K90 Epitaphium
für das Grabmal des Prinzen Max Egon zu Fürstenberg – Epitaphium for the Tombstone of Prince Max Egon zu Fürstenberg – Épitaphe pour le tombeau du prince Max Egon de Fürstenberg – Epitaffio per la tomba del Principe Max Egon zu Fürstenberg, per flauto grande, clarinetto in do ed arpa
Scored for: Flute, Clarinet in C, Harp.
Score: Seven blocks of notation set opposite each other on a single page.
Construction: Character miniature in the form of a duo made up of seven parts numbered in Arabic with a steady beat: Quaver = 80 without time signature or bar divisions. The piece may also be defined as a three-part compostion for flute/clarinet and a prelude, two interludes and postlude for harp (1: solo [ten quaver beats]); (2: duo [10 quaver beats]; 3: solo [8 quaver beats]; 4: duo [14 quaver beats]; 5: solo [8 quaver beats]; 6:duo [18 quaver beats]; 7: solo [8 quaver beats]) thought of as a responsorial whereby one harp phrase is answered by another played by the brass section with the harp concluding the compositon. Accordingly there are 4 harp and 3 brass blocks which may also be termed stanzas A - B - A - B - A - B - A in varying structural appearances such as A 1 - B 1 - A 2 - B 2 - A 3 - B 3 - A 4 or A 1 - B 2 - A 3 - B 4 - A 5 - B 6 - A 7. In the A stanzas Strawinsky used the full pattern of the root position, inversion, reversion and reversive inversion. The lines are not broken by combinations with elements outside themselves, however there is an exchange at one point in their interior order. Where chords combine Strawinsky calculates their derivations both upward and down. Of course the principle of enharmonic change applies. According to their structure but not their sound c# and d b , d# and e b , f# and g b , g# and a b , a# and b as well as b# and c b are identical. In sections 1 and 2 we find the basic tone row has been composed without displacing any tones. The same is true for the inversion of section 3 and the reversive inversion of section 4 but not for the reversion in section 5 = harp section 3. Here Strawinsky interchanges the first three notes. According to the rule they should be a-g#-g but Strawinsky writes g-a-g#, using both the g and g# as appoggiaturas. As he intended using all four basic tone rows twice with but 7 sections at his disposal, he had to extend one of the brass blocks (of which there are only three) by two lines to make two more rows. To build up tension within the piece he chose the 6th section, the last one given to flute and clarinet. The flute is given 14 notes, the clarinet 10. The lines - first the reversion then the inversion - are not mixed, but added one to the other, thus remaining faithful to the structure characteristic of the entire composition. This measure also serves to avoid parallelisms in the respective third sections of A and B. The 7th and last section closes with a reversive inversion.
Structure
Quaver = 80
1 (Solo Harp [10 quaver beats]
2 (Duo Flute-Clarinet [10 quaver beats]
3 (Solo Harp [8 quaver beats]
4 (Duo Flute-Clarinet [14 quaver beats]
5 (Solo Harp [8 quaver beats]
6 (Duo Flute-Clarinet [18 quaver beats]
7 (Solo Harp [8 quaver beats]
Row: c#2-a#1-d#2-e2-c2-b1-f#1-f1-d2-g1-g#1-a1.
Style: Despite the solemn occasion and the strict adherence to construction principles the piece sounds hymn-like. Apart from the fact that Strawinsky , in his Christian world view, saw death as the door to another life, he felt confirmed in this attitude by Purcell’s Funeral Music for Queen Mary which is also reminiscent of a hymn.
Dedication: The dedication is part of the main title.
Duration: 1' 10".
Date of origin: between the middle of April and the beginning of June 1959.
History of origin: After Prince Egon’s death on 6th April 1959, Strawinsky and other contemporary composers were requested to write funeral music by Heinrich Strobel, the then director of the Südwestfunk Baden-Baden. The music was to be performed at the Donaueschinger Musiktage . Strawinsky, highly regarded by younger composers for his striking emulation of twelve-tone music as composed by Webern, had been a guest at Fürst Max Egon zu Fürstenberg’s in the two preceding years, 1957 and 1958. Moreover he owed to the Donaueschinger Musiktage several performances of his works during the Twenties. His mourning or funeral music was to form the introduction of the first of three concerts dedicated to Anton Webern , as he evidently learned later . Strawinsky agreed. The short piece would have to be completed by 5th June 1959. Not unusually, Strawinsky interpreted the mourning modus as responsory and began the piece by sketching an introduction for two flutes. The central idea was extended by merging the two treble voices into one and juxtaposing them by a bass line. Thus the continuing thought materialised in an antiphon between bass and treble. When paying close attention to his first sketch, Strawinsky discovered its near-complete 12-tone-character. He therefore made the same discovery as the Viennese composers in 1910 when they developed 12-tone music not as a model but having discovered it in non-12-tone music before recognising it as a compositional principle. He developed the tone row from an original idea that was not duodecaphonous and upon its foundations revised and built the piece. He chose the harp for the bass register, since he wished the piece to sound muted. The compositorial challenge of a two-part counterpoint consisted in the harmonious connection of diminished seconds. When Strawinsky learned that his piece was to be performed as an introduction to Webern’s music, he replaced the second flute by a clarinet in C, because the Webern Songs op. 15 also demand this combination. The compositional process ended, again not unusually for Strawinsky, with the first section.
First performance: 17th October 1959 in the series of the Donaueschinger Musiktage conducted by Pierre Boulez.
Remarks: The performance in Donaueschingen was organised such that each of the three concerts began with a funeral music or an ‘In Memoriam’ dedicated to the Prince. The other two composers contributing were Pierre Boulez and Wolfgang Fortner. If one wished to set so subtle a mark to the memory of Prince Eugen namely by composed prologues contributed by representatives of three generations of New Music instead of a single funeral music in the form of a suite, the number of composers had to be restricted to three, since there were only three concerts envisaged. The representatives were very well chosen: Strawinsky as the great old man of the older generation, the organiser and ‘hands-on’ Fortner for the middle one and the agile Boulez, representing the youngest generation of composers. Unfortunately, there was no room for numerous other composers who would gladly have contributed if asked. In the scene, word of the matter had spread. Strawinsky’s friend, Ernst Krenek, wrote a letter to Robert Craft on 7th June 1959 asking for information as to who had been spoken to by whom in the matter. He was probably dismayed that such a request had not gone to him. But Krenek’s success with the young people in Darmstadt remained elusive. Unlike Strawinsky, he was no longer regarded as one of them. Boosey & Hawkes also had heard something about this composition and Ernst Roth had made enquiries of Strawinsky on this front, as Strawinsky wrote back to Roth on 5th June 1959 saying that yes, he had written a fairly short piece to the memory of the recently deceased prince for an autumn performance (‘a very short piece (on page) in the memory of late Prinz . . .’) and stated the orchestration.
Versions: The contract for publication of the work between Igor Strawinsky and Boosey & Hawkes was concluded on 29th July 1959. In that same year, Epitaph appeared as a one-page ‘score’ together with a four-part quarto (no pagination) and an original title illustration showing a drawing of a fallen tombstone and the work title as a hand-written inscription thereon with Strawinksy’s signature beneath (p. A). It is most likely Strawinsky’s own. In any case, it was found among the manuscript collection pertaining to Epitaph. The musical notation (p. C) occupies only one page with the instrumental parts arranged in blocks. The quarto envelope usually contains two more instrumental parts.
Historical Record: Hollywood 25th January 1961, Arthur Gleghorn (Flute), Kalman Bloch (Clarinet), Dorothy Remsen (Harp) under the direction of Igor Strawinsky; New York City, 14th December 1964, Arthur Gleghorn (Flute), Kalman Bloch (Clarinet), Dorothy Remsen (Harp) under the direction of Robert Craft.
CD edition: XII/3 (Record 1964 under Robert Craft).
Autograph: Loaned to the British Library in London from the inventory of Boosey & Hawkes.
Copyright: 1959 by Hawkes & Sons, London.
Editions
a) Overview
90-1 1959; Sc; Boosey & Hawkes [Hawkes & Sons] London; 4 p.; 18599.
90-1[65] [1965]; ibd.
b) Characteristic features
90-1 ^°EPITAPHIUM / für das Grabmal / des Prinzen / Max Egon / zu Fürstenberg^ / by / Igor Stravinsky°* / Boosey & Hawkes // (Score [without parts] on a single folio page 23.3 x 31 (4° [4°]); 4 [1] pages without pagination thicker Paper black on cream white [ornamental front cover title of a tombstone lying diagonally about 12.6 x 6.3 at 9.2 to 9; front length rising from 0.5 to 1 + left side length 5.9 + right side length 4.9 to 6.3 rising from 1 to 2.6 + the handwritten title of the work is embedded in it , empty page, page of the score, empty page]; head title >EPITAPHIUM / für das Grabmal des Prinzen / MAX EGON / ZU FÜRSTENBERG<; author specified page of the score without pagination below head title flush right centred >IGOR STRAWINSKY* / 1959<; legal reservation in connection with plate number and production indication page of the score below type area flush left centred >© 1959 by Hawkes & Sons (London), Ltd. / All rights reserved / B. & H. 18599 / Printed in England<; without end mark) // (1959)
^ ^ The work title is in the inscription on the tombstone.
° ° Hand-written printed in line etching.
* Different spellings original; the later editions are anglicised.
90-1[65] ^°EPITAPHIUM / für das Grabmal / des Prinzen / Max Egon / zu Fürstenberg^ / by / Igor Stravinsky°* / Boosey & Hawkes // ((Score [without parts] on a single folio page 23.3 x 31 (4° [4°]); 4 [1] pages without pagination thicker Paper black on cream white [ornamental front cover title of a tombstone lying diagonally about 12.6 x 6.3 at 9.2 to 9; front length rising from 0.5 to 1 + left side length 5.9 + right side length 4.9 to 6.3 rising from 1 to 2.6 + the handwritten title of the work is embedded in it , empty page, page of the score, page with publisher’s advertisements >Igor Stravinsky<** production date >No. 40< [#] >7.65<]; head title >EPITAPHIUM / für das Grabmal des Prinzen / MAX EGON / ZU FÜRSTENBERG<; author specified page of the score without pagination below head title flush right centred >IGOR STRAWINSKY* / 1959<; legal reservations next to head title flush right with a text box >IMPORTANT NOTICE / The unauthorized copying / of the whole or any part of / this publication is illegal< below type area flush in connection with the plate number and production indication left centred >© 1959 by Hawkes & Sons (London), Ltd. / All rights reserved / B. & H. 18599 / Printed in England<; without end mark) // [1965]
^ ^ The work title is in the inscription on the tombstone.
° ° Hand-written printed in line etching.
* Different spellings original; the later editions are anglicised.
** Compositions are advertised in two columns without edition numbers, without price information and without specification of places of printing >Operas and Ballets° / Agon [#] Apollon musagète / Le baiser de la fée [#] Le rossignol / Mavra [#] Oedipus rex / Orpheus [#] Perséphone / Pétrouchka [#] Pulcinella / The flood [#] The rake’s progress / The rite of spring° / Symphonic Works° / Abraham and Isaac [#] Capriccio pour piano et orchestre / Concerto en ré (Bâle) [#] Concerto pour piano et orchestre / [#] d’harmonie / Divertimento [#] Greetings°° prelude / Le chant du rossignol [#] Monumentum / Movements for piano and orchestra [#] Quatre études pour orchestre / Suite from Pulcinella [#] Symphonies of wind instruments / Trois petites chansons [#] Two poems and three Japanese lyrics / Two poems of Verlaine [#] Variations in memoriam Aldous Huxley / Instrumental Music° / Double canon [#] Duo concertant / string quartet [#] violin and piano / Epitaphium [#] In memoriam Dylan Thomas / flute, clarinet and harp [#] tenor, string quartet and 4 trombones / Elegy for J.F.K. [#] Octet for wind instruments / mezzo-soprano or baritone [#] flute, clarinet, 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets and / and 3 clarinets [#] 2 trombones / Septet [#] Sérénade en la / clarinet, horn, bassoon, piano, violin, viola [#] piano / and violoncello [#] / Sonate pour piano [#] Three pieces for string quartet / piano [#] string quartet / Three songs from William Shakespeare° / mezzo-soprano, flute, clarinet and viola° / Songs and Song Cycles° / Trois petites chansons [#] Two poems and three Japanese lyrics / Two poems of Verlaine° / Choral Works° / Anthem [#] A sermon, a narrative, and a prayer / Ave Maria [#] Cantata / Canticum Sacrum [#] Credo / J. S. Bach: Choral-Variationen [#] Introitus in memoriam T. S. Eliot / Mass [#] Pater noster / Symphony of psalms [#] Threni / Tres sacrae cantiones°< [° centre centred; °° original mistake in the title].
K Catalog: Annotated Catalog of Works and Work Editions of Igor Strawinsky till 1971, revised version 2014 and ongoing, by Helmut Kirchmeyer.
© Helmut Kirchmeyer. All rights reserved.
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