Louis Spohr: Die letzten Dinge, oratorio based on words from the Holy Scriptures (1826) - final scenes
Louis Spohr
born 5 April 1784 in Braunschweig,
died 22 Oct. 1859 in Kassel
Text:
Friedrich Rochlitz, Leipzig (1769 - 1842)
First performance:
Good Friday 1826 in Kassel, conducted by Louis Spohr
The last book of the Christian Bible (the Apocalypse or Secret Revelation of John) is a book of consolation and hope that was written during the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire towards the end of the 1st century. Even today, the Book of the Apocalypse is the only biblical scripture that is not read aloud in the liturgies of the Eastern churches, and the Syrian Orthodox Church has not included it in its Bible at all.
However, many of the motifs of this imaginative biblical book originate from ancient Israeli prophetic or early Jewish apocalyptic religious literature. The visionary, utopian and catastrophic nature of the projections of the future described has repeatedly inspired a wide variety of interpretations, if we only refer to the motif of the millennial kingdom or the often depicted Christ symbol of the lamb that will open the book with the seven seals. Ultimately, however, all these visions contained in the book are intended to encourage courage and hope, especially in fearful, catastrophic times. Ultimately (and as the last of the ‘last things’!), God will triumph as light over all injustice and evil and even ‘dwell’ among us.
Louis Spohr's oratorio takes a romantic approach to this ancient book. When Spohr became court conductor at the court in Kassel in 1822 after his virtuoso period as a famous violinist, he also had a choir at his disposal. Spohr himself knew the old choral repertoire from Telemann, Graun and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach from his own singing experience, so he did not have to rediscover the old sacred choral tradition like the next generation of Mendelssohn and Schumann. So he was interested in composing and performing an oratorio when, in 1825, he received a libretto he had written himself from Friedrich Rochlitz, the longstanding editor of the Leipzig Allgemeine Musikzeitschrift, which effectively arranged a selection of exclusively biblical quotations on the existential theme of the ‘last things’. Despite the biblical texts, however, neither Rochlitz nor Spohr intended to create a liturgical work for church services. Rather, they wanted to address each person individually, especially at the beginning of the 19th century during the difficult turning points of the Enlightenment, the upheaval in the understanding of the Bible, the French Revolution, the Congress of Vienna and the Restoration. Music in the Romantic sense made it possible to skilfully recreate how the existential questions of death and the afterlife affected the individual's inner life. In this respect, Spohr's oratorio ‘The Last Things’ is an example of an artistic religion that emancipated itself from worship or sought to complement it autonomously for the bourgeois self-image.
Rochlitz had already hinted at how this should sound musically in a letter to Spohr:
"Incidentally, you will easily notice that I have given what is actually the pinnacle of our music - the most accomplished orchestral music - space and opportunity to appear independently (thus also for the colouring of the most intimate feelings that are no longer accessible to words), as has never happened anywhere in vocal works; and you, with Beethoven, certainly the greatest master of this genre, will reliably produce the most magnificent effects with it. The moments I have chosen for it are good - I can say that; they also allow you to say something truly new, even through the special choice and arrangement of the instruments" (letter from Rochlitz to Spohr, Leipzig, 18 July 1825).
Listen here (ca. 21 min.)!
Nr. 14: Die Stunde des Gerichts (0'50)
Nr. 15: Gefallen ist (6'31)
Nr. 16: Selig sind die Toten (3'09)
Nr. 17: Siehe, einen neuen Himmel (2'09)
Nr. 18: Und siehe, ich komme bald (1'04)
Nr. 19: Gross und wunderbarlich sind (6'39)
Listening companion:
Music
Text
Text
Nr. 14 Recitativo (T)
The final scenes of the oratorio ‘The Last Things’ deal with the final judgement of the living and the dead as well as the new world of God, as depicted in the biblical book ‘Revelation of John’ and the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. In order to do justice to the energy of these events, arias (as in Haydn's oratorios) are no longer suitable, but merely "accompanied recitatives, short polyphonic solos and above all choruses, but no double or otherwise very artificial ones, as they would no longer be effective. It is all about the idea, character and firm stance of the style". Thus the librettist Friedrich Rochlitz.
Powerful G minor wind chords and a short tenor recitative introduce the final scene of the Hour of Judgement.
Nr. 15 Coro
All the pent-up terror is then released in the four-part triumph of the choir and the timpani of the orchestra that Babylon has fallen. ‘Fallen’ is repeated almost manically over and over again.
Searching fugati paint the struggle with death.
The double basses rhythmically emphasise that the hour of harvest has arrived.
In the subsequent pianissimo, the choir looks on, pale, as graves and the sea release the dead.
Then the seal is broken.
At the climax of the movement, the choir falls silent and the orchestra takes over the reprise of the horror in G minor. The orchestra becomes the magical carrier not only of the musical, but also of the perceived cosmic events. Without being superficially illustrative, Spohr succeeds in transforming the world from a state of catastrophic collapse into a new becoming. One is emotionally involved, so to speak, in the sonic emergence of a new creation.
No. 16 Soli (SATB) e Coro
At first, only the soloists enter with heavenly transparency in a purely vocal movement ‘Blessed are the dead’. The choir then repeats the consoling song a capella, accompanied only by a few connecting woodwind chords. The beauty of this tonal moment was not only admired by Spohr's contemporaries. Later composers also found inspiration here (such as Brahms in the German Requiem and the Alto Rhapsody!).
This great ‘resting’ at the transition to the new world sounds like a utopian promise in today's accelerated meritocracy.
No. 17 Recitativo (SA)
The orchestra - led by the sound of flutes and a horn solo - creates a kind of D major morning mood of the new world. In the recitative, the soprano proclaims a new heaven and a new earth, the specific feature of which is that God will dwell in it and be its light. The alto solo emphasises that there will no longer be any need for temples or church personnel.
No. 18 Recitativo (T) and quartet
The soloists promise the coming of justice in the greatest tranquillity in the spirit of the liberating philosophy of Jesus.
No. 19 Soli (SATB) e Coro
As in a Handel oratorio, an affirming 4-part final chorus follows, albeit now set in a simpler style for the emerging amateur choral tradition of bourgeois society, but no less effective.
In sublime C major, the choir begins in unison with praise of the greatness of ‘your works’. A simple fugue on this theme follows.
After a short concluding orchestral section, the soloist quartet begins the praise of ‘your name’, which twice leads memorably to the highest call of all calls referring to transcendence: ‘You alone are holy!’, alternated again by the harmoniously melodious choir in emotion.
After two Hallelujah calls, the choir begins the final fugue with an ascending fugue theme on the words of the doxology known from the Lord's Prayer. Thanks in part to the use of three trombones, the choir and orchestra bring this oratorio to a solemn, albeit contemplative conclusion. Eternity, Hallelujah and Amen intermingle in the orchestral sound and the choral voices.
Nr. 14 Recitativo (T)
Die Stunde des Gerichts, sie ist gekommen. Anbetet den, der gemacht hat Himmel und Erde. (Offb.14,7)
Nr. 15 Coro
Gefallen ist Babylon, die Große. (14,8)
Sie suchen den Tod und finden ihn nicht, sie ringen nach ihm, er fliehet sie. (9,6)
Die Stunde der Ernte ist da.
Reif ist der Erde Saat. (14,15)
Das Grab gibt seine Toten, das Meer gibt seine Toten (20,13).
Das Siegel wird gebrochen (8,1), das Buch wird aufgetan (20,12). Sie zagen, sie beben. Es ist geschehen. (21,5)
Nr. 16 Soli (SATB) e Coro
Selig sind die Toten, die in dem Herren sterben, von nun an in Ewigkeit. Sie ruhen von ihrer Arbeit, und ihre Werke folgen ihnen nach. (14,13)
Nr. 17 Recitativo (SA)
Sieh, einen neuen Himmel und eine neue Erde (21,1), von Gott bereitet und schön geschmückt als eine Braut. (21,2)
Sieh, eine Hütte Gottes bei den Menschen, er wird bei ihnen wohnen, sie werden sein Volk sein! (21,3)
Nicht Sonne mehr noch Mond: Er ist ihr Licht, und seine Herrlichkeit umleuchtet sie. (21,23)
Kein Tempel steht in Gottes Stadt. Er ist ihr Tempel und das Lamm. (21,22)
Nr. 18 Recitativo (T) und Quartett
Und siehe, ich komme bald und mein Lohn mit mir, zu geben jeglichem nach seinen Werken. (22,12)
Ja komm, Herr Jesu. (22,30)
Nr. 19 Soli (SATB) e Coro
Groß und wunderbarlich sind deine Werke, Herr, allmächtiger Gott. Gerecht und wahrhaftig sind deine Wege, du König der Heiligen. Wer sollte dich nicht fürchten, Herr, nicht deinen Namen preisen? Du allein bist heilig. Und alle Völker der Erde werden kommen und anbeten vor dir. (15,3-4)
Halleluja! Sein ist das Reich und die Kraft und die Herrlichkeit von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit.
Amen. Halleluja. Amen
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