Reger, Max

Preface

Max Reger – Hymne an den Gesang, op. 21 (1898) for men’s chorus and orchestra

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

 

Preface
Today Max Reger’s Hymne an den Gesang (“Hymn to Singing,” op. 21) is seen mainly as a pièce d’occasion for a village men’s choir. Yet it was far more than that, both for the composer and for his era. In June 1898 Reger, having just turned twenty-five, returned from Wiesbaden to his parents’ home in Weiden (Upper Palatinate) as an “abject failure.” He had wanted to settle in Wiesbaden first as a student, and later as a music teacher and composer. But a lack of income had forced him to assume debts in order to finance his “year of voluntary military service” and, in his frustration, he had turned all-too frequently to alcohol. Back in Weiden, beneath the stern eyes of his parents and sister (not to mention the assembled neighbors who had known the young musician since early childhood), he quickly regained his inner discipline and entered what can only be called a creative frenzy. For the most part the astonished world viewed Reger’s musical outpourings as the work of a “man off his rocker,” who, moreover, devoted too much time to the Protestant hymnal and rarely placed his talents at the service of his near surroundings. But in August 1898 Adalbert Lindner, Reger’s former music teacher and patron, arranged for him to compose a festive chorus for the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of Weiden’s male choral society. Reger by no means viewed the assignment as mere hackwork. For the words, he chose a poem by Leonhard Steiner (1836–1920) that was not entirely unknown in male choral circles, having been set for four-voice men’s choir by Friedrich Hegar in 1886. Lindner reports that Reger merely skimmed Steiner’s poem and put it in his pocket with the words, “You’ll get the thing in two weeks!”:

“During this period he said very little about it, and when the topic was broached he became studiously monosyllabic. He even turned a bit coarse when the request was made – surely with justification – that the work should not be too difficult for the chorus or the orchestra. Hardly had the two weeks elapsed than he kept his word and played the finished piece to me at the piano.”

By September the new festive chorus had entered rehearsal. But in mid-November, before the première, Reger dismissed it as being “too simple” and even refused to have it published.

The première was given on 19 November 1898 by the Weiden Liederkranz and the band of the Seventh Bayreuth Infantry Regiment, conducted by the composer (apparently this was Reger’s first public appearance as an orchestral conductor). Reger downplayed the difficulty of the piece, which, according to the metronome marks, should have lasted less than eight minutes in performance, but which took up a full fifteen at the première. The young composer must have been fairly satisfied with the piece at its performance, for he offered it to the Munich Teachers Choral Society with the following words:

“Being a native Bavarian, my main concern is to become known also in Munich […]. The chorus (without solo vocalists) is not hard to manage, and it poses absolutely no appreciable difficulties to such an excellent choir as the Munich Teachers Choral Society; the orchestra is treated in such a way that any well-trained military band can easily master its part. […] I would, of course, send you the full performance material free of charge with the greatest pleasure (at present it is still in manuscript).”

By December Hymne an den Gesang had been accepted for publication by the firm of Joseph Aibl (for a fee of 150 marks).While busily preparing the vocal score, Reger concluded that the new work “is good and […] in many places reveals a completely new way of handling the parts.” Following its publication, presumably in late March or early April, it witnessed a large number of performances over the next few years, only to be cast into oblivion by the change in taste no later than the end of the Great War.

Dr. Jürgen Schaarwächter, Max Reger Institute, 2015

For performance material please contact Breitkopf und Härtel, Wiesbaden. Reprint of a copy from the Max Reger Institut, Karlsruhe.