Requiem für einen jungen Dichter
| Requiem für einen jungen Dichter | |
|---|---|
| Lingual | |
| Oratorio by Bernd Alois Zimmermann | |
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| Language |
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| Composed | 1967–1969 |
| Performed | 1969 |
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Requiem für einen jungen Dichter (Requiem for a Young Poet) is an extended composition by Bernd Alois Zimmermann, written from 1967 to 1969 for two speakers, soprano and baritone soloists, three choirs, jazz band, organ, tapes and a large orchestra. Subtitled Lingual (speech work), it sets a text that includes the Latin liturgical Mass for the Dead and literary, philosophical, religious and political texts, related to politics and the history of mind during the composer's life. The work has elements of a cantata, an oratorio and an audio play.
Three poets whose texts are quoted in the work ended their life in suicide: Vladimir Mayakovsky, Konrad Bayer and Sergei Yesenin. Taped additions include the voices of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, Pope John XXIII, James Joyce, Alexander Dubček, Hitler, Chamberlain, Andreas Papandreou, Ezra Pound, Kurt Schwitters, Albert Camus and Sándor Weöres. Quoted music includes fragments from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Milhaud's La création du monde, Messiaen's L'ascension and The Beatles' "Hey Jude". In the section Dona nobis pacem (Grant us peace), excerpts from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony are contrasted with texts by Joachim von Ribbentrop, Stalin, Goebbels, Churchill and Bayer. It was premiered in Düsseldorf in 1969, conducted by Michael Gielen. The composer died by suicide in 1970.
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