Der Handschuh (Waterhouse)
Encyclopedia
Der Handschuh is a composition by Graham Waterhouse
. He wrote the setting of Schiller
's ballad
for cello and speaking voice in 2005. It was published in 2007 in Heinrichshofen's Verlag.
in the tradition of spoken narrative to instrumental accompaniment, such as ballads by Robert Schumann
and Richard Strauss
, a crucial scene of Weber's opera Der Freischütz
and 20th century settings by Schoenberg
, William Walton
and Henze
. It is the composer's first major work for the combination of Sprechstimme (speaking voice) and his instrument, the cello. Until then he had occasionally set texts to music for the unusual scoring. In 1995 he wrote Vezza, a limerick
on whether/weather as a German might pronounce it, recorded in 2002 with the composer speaking and playing. In 2001 he set Flohlied (Song of the Flea), the satirical song from Goethe's Faust I, to music, published by Heinrichshofen's Verlag. The final poem of his 2003 song cycle Sechs späteste Lieder (six latest songs) after Friedrich Hölderlin
for mezzo-soprano and cello is spoken.
He composed Der Handschuh in 2005 for the 200th anniversary of Schiller’s death. Following its success, he wrote more frequently for the combination of cello and speaking voice. In 2006 he set to music Animalia, three funny poems on animals by Hans Krieger
, and Das Hexen-Einmaleins (The Witches One-Times-One), again from Goethe's Faust and published by Heinrichshofen's Verlag in 2009. In 2007 he set the dramatic monologue Aases Himmelfahrt from Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt
, Gruselett after Christian Morgenstern
's nonsense poem for three speaking voices and string trio
, and Belsatzar on Heinrich Heine
's Romanze. In 2010 he composed Der Werwolf after a poem by Morgenstern, and a different setting The Banshee on its English version by Max Knight.
, which Schiller wrote in 1797 in a friendly ballad competition with Goethe
: "The story is set in the reign of the French King François I. In it the king stages a fight between a variety of wild animals for the entertainment of his guests (we read in the "Essais historiques sur Paris" of Monsieur de Saint-Foix that an arena existed in what is now known as the “Rue des Lions” in Paris). The animals, however, prove to be placid creatures: the real contest plays itself out among the spectators, when a certain Dame Cunigund challenges her lover to demonstrate his affection for her by retrieving a glove she had affected to let fall accidentally into the arena. This he does, to the amazement of the crowd; at the end, however, events take an unexpected turn."
The different actors, including the animals, are portrayed musically in leitmotif
s. The piece is intended to be performed by one person reciting and playing, but can also be performed by a cellist and a speaker.
, and in a Gesprächskonzert (lecture concert) in Würzburg. In 2008 He performed it in Cambridge
in a program "Melodrama revisited - new compositions for cello and speaking voice", while he was a "Musician By-Fellow" at Churchill College. The program was repeated for a composer's colloquium
at the University of Oldenburg, conducted by Violeta Dinescu
. Waterhouse also performed the work with a speaker, such as Gerd Udo Feller (in German) at the Gasteig
Munich on 14 December 2008, in a program with works by Bach, Pablo Neruda
, Benjamin Britten
, Paul Hindemith
, and with other settings for cello and speaking voice by Waterhouse. On 12 December 2011 he performed it with speaker Peter Weiß (in German) in a family concert in Gilching, together with Flohlied and Der Werwolf.
Graham Waterhouse
Graham Waterhouse is an English composer and a cellist. He is known for chamber music and for unusual scoring, such as Piccolo Quintet, Bright Angel for three bassoons and contrabassoon, Chieftain's Salute for Great Highland Bagpipe and string orchestra, and works for speaking voice and cello,...
. He wrote the setting of Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
's ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
for cello and speaking voice in 2005. It was published in 2007 in Heinrichshofen's Verlag.
History of cello and speaking voice
Graham Waterhouse composed Der Handschuh in 2005, as a kind of melodramaMelodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
in the tradition of spoken narrative to instrumental accompaniment, such as ballads by Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
and Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
, a crucial scene of Weber's opera Der Freischütz
Der Freischütz
Der Freischütz is an opera in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind. It premiered on 18 June 1821 at the Schauspielhaus Berlin...
and 20th century settings by Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
, William Walton
William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...
and Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
. It is the composer's first major work for the combination of Sprechstimme (speaking voice) and his instrument, the cello. Until then he had occasionally set texts to music for the unusual scoring. In 1995 he wrote Vezza, a limerick
Limerick (poetry)
A limerick is a kind of a witty, humorous, or nonsense poem, especially one in five-line or meter with a strict rhyme scheme , which is sometimes obscene with humorous intent. The form can be found in England as of the early years of the 18th century...
on whether/weather as a German might pronounce it, recorded in 2002 with the composer speaking and playing. In 2001 he set Flohlied (Song of the Flea), the satirical song from Goethe's Faust I, to music, published by Heinrichshofen's Verlag. The final poem of his 2003 song cycle Sechs späteste Lieder (six latest songs) after Friedrich Hölderlin
Friedrich Hölderlin
Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin was a major German lyric poet, commonly associated with the artistic movement known as Romanticism. Hölderlin was also an important thinker in the development of German Idealism, particularly his early association with and philosophical influence on his...
for mezzo-soprano and cello is spoken.
He composed Der Handschuh in 2005 for the 200th anniversary of Schiller’s death. Following its success, he wrote more frequently for the combination of cello and speaking voice. In 2006 he set to music Animalia, three funny poems on animals by Hans Krieger
Hans Krieger
Hans Krieger is a German writer, essayist, journalist of influential weekly papers such as Die Zeit, broadcaster and poet. He lives and works in Munich.-Life:...
, and Das Hexen-Einmaleins (The Witches One-Times-One), again from Goethe's Faust and published by Heinrichshofen's Verlag in 2009. In 2007 he set the dramatic monologue Aases Himmelfahrt from Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt
Peer Gynt
Peer Gynt is a five-act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, loosely based on the fairy tale Per Gynt. It is the most widely performed Norwegian play. According to Klaus Van Den Berg, the "cinematic script blends poetry with social satire and realistic scenes with surreal ones"...
, Gruselett after Christian Morgenstern
Christian Morgenstern
Christian Otto Josef Wolfgang Morgenstern was a German author and poet from Munich. Morgenstern married Margareta Gosebruch von Liechtenstern on March 7, 1910...
's nonsense poem for three speaking voices and string trio
String trio
A string trio is a group of three string instruments or a piece written for such a group. The term is generally used with reference to works of chamber music from the Classical period to the present.-History:...
, and Belsatzar on Heinrich Heine
Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
's Romanze. In 2010 he composed Der Werwolf after a poem by Morgenstern, and a different setting The Banshee on its English version by Max Knight.
Plot and composition
The composer summarizes the ballad Der HandschuhDer Handschuh
Der Handschuh is a ballad by Friedrich Schiller, written in 1797, the year of his friendly ballad competition with Goethe.-History:...
, which Schiller wrote in 1797 in a friendly ballad competition with Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
: "The story is set in the reign of the French King François I. In it the king stages a fight between a variety of wild animals for the entertainment of his guests (we read in the "Essais historiques sur Paris" of Monsieur de Saint-Foix that an arena existed in what is now known as the “Rue des Lions” in Paris). The animals, however, prove to be placid creatures: the real contest plays itself out among the spectators, when a certain Dame Cunigund challenges her lover to demonstrate his affection for her by retrieving a glove she had affected to let fall accidentally into the arena. This he does, to the amazement of the crowd; at the end, however, events take an unexpected turn."
The different actors, including the animals, are portrayed musically in leitmotif
Leitmotif
A leitmotif , sometimes written leit-motif, is a musical term , referring to a recurring theme, associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical idea of idée fixe...
s. The piece is intended to be performed by one person reciting and playing, but can also be performed by a cellist and a speaker.
Selected performances
The composer has frequently performed the work speaking and playing simultaneously. He showed it in 2005 in a portrait concert in St. Martin, IdsteinSt. Martin, Idstein
St. Martin in Idstein, Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis, is the church of the local Roman Catholic parish. The official name is Katholische Pfarrkirche St. Martin. The parish is part of the Diocese of Limburg...
, and in a Gesprächskonzert (lecture concert) in Würzburg. In 2008 He performed it in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
in a program "Melodrama revisited - new compositions for cello and speaking voice", while he was a "Musician By-Fellow" at Churchill College. The program was repeated for a composer's colloquium
Colloquium
Colloquium can refer to:* the Parliament of Scotland, called a "colloquium" in Latin records.* any musical piece celebrating birth or distribution of good news, a hymn...
at the University of Oldenburg, conducted by Violeta Dinescu
Violeta Dinescu
Violeta Dinescu is a Romanian composer, pianist and professor, living in Germany since 1982.-Romania:Violeta Dinescu began her studies of music in 1972 at the conservatory Ciprian Porumbescu in Bucharest, composition with Myriam Marbe. In 1978 she received her master's degree, with distinction...
. Waterhouse also performed the work with a speaker, such as Gerd Udo Feller (in German) at the Gasteig
Gasteig
Gasteig is a cultural center in Munich, opened in 1985, which hosts the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. The Richard Strauss Conservatory, the Volkshochschule, and the municipal library are all located in the Gasteig...
Munich on 14 December 2008, in a program with works by Bach, Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....
, Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
, Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
, and with other settings for cello and speaking voice by Waterhouse. On 12 December 2011 he performed it with speaker Peter Weiß (in German) in a family concert in Gilching, together with Flohlied and Der Werwolf.
Publication
Der Handschuh was published in 2007 in both German and English by Heinrichshofen's Verlag, Wilhelmshaven, which also published Flohlied, Das Hexen-Einmaleins and Gruselett.External links
- Der Handschuh : Ballade von Friedrich Schiller : für Sprechstimme und Violoncello = The glove : a ballad by Friedrich Schiller : for speaking voice and violoncello, 2005 WorldCatWorldCatWorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories which participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative...
- Waterhouse Graham: Der Handschuh musikalienhandel.de, front page and sample page