so that everyone will be knocked off their feet! […] After it’s over the listeners must be stuck to the wall like a relief; I want the psalm to be earth-shaking in its impact! So please be so kind and make it happen!” Reger was highly satisfied with the festive performance given in the Town Church on 31 July. His reputation was further boosted by the award of an honorary Ph.D. during an official ceremony in the People’s House. Besides the first section of Psalm 100, another work from Reger’s pen was premièred on that occasion: Weihegesang (Song of Consecration, WoO V/6) for contralto, mixed chorus, and wind orchestra, for the inauguration of the new university building.

 

 

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