In the late 1990's David Greiner sang in performances of my cantata Vocibus Mulierum - Women's Voices and the song cycle Songs of Love and Loss and more recently he gave the premiere of my song cycle Quickening. I started sketching a setting for Rilke's Duino Elegy in the late 1990's with a view to producing a work in which David could sing in his native German. Bringing the piece to a satisfactory form proved more difficult than I had anticipated. Setting the text proved taxing for my rudimentary German and the accompaniment overflowed out of the piano part. I then spent a number of years wrestling with the piece before accepting that an orchestral version would be the most satisfactory.
When it comes to great literature, being a foreigner can be an advantage as a composer as you come to a text without any of the preconceptions and problems that occur when you try and set major literature in your native tongue. I'd probably shy away from setting an English poem as well known as Rilke's elegy. My musical language is basically tonal and when writing for the voice I am always aware of the need to write something singable.
My setting opens with an 8-note descending figure on the wood-wind, this forms the kernel for much of the musical material. The voice's opening phrases are accompanied by a series of semi-disjoint phrases which also form the source material for much of the piece. Though the setting is continuous, it divides into rough paragraphs as the mood of the poem changes. The first such change occurs with the words Frühe Geglückte/Early Successes as the tempo of the music suddenly increases, semi-quaver figuration in the strings. But the tumult suddenly evaporates and the mood of the opening re-occurs at the works Denn wir, wo wir fühlen/But we, when we feel. The words O Lächeln, wohin?/Oh smile, where to? provide a short maestoso episode but the tempo then suddenly doubles and the melody is accompanied by simple homophonic chords; these in turn evaporate leaving a spare evocation of the opening 8-note figure to accompany Sie merken es nicht in dem Wirbel/They don't notice it in the maelstrom.
With Liebende/Lovers the voice introduces a new idea, a sort of waltz figure which is taken up by the orchestra playing it in canon. But for the opening of the next paragraph Liebende, euch, ihr in einander Genügten/Lovers, who are enough for each other the voice returns to the waltz accompanied by a simple rocking figure. This merges into a repeating group of motifs derived from the opening accompaniment, this material forms the back-drop to Ihr aber, die ihr im Entzücken des anderen/But you, who swell with the other's. The waltz returns again with the words Liebende, seid ihrs dann noch?/lovers, are you still that?, then an extended version of the opening 8-note figure leads to a complete reprise of the opening section. But this time the original vocal part is embedded in the orchestra and with the words Erstaunte euch nicht/Weren't you astounded sung to a new melody. The final section, Fänden auch wir/If only we too could find, forms a sort of coda; the voice is accompanied by steadily moving homophonic chords in the strings with semi-quaver runs in the woodwind intended to evoke the idea of the music running on indefinitely.
Rilke was born in Prague in 1875 and made his debut at the age of 19 with Leben und Lieder (1894) written in the conventional style of Heinrich Heine. He married one of Rodin's pupils in 1901 but separated from his wife in 1905 and settled in Paris, where he started to develop a new style of lyrical poetry in which the physchological distinction between observer and observation melts together.
In 1910, Rilke visited his friend Princess Marie von Thurn and Taxis-Hohenlohe at Duino, her remote castle on the Adriatic, he returned again the following year. There he started to compose his Duino Elegies. Work did not proceed easily. In 1913 Rilke returned to Paris and was forced return to Germany because of the 1st World War. Duino Castle was bombarded to ruins and Rilke's personal property was confiscated in France. Rilke served in the Austrian army, but he found another patron, Werner Reinhart who owned the Castle Muzot at Valais. It was here, in 1922, that Rilke finally completed the Duinese Elegien (Duino Elelgies); poems in which Rilke meditated on time and eternity, life and death, art versus ordinary things. He died from leukaemia in 1926.
Robert Hugill