Sechs Monologe aus Jedermann

Sechs Monologe aus Jedermann
Six Monologues de ‘Jedermann’ pour voix intermédiaire – baryton ou alto – et piano ou orchestre | Six Monologues from ‘Jedermann’ for medium voice – baritone or alto – and piano…

Year of composition

1943

Duration

17'

Scored for

for medium voice and piano (1943)
Version for baritone or alto and orchestra: 2 3 2 2 - 2 2 3 0 - timp. - perc. - harp - piano - strings (1949)

1. Ist als zu End das Freudenmahl
2. Ach Gott, wie graust mir vor dem Tod
3. Ist als wenn eins gerufen hätt
4. So wollt ich ganz zernichtet sein
5. Ja! ich glaub: solches hat er vollbracht
6. O ewiger Gott! o göttliches Gesicht!

Publication information

Universal Edition: version with piano (UE12105); version with orchestra (UE12105)

Text(s)

Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929)

Text file

  1. https://www.frankmartin.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/1943-Sechs-Monologe-aus-Jedermann-de.pdf

Commentary

Sechs Monologe aus ‘Jedermann’

Commentary 1
The Six Monologues from ‘Jedermann’ (‘Everyman’) were composed in 1943 at the request of the baritone Max Christmann who wanted a cycle of songs for voice and piano. My plan was to follow this with an opera on the Everyman text which would include these monologues. For various reasons I gave up this idea but later, in 1949, I orchestrated the piano part of the cycle. Here in short are the subjects of the monologues; Everyman, the rich young man, in many respects avaricious, was met by Death at a banquet. All his relatives, friends and his mistress refused to accompany him on that great journey and they deserted him.

1. He is alone in a big, empty room and knows that he is condemned although the blood flowing in his veins is still warm. He orders the bells to ring the alarm and commands his servants to follow him carrying his large chest full of treasure.
2. He expresses his terror of death. But the realization that his wealth has always got him out of trouble reassures him. Then suddenly he remembers the vision of heaven’s messenger and throws himself onto his treasure beseeching it to accompany him to his new abode.
3. A faint voice calls him saying: his acts of charity have been too miserable to earn his salvation. Everyman believes it is his mother’s voice. He is filled with immense compassion and prays to Heaven that the old woman will be spared the knowledge of his fate.
4. He is filled with deep despair; but it is not just fear of death. He is seized by remorse; he wanted to start a new life, but it is too late. “You cannot live twice here.”
5. He affirms his faith: Christ died to redeem us. But his sins are so great that God cannot possibly give him grace.
6. The last monologue is a prayer. He has understood that his faith and repentance have earned him forgiveness and he gives himself up to divine grace.

These six monologues therefore represent a kind of short summary of the entire play, including the operatic aspect. Of course it misses all dramatic justification and logic of the psychological and spiritual evolution of Everyman’s spirit since death summoned him. All that remains are a few characteristics moments, some awareness that made me want to try to express this in my own way through the medium of music.

Text as published in A propos de… commentaires de Frank Martin sur ses œuvres (Neuchâtel, 1984) | English translation by Rachel Ann Morgan

___

Commentary 2
We live in a time when one aesthetic value alone does not suffice. The audience, just as the artist, is not satisfied hearing the creation of a work with only new and enchanting combinations of sounds, rhythms or colours. Thus, the so passionate period of research, trials, technical discoveries, seems to be past. This is not to say that these researches, tests, these possible discoveries are no longer wanted or are no longer of interest to the artists in their creative work. Then we would drop into a new academism, arising from the previous generation’s findings. Heaven forbid! But in my opinion, research and discoveries of technical aspects should no longer be the most important point, nor be enough to justify a work. To validate a new work, it should have an element other than the purely aesthetic, it should totally absorb a person, his sense of life and death, it should raise a curtain, as Sparkenbroke says in Charles Morgan’s novel, to reveal the drama of the mind, where the conflict of our passions and our need for perfection and serenity is played, where life and death confront each other.
This necessity in our day and age poses serious problems on the subject of contemporary instrumental music. It is not that music alone cannot reach the parts of our mind where this debate takes place. The symphonies of Beethoven and also the instrumental works of Bach and Mozart are proof of this. But their musical language is known; it poses no problem to the listener, no difficulty to a musical ear that recognises the rules, relationships, harmonic constructions, contrapuntal and formal: from a purely musical point of view, this art has no secrets for him. And if his spirit is free to give itself over without any constraint; via this music he can sense the artist’s spirit, the thoughts of its creator, even though this is not explained anywhere, as it is pure music. And if the artist does not specifically intend to express anything other than his idea of pure beauty, then again there is no obstruction between the listener’s spirit and that of the conceiver and creator of the work; the communion is perfect and the thought, whatever it is, is conveyed.
The same could not be said of today’s art. This art is influenced by the preceding period: it bears the whole inheritance. This period, which we are just beginning to leave behind, highlighted the artistic creation itself, the quality of language and the aesthetic element of the art. This was followed inevitably by an essentially individual art, where each artist sought to find a specific language, where, naturally, his main effort was to invent a language as personal as possible. This resulted, just as fatally, in the public each time being side-tracked, in the best cases giving all its attention and goodwill to so many new and different languages. The consequence is that even today the public can hardly believe that the artist, in an instrumental work, has done anything other than use pure combinations of sonority, a purely aesthetic and individual sport. Today’s public needs something else, and even if the artist is compelled to deliver a message in his work, it is rare to be able to understand it fully, the difficulties of a new language obstructing his freedom of spirit to grasp it.

Where a vocal work is concerned, whether a song, an opera or an oratorio, the listener’s reaction will be completely different. Even if he does not grasp all of the literary text, he knows in advance which part of his mind will be activated for this work which is new to him. He only needs to feel, deep inside, whether the music he hears corresponds to his thoughts, if he feels exaltation, if the literary work opens up a new dimension, if it comes closer, more penetrating. The new aspects of the musical language, as long as they are not rejected, immediately make sense to him, correspond to a thought, a feeling, a state of mind. Thus, in spite of some reticence, communion of thought can be reached between the listener and the artist. He can get inside the work and gradually learn the language, while in an instrumental work this language would remain like a door in front of him, a door which he might find attractive, perhaps, but a closed door. In order for the literary text to help open this door, it should be simple and clear enough, it should express in a few easily understandable words what kind of world it is, which drama is suggested. If possible, it should concern a form or at least a subject known to everyone.

It is quite rare for a contemporary text to possess these elements; for this reason, musicians usually chose poems by authors from preceding generations: newly-written poetic works are not sufficiently clarified to serve the musician, nor to be served to the public.
In 1943 when the baritone Mr. Max Christmann asked me to write a song-cycle for his voice, I searched for some time without success for a poem which could inspire me to start working. When the idea to browse the text of Jedermann by Hofmannsthal came to me, I did not have much hope of finding material for a song-cycle in a theatre play. I did, however, have the good luck to be able to extract six monologues, each one sufficiently complete, with the psychological and spiritual development of the protagonist, from his visceral terror in face of death, until his total acceptance of the conviction of forgiveness, and describing his gradual detachment from material goods and his ascension through anguish and suffering towards the spiritual world. In the face of such a subject, I could only have remained speechless, if the poet had not guided me, if he had not taught me the manner of simplicity and humanity which he used himself: in his eight-foot verses the poetry flows in simple language for ancient human terror as well as that of the gospel teaching us redemption through love. It just opens the curtain, allowing the drama of death and life, of sin and salvation, to find its way into each listener’s mind. While searching for music to suit this way of speaking so simply and so full of meaning, I became convinced of the marvellous order!iness of this dramatic poem, its powerful psychological understanding, combined with the perfect beauty of language and form, the pure rhythm of these verses, graceful in their admirable monotony, and so particular to the Middle Ages.

Text by Frank Martin in: Kunstzeitung, Musikalische Rundschau - La Musique, Zürich, December 1944. V. Jahrgang Nr. 12-S. 3; also published in A propos de… commentaires de Frank Martin sur ses œuvres (Neuchâtel, 1984) | English translation by Rachel Ann Morgan

Premiere

World première version for baritone and piano: Gstaad, 5 August 1944. Max Christmann, baritone. Frank Martin, piano
World première version for baritone and orchestra: Venice, 9 September 1949. Elsa Cavelti, alto; Rafael Kubelík, conductor

Recordings (selective list)

  • Version for baritone & piano
    Hanno Müller-Brachmann, bass-baritone
    Hendrik Heilmann, piano
    MDG 908 2231-6 SACD ℗ + © 2022

  • Version for baritone & orchestra
    Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone
    Berliner Philharmoniker
    Frank Martin, conductor
    DG 429 858-2 ℗ 1963 (FMS109)
    Brilliant Classics 9206 ℗ 1990 + © 2010 (FMS 208)

  • Version for baritone & piano
    ‘Frank Martin interprète Frank Martin’
    Heinz Rehfuss, baritone
    Frank Martin, piano
    Jecklin-Disco JD 563-2 ℗ + © 1989 (FMS032)

  • Version for baritone & orchestra
    José van Dam, bariton
    Orchestre de l’Opéra de Lyon
    Kent Nagano, conductor
    EMI 50999 2 64344 2 1 ℗ + © 2009
    (recorded 31.X-3.XI.1990, Auditorium Maurice Ravel, Lyon) (FMS011)

  • Version for baritone & orchestra
    Thomas Oliemans, baritone
    Stavanger Symphony Orchestra
    Steven Sloane, conductor
    MDG 901 1614-6 ℗ + © 2010 (FMS046)

  • Version for baritone & orchestra
    David Wilson-Johnson, baritone
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Matthias Bamert, conductor
    CHANDOS CHAN 9411 ℗ + © 1995 (FMS117)

  • Version for baritone & orchestra
    Theo Adam, baritone
    Dresdner Philharmonie
    Herbert Kegel, conductor
    Berlin Classics 0091682BC ℗ 1989 + © 1996 (FMS050)

  • Version for baritone & piano
    ‘Mélodies du XXe siècle’
    Pierre-Yves Pruvot, baritone
    Charles Bouisset, piano
    Lien-Création / MAVEL . MAV98-CD03 ℗ 1998 (FMS087)

  • Version for baritone & orchestra
    Martin Egel, baritone
    Münchner Bachsolisten
    Pierre-Dominique Ponnelle, conductor
    FSM FCD 97 213 EB ℗ 1986 + © 1991 (FMS095)

  • Version for baritone & piano
    ‘The Age of Gold’
    Peter Pears, tenor
    Benjamin Britten, piano
    Live recording 09-01-1948 BBC
    Pavilion Records - Pearl GEM 0227 ℗ 2005 (FMS134)

  • Version for baritone & piano
    Christian Gerhaher, baritone
    Gerold Huber, piano
    ARTE NOVA 74321 92771 2 © + ℗ 2002 (FMS153)

  • Version for baritone & piano
    André Schuen, baritone
    Daniel Heide, piano
    Avi-Service for music, Cologne/Germany ℗ + © 2015

  • Version for baritone & orchestra
    José van Dam, baritone
    Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon
    Kent Nagano, conductor
    Virgin Classics VC 07777 59236 2 9 ℗ + © 1992 (FMS207)

  • Version for baritone & orchestra
    Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone
    ORF-Symphonieorchester
    Hans Zender, conductor
    ORFEO C 336931 B ℗ + © 1993 (FMS163)

  • Version for baritone & orchestra
    Gilles Cachemaille, baritone
    Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
    Armin Jordan, conductor
    ERATO 2292-45649-2 ℗ 1991 (FMS165)

  • Version for baritone & orchestra
    Michel Brodard, baritone
    Stadtorchester Winterthur
    Konstantin Keiser, conductor
    SCWI ℗ 1997 (FMS172)

  • Version for baritone & piano
    Volker Arendts, baritone
    Miroslav Kroupa, piano
    CANTATE C 58013 ℗ + © 2000 (FMS180)

  • Version for baritone & piano
    Theo Adam, baritone
    Rudolf Dunckel, piano
    Ars Vivendi 2100115 ℗ 1989 (FMS193)

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