Programme details
Dvořák - Zlatý kolovrat - The Golden Spinning Wheel
In 1896, Antonín Dvořák composed four symphonic poems based on ballads from the collection Kytice (The Bouquet) by Karel Jaromír Erben: The Water Spirit, The Afternoon Witch, The Golden Spinning Wheel and The Wild Dove. These works mark an important phase in Dvořák's career, stemming from his long-standing fascination with Erben's poetry. Earlier, Dvořák had incorporated Erben's texts into works such as The Spectre’s Bride (1884) and considered cantatas based on other ballads. Ultimately, he chose the genre of symphonic poems, in which he musically translated Erben's themes without relying on the support of text.
In the 2025 summer school we will perform The Golden Spinning Wheel. Our original idea of performing The Spectre’s Bride turned out not be possible due to restrictions at our concert venue, the cathedral.
The Golden Spinning Wheel
The first performance of The Golden Spinning Wheel took place in Prague in 1896, followed by a public premiere in London. The reception was mixed: there was admiration for its musical depth, but also criticism from traditionalists such as Eduard Hanslick, who deplored Dvořák's ‘deviation’ from absolute music. Leoš Janáček, on the other hand, praised Dvořák's expressive musical 'speech' in these works.
Dvořák integrated the rhythmic structure of Erben's verses into his thematic material, leading to a unique combination of musical inventiveness and textual reference. His detailed approach to Erben's stories, such as the musical repetitions in The Golden Spinning Wheel which follow the textual repetitions, was sometimes controversial, but demonstrated his focus on the narrative power of music. In addition, Dvořák emphasized with his orchestration refined timbres with influences from French Impressionism.
Synopsis of The Golden Spinning Wheel
While out riding in the countryside, a king happens upon a beautiful village girl, Dornička, and falls in love with her. He asks her stepmother to bring her to his castle. The stepmother and Dornička's identically looking stepsister set off towards the king's castle with Dornička. On the way, they murder her, hack off her feet and hands, and cut out her eyes. They bury the body but keep the amputated parts, "lest someone fix them back". The stepsister then poses as Dornička and marries the king, after which he is called away to battle.
Meanwhile, in the midst of the forest, a hermit skilled in magical arts finds Dornička's remains and decides to bring her back to life. He sends a page to the castle to persuade the step-sister to part with "two feet" in return for a golden spinning wheel, "two hands" for a golden distaff, and "two eyes" for a golden spindle. The body being complete again, the hermit brings Dornička back to life.
The king returns from battle and bids his wife to spin for him on her new wheel. As she obliges, the magical spinning wheel sings a song betraying the two women's treacherous plot and relaying all the gruesome details of Dornička's murder. The king goes off into the forest to find his true betrothed. The two murderesses are thrown to the wolves, their bodies mutilated in the same way they had mutilated Dornička's. Having fulfilled its task, the golden spinning wheel magically disappears, never to be seen or heard again.
The full text of Erben's poem with a parallel English translation can be found here.
Haydn - Missa in tempore belli (Paukenmesse)
Joseph Haydn composed the Missa in tempore belli (Hob. XXII:9), also known as the Paukenmesse, in 1796, during the turbulent time of the First Coalition War. Haydn wrote the mass for the ordination of Joseph Franz von Hofmann, and it was first performed in the Piaristenkirche Maria Treu in Vienna. Later, Haydn also performed the mass in honor of the name day of Princess Maria Josepha Hermengilde Esterházy. The nickname Paukenmesse refers to the prominent role of the timpani, especially in the Agnus Dei, where a timpani solo evokes the threatening atmosphere of war. The Mass combines religious seriousness with combative musical elements, appropriate to the fear of a possible invasion of Austria.
In late 1796, a year before the end of the First Coalition War, Napoleon Bonaparte scored victories over the Austrians. He finally defeated the Austian forces in November in the Battle of Arcola. To the west, Austria fought with France for control of southern Germany. In this threatening atmosphere of war and against this background the Paukenmesse was born. For the first time since 1683, when a very large Ottoman Empire army besieged Vienna for two months, there was a real danger of an invasion of the core area of the Austrian Empire. The expulsion of the Turks was for the Austrians an important event that was celebrated annually on September 12, the Feast of the Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Processions and special masses kept the memory of victory alive, especially with church music with unusually prominent for trumpets and timpani. These were meant to evoke the threat of war and the triumph of victory.
This piece has been long thought to express an anti-war sentiment, even though there is no explicit message in the text itself, and no clear indication from Haydn that this was his intention. What is found in the score is a very unsettled nature to the music, not normally associated with Haydn, which has led scholars to the conclusion that it is anti-war in nature. This is especially noticed in the Benedictus and Agnus Dei. During the time of the composition of the Mass, the Austrian government had issued a decree in 1796, that "no Austrian should speak of peace until the enemy is driven back to its customary borders." Whether this is enough to call it anti-war in nature is certainly debatable because most of the mass is of a lyrically joyful nature.
Structure and characteristics
The structure of the Mass follows the traditional parts of the Mass:
- The Kyrie begins with a solemn introduction in which the timpani first quietly and then very loudly, set the tone for the Mass. The Kyrie is a fast movement in sonata form. The theme is begun by the soprano, taken over by the choir in increasingly compelling tone, while the soloists intervene with short sections.
- The Gloria is in three movements. The middle movement is very slow, beginning with a lovely duet for bass and solo cello in the Qui tollis in A, but a menacing tone is set with the entry of the chorus. The two outer movements are thematically related, with fanfares of brass and timpani.
- The Credo is also three-part with an equally slow middle section with a clarinet solo for the Et incarnatus est. The last movement, divided into two parts, ends with a double fugue on the words Et vitam venturi saeculi, Amen.
- The Sanctus is in two parts, a stately opening section followed by a thundering fast movement on the words Pleni sunt coeli, again accompanied by the trumpets and timpani. In accordance with liturgical custom, the Sanctus is short.
- The Benedictus is an andante with an ominous character that begins in c minor and slowly moves to C major on the words Osanna in excelsis.
- The Agnus Dei contains the part that gave the Mass its nickname: unexpectedly, after the simple melody for choir and strings in bar 10 the timpani have a solo, after which the trumpets follow triumphantly. Syncopations in the violins and sustained notes on the oboes's accompany the timpani. According to Haydn's biographer Giuseppe Carpani, the timpani had to be struck in the French manner (with the handpalm pointing downwards), thus reinforcing the threat. The diplomat Georg August Griesinger, a friend of Haydn, wrote of the mass: "1796, when die Franzosen in der Steyermark standen, setzte Haydn eine Messe, welcher er den Titel in tempore belli gab. In dieser Messe sind die Worte Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi auf eigene Art mit Begleitung von Pauken vorgetragen, als hörte man den Feind schon in der Ferne kommen" (In 1796, when the French were in Styria, Haydn composed a mass to which he gave the title in tempore belli. In this mass, the words Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi are presented in a unique way, accompanied by timpani, as if one could already hear the enemy coming in the distance). The mass ends with a fanfare-like Allegro con spirito with a most compellingly sung Dona nobis pacem.
Ensemble formation
The Missa in tempore belli is written for two oboes's, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, strings and organ; later Haydn expanded the parts for the clarinets for all movements, added a part for a flute in the 'Qui tollis' and amplified the trumpets by horns. For the performance as part of La Pellegrina's summer course, we extended the parts of flutes and clarinets a little further, so that they become full voices. The choir has the normal scoring SATB. There are four soloists satb.
