University of Virginia Library

University Singers To Present
'Five Centuries Of German Song'

Donald Loach will direct the
University Singers in a presentation
of "Five Centuries of German
Song," a program devoted to
German composers and illustrating
the cosmopolitan relationships
among German, Italian, and French
artists, in Cabell Hall Auditorium
tonight, beginning at 8:30.

Heinrich Schuetz, for example,
was a highly Italianate German
composer of the seventeenth century.
Four motets from his "Geistlichen
Chormusik" illustrate both
the motet's conventional dependence
upon a Biblical text and
Schuetz's own position as a court
composer seeking God's blessing
upon national leaders. These pieces
by Schuetz were recently performed
by the Singers in a program at
the National Cathedral.

Two motets by Johann Christoph
Bach complete the sacred
selections. "Ich Lasse Dich Nicht,
du Segnest Mich Denn," composed
for double choir and continua, was
until 1907 attributed to Johann
Christoph's father Johann Sebastian
Bach. Another motet, "Lobet den
Herrn," is a good example of
eighteenth century jazz, which
according to Mr. Loachwas "killed
by the nineteenth century and
resurrected by the 20th." The Italian
influence is again evident in the
group of madrigals by Hans Leo
Hasler and Orlando di Lasso which
begin the secular selections. Di
Lasso was an urbane Flemish
composer who was educated in
Italy and who worked at the court
in Munich. One of his madrigals
presents a donkey drinking wine,
and many are inspired by German
farmers and wine-makers.

Mozart too was influenced by
Italian artists, frequently composing
on Italian texts such as
Metastasio's songs about love's
difficulties and rewards. Three
"part songs," or songs sung by
choral parts rather than by soloists,
accompanied by a small clarinet
band, evoke the tragedy and
foolishness. Six part songs by Paul
Hindemith shift away from the
Italian influence. They are choral
settings for original French lyrics
by the modern German poet Rainer
Maria Rilke, who composed the
poems while he was secretary to the
French sculptor Auguste Rodin.
The poems all embody the tension
between intense experience of natural
beauty and the simultaneous
awareness of its mutability.

Johannes Brahms' "Liebeslieder
Walzer" were composed in 1869 for
piano duet with the chorus as
accompaniment. The texts are from
Daurner's "Polydora," which are
imitations or translations of Russian,
Polish, and Magyar folk-songs
treating love sickness and gossiping
neighbors with equal humor.

All these selections illustrate the
cosmopolitan influences that are
combined in "Five Centuries of
German Song." Tickets for the
performance, available at the door,
are $1 for students and $1.50 for
general admission.