Gurre-Lieder (Songs of Gurre)

Introduction

There are a few clichés about Romanticism. One is that the Romantics adored the past and legends. Another is that love was a favourite theme of theirs. A third is that they were drawn to what is eerie and ‘otherworldly’. In this light, Schönberg’s Gurre-Lieder is a quintessentially Romantic work, because all three traits apply to it. It is a monumental cantata of roughly two hours, featuring five soloists, chorus, and a huge orchestra (similar to the forces Mahler used in his symphonies). Gurre-Lieder was composed during Schönberg’s early period, when he was under the strong influence of Wagner. He was particularly fascinated by Tristan und Isolde, so it is not surprising that he chose a subject similar to the Tristan story.

But what story is it? The protagonists of Gurre-Lieder are King Waldemar of Denmark and his lover, Tove, who lives in Gurre Castle. Historical figures can be discerned behind them: Waldemar I was indeed King of Denmark in the second half of the 12^th century, and the love affair with Tove also has a factual basis. However, over time the story became a legend according to which the king’s jealous wife, Helvig, has Tove murdered, and the grief-stricken Waldemar blasphemes against God. For this he must be punished: after his death he is condemned, along with his entire retinue, to ride as a ghost through the forest. This legend, a favourite theme in Danish art, was also reworked by the late-19^th-century poet Jens Peter Jacobsen in one of his poems, the German translation of which Schönberg used as his text. Most of the work was completed in piano reduction by 1901, but the full score was not finished until 1911. An interesting feature of Jacobsen’s poem is that the story is enriched with vivid descriptions of nature – likely owing to the fact that Jacobsen was not only a poet but also a biologist.

The first section of the work depicts the love idyll of Waldemar and Tove, conveyed through Schönberg’s deeply evocative, atmospheric music. The opening unfolds slowly, built on only a few harmonies, as if representing an introduction into the unreal, fairy-tale world of the legend – an effect Wagner also uses at the beginning of Das Rheingold. At the end of the first part, the song of the forest dove announces that the queen has had Tove killed, followed in the short second part by Waldemar’s blasphemy. The third section depicts the ghostly ride, the ‘Wild Hunt of the Summer Wind’. (An interesting episode here is the court jester’s complaint about why he must also wander as a ghost even though he had nothing to do with any of it.) The final section is a striking poetic invention: the hunt is described not from Waldemar’s and his men’s perspective, but from that of the forest animals startled by the commotion, until finally the light of the rising sun breaks through the trees. The sunrise is welcomed by a magnificent choral movement that closes the work as an apotheosis. Because of the difficult task it poses for the conductor and the huge performing forces, Gurre-Lieder is rarely performed. Although its world premiere took place in 1913, Hungary had to wait until 1998 for its first performance, when Zoltán Kocsis presented it with the National Philharmonic Orchestra. Since it had not been heard here for nearly twenty years, the Hungaria State Opera’s February [2025] production [was] a long-awaited event and a worthy farewell to one of the iconic venues [the Erkel Theatre] of Hungarian operatic history.”

Marcell Miklós Mártonffy
(Published originally in OPERA Magazine 55.)

The genesis of Gurre-Lieder

A grandiose kaleidoscope of styles, genres, and colours – this might be the best way to characterise Arnold Schoenberg’s work based on a Danish legend. Gurre-Lieder is the creation of two very young artists. Schoenberg was only twenty-seven when the essence of the work – though not yet its full score – was already complete, condensing within it an enormous body of compositional knowledge. The Danish poet Jens Peter Jacobsen, who died young, wrote the Gurresange poems at the age of twenty-one. Jacobsen, who lived from 1847 to 1885 and suffered from tuberculosis, is described by literary historians at times as a naturalist, at others as an impressionist, or simply as a pessimistic–decadent, atheist lyric poet. Others call attention to his scientific mindset – also evident in his literary style – to his work as a biologist, his Darwin translations, and his famous study on freshwater algae, while of course noting the most important fact: that his prose made him a pioneer of the psychological novel, and the unrhymed, novel-sounding verse lines found in many of his poems, including the cycle that forms the basis of Gurre-Lieder, made him a forerunner of 20th-century modern poetry. […]

In the medieval-rooted tale of Gurre-Lieder, this Danish Tristan story, history and legend have by now become inextricably intertwined. The earlier version of the legend can be traced back to the love of Waldemar I (the Great), King of Denmark between 1157 and 1182, and his beloved Tove […]. Later, in the 16th century, the legend of Waldemar and Tove’s love was transferred to Waldemar IV, who reigned from 1340 to 1375: it was at this point that the story became associated with Gurre Castle, where the king died. In this version, Tove’s figure is more clearly outlined, and the queen’s jealousy and the motif of murder are also formulated more concretely. According to the tale, Tove is the sister of Waldemar’s confidant, and Queen Helvig, in her jealousy, has her poisoned.

The loss of his beloved strikes the king as a devastating blow; his mind darkens, and he becomes unable to leave the place of their former happiness. Dying, he calls God cruel and reproaches Him. As punishment, the king is condemned to ride through the forests surrounding Gurre Castle every night with his horsemen as a ghost until the final trumpets sound. Yet God grants him that through his love for Tove – which endures beyond the grave – he may feel the power of Nature at every sunrise, and find peace again until nightfall. This legend inspired not only Schoenberg but numerous 19^th-century Danish works.

In March 1900, Schoenberg composed the whole of the first and second parts, as well as a significant portion of the third. The composing process was interrupted, but continued in March 1901, and in the summer the composer even began the orchestration. After longer pauses and interruptions, he finally completed the score in 1911.

The structure of the work

After the orchestral introduction, Part I is divided into ten composed songs, nine of which form a sequence of alternating love songs between Waldemar and Tove, adhering consistently to the contrast between the male (tenor) and female (soprano) voices. The ninth movement is connected by an orchestral interlude to the Song of the Wood Dove. This song, formally closing Part I, is a tragic ballad with a refrain that reflects on the growing unrest and premonitions of death found in the preceding songs. It confirms in words what the orchestral interlude has already conveyed in musical language: the murder has taken place. Part II consists of a single number in which the grief-stricken, deranged Waldemar turns against God.

Part III is similar in length to the first, but its internal structure is far more intricate, and despite the dazzling orchestration its palette in terms of vocal writing is much more unified: with the exception of the final chorus, it uses only male voices. This third part divides into two large sections; the first is The Wild Hunt, consisting of seven movements built from men’s choral pieces and Waldemar’s songs. Two important, interesting episodes are embedded in this sequence: first, the Peasant’s song, painting in almost medieval colour the people’s world of superstition and fear of ghosts; then the song of Klaus, the court jester. The extensive final section that follows is titled The Wild Hunt of the Summer Wind. […] Although impressionistic in its orchestration, this section is forward-looking in ideas and genres. Schoenberg’s Sprechstimme or Sprechgesang (‘speech-song’) assigns to the Sprecher (‘speaker’) a precisely notated melodic-rhythmic line in the score, but this serves only as a guide for a kind of varied intonation – an elevated speech – which, according to the composer’s instructions, must not realise the fictitious notation, i.e. must not approach true singing or intone fixed pitches. This technique produces a startlingly modern effect, one that permeates Schoenberg’s later oeuvre.

The work calls for an enormous ensemble: six soloists, three men’s choirs, an eight-part mixed chorus, and an orchestra including eight flutes, seven clarinets, ten horns, four harps, eleven types of percussion instruments, tenfold divided first and second violins, and divided viola and cello sections. It is one of the largest ensembles in music history – perhaps surpassed only by Mahler’s Eighth (‘Symphony of a Thousand’). The work is classified as post-Romantic not only because of the sheer size of the forces, but also because of its melodic and harmonic solutions, its Tristan parallels, and the influence of Wagner, Mahler, and Richard Strauss. In addition to the already mentioned Sprechgesang, another fascinating stylistic element is the song of Klaus, the court jester. His appearance places the lofty legend and tragic pathos in a momentary, subtly ironic frame.

The generic complexity of Gurre-Lieder is in fact a kind of generic indefinability. Operatic, oratorical, balladic, mystery-play and symphonic musical elements are all interwoven – the work is perhaps least of all what its authorial title suggests: a song cycle.

Edited by Diána Eszter Mátrai
(Based on Kristóf Csengery, Arnold Schönberg: Gurre-Lieder,
A hét zeneműve, 17 March 1986)