5 Songs of Ariel

5 Songs of Ariel
Five Songs of Ariel for mixed choir a cappella | 5 Chansons d’Ariel pour chœur mixte a cappella

Year of composition

1950

Duration

13'

Scored for

mixed choir a cappella
‘Dédié à Felix de Nobel et à son merveilleux ‘Nederlands Kamerkoor’.’

Publication information

Universal Edition (UE14556)

Text(s)

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Text file

  1. https://www.frankmartin.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/1950-Songs-of-Ariel-en.pdf

Commentary

Five Songs of Ariel
It was in 1949 that my friend Felix de Nobel [founder and chief conductor (1937-1972) of the Netherlands Chamber Choir] asked me to write some songs for choir a cappella that he could perform with his vocal ensemble of about 16 professional singers.
 Long before I decided to write an opera on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, which had been haunting my mind for many years, the texts I chose were the songs of Ariel, a fairy character who embodies a spirit of the air in this play. I added to these four songs the great monologue that he pronounced as he was transformed into a harpy (mythological bird with a woman’s head). As Felix de Nobel’s singers are at ease in most common languages, I used Shakespeare’s original text. Four years later when I undertook the big job of setting the entire play to music, I decided to compose it on the German translation of Wilhelm Schlegel. I realized then that this translation was so faithful to the English rhythm, that I could introduce the songs of Ariel with hardly any need to change anything to fit their rhythm to the German version. The music of the second song, which is all inspired by the movement of clear water, played a key role in many episodes of the opera, including the opening and the end of the epilogue.

Text by Frank Martin from A propos de… commentaires de Frank Martin sur ses œuvres (Neuchâtel, 1984) | English translation by Rachel Ann Morgan
(published in ‘Programme général des «Semaines Internationales de Musique»’, Lucerne 1974)

Premiere

World première: Amsterdam, 7 March 1953. Netherlands Chamber Choir; Felix de Nobel, conductor

Recordings (selective list)

  • ‘Frank Martin (1890-1974): Choral Works’
    Netherlands Chamber Choir
    Myra Kroese, contralto solo
    Tõnu Kaljuste, conductor
    Q Disc Q97056 © 2002 (FMS031)

  • Pro Musica Chamber Choir
    Jan Ygnwe, conductor
    Swedish Society SCD 1118 ℗ 2001 (FMS013)

  • Stockholm Chamber Choir
    Eric Ericson, conductor
    (recorded 12.III.1975. Swedish Radio, Stockholm)
    EMI 5 099926 434421 ℗ 2009 (FMS011)

  • Norddeutscher Figuralchor
    Sibylle Fischer, contralto solo
    Conductor: Jörg Straube
    Thorofon Records CTH 2261 ℗ 1995 (FMS025)

  • The Sixteen
    Harry Christophers, conductor
    CORO - COR16029 ℗ + © 2005 (FMS029)

  • ‘Portret van Nederlands Kamerkoor’
    Netherlands Chamber Choir
    Felix de Nobel, conductor
    Philips Dutch Masters Volume 22: 462 098-2 © 1953 + ℗ 1997 (FMS061)

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