Abstract
Despite early attempts by Martin Opitz and others to write German opera texts, German verse-making techniques still remained inadequate until well after the middle of the 17th century for the fast-paced and often emotional dialogues set musically as recitative. This study traces the struggle to find a German equivalent for the madrigalic verse used in Italian opera.
Zusammenfassung
Trotz der Versuche von Opitz und anderen, deutschsprachige Operntexte zu schaffen, gab es bis um 1660 noch keine dazu geeignete deutsche Versart für die lebhaften und oft leidenschaftlichen Dialog- und Monologteile, die als Rezitativ gesetzt sein sollten. Die vorliegende Arbeit verfolgt die Entwicklung einer dem italienischen Madrigal entspre-chenden Versart in Deutschland.
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References
A surviving manuscript of her Ordo Virtutum includes solo and choral monody settings to the utterances of all the characters but one: “Diabolus” is a speaking role. See Hildegard von Bingen, Ordo virtutum, ed. Audrey Ekdahl Davidson (1985).
Ludus de Antichristo, ed. Gisela Vollmann-Profe, Litterae: Göppinger Beiträge zur Textgeschichte, No. 82 (1981). Stage directions indicate some parts were to be sung, although no notation survives.
Fritz Moser, Die Anfänge des Hof- und Gesellschaftstheaters in Deutschland (1940), pp. 30ff. He begins the series of musical plays with Grünpeck’s Ludus Dianae of 1501 in which music, both instrumental and choral, occurs between the scenes and as a finale honoring the imperial couple in the audience. A typical school drama in the sixteenth or seventeenth century (whether Latin or German, and including Christian Weise at the end of the seventeenth century) had musical choruses at the end of each act, plus possibly musical prologue and epilogue, and even imbedded songs during the prose acts, as
Robert Haas, Die Musik des Barocks (1928), p. 170, has noted.
Ernest Hatch Wilkins, A History of Italian Literature (1954), p. 315. Wilkins discusses the origins of opera, pp. 314–16. See also
Werner Braun, Die Musik des 17. Jahrhunderts, Neues Handbuch der Musikwissenschaft, Bd. IV (1981)
Donald J. Grout, A Short History of Opera (1947)
Hermann Kretzschmar, Geschichte der Oper, Kleine Handbücher der Musikgeschichte nach Gattungen, No. 6 (1919); and
Fabio Fano, ed., La Camerata fiorentina (1934).
Hans Joachim Moser, Heinrich Schütz: His Life and Work (1959), p. 396, disagrees that Opitz’s libretto would inspire such an operatic setting: “choruses and solo concerts seem to have far outweighed the real stile rappresentativo….”
Egon Wellesz, Der Beginn des musikalischen Barock und die Anfänge der Oper in Wien, Theater und Kultur, No. 6 (1922), p. 59.
On the history of opera in German-speaking countries, see Willi Flemming, “Einführung,” Die Oper, Vol. 6 of Barockdrama, DLE (1933), pp. 65–83
Robert Haas, “Die Oper in Deutschland bis 1750,” in Handbuch der Musikgeschichte, ed. Guido Adler (1930; rpt. 1975), pp. 151–92; Werner Braun, Die Musik des 17. Jahrhunderts; and Hermann Kretzschmar, Geschichte der Oper, pp. 133 ff.
The struggle to adapt madrigal versification for German lyric poetry has been discussed by Karl Vossler, Das deutsche Madrigal: Geschichte seiner Entwicklung bis in die Mitte des XVIII. Jahrhunderts, Litterarhistorische Forschungen, No. 6 (1898), who also addresses the question of its use in musical drama. Eugen Schmitz, Geschichte der Kantate und des geistlichen Konzerts, part 1: Geschichte der weltlichen Solokantata, Kleine Handbücher der Musikgeschichte nach Gattungen, No. 5 (1914), pp. 209ff., discusses the origins and development of madrigal versification as it relates to the history of the cantata. Both these studies emphasize the pivotal importance of the treatise on madrigal versification of 1653 by Caspar Ziegler: Von den Madrigalen, which has appeared in a new edition edited by Dorothea Glodny-Wiercinski, Ars Poetica, No. 12 (1971). Her introduction is also a useful study on the subject. The first scholar to deal with the topic was Philip Spitta, “Die Anfänge der madrigalischen Dichtkunst in Deutschland,” Allgemeine musikalische Zeitschrift, 10 (1875), 4–7 and 19–23.
Ellen T. Harris, Handel and the Pastoral Tradition (1980), pp. 62–63.
Wolfgang Osthoff, “Heinrich Schütz: Die historische Begegnung der deutschen Sprache mit der musikalischen Poetik Italiens,” Schütz-Jahrbuch, 2 (1980), 78–102, unfortunately addresses neither madrigalic verse nor dramatic performances.
On the Italian madrigal verse form, see Ulrich Schulz-Buschhaus, Das Madrigal: Zur Stilgeschichte der italienischen Lyrik zwischen Renaissance und Barock, Ars Poetica, No. 7 (1969), especially p. 42.
Ottavio Rinuccini, “Favola di Dafne,” reprinted in Angelo Solerti, Gli Albori del Melodramma (1904; rpt. 1969), II, 80.
From Dafne, in Martin Opitz, Weltliche Poemata (1644), ed. Erich Trunz, Deutsche Neudrucke, Reihe Barock, No. 2 (1967), p. 111. The libretto was also published alone earlier, probably in the year of the performance.
Only in the context of grammatically significant “e” endings does he discuss this point. See Martin Opitz, Buch von der deutschen Poeterey (1624); rpt. ed. Richard Ale-wyn, Neudrucke deutscher Literaturwerke, N.F. No. 8 (1966), pp. 34–35.
Daniel von Czepko, Pierie (1636), written, as the author notes in his preface, seven years previously. Reprinted in Daniel von Czepko, Weltliche Dichtungen, ed. Werner Milch (1932; rpt. 1963), pp. 304ff. Mara Wade believes Pierie was revised for its publication in 1636 using Opitz’s Judith as a model; the appearance of the earlier version can only be guessed at.
Unfortunately, all the music designed as settings for madrigal verse has been lost; only two strophic choruses from Cleomedes survive, published in Heinrich Albert, Erster Theil der ARIEN oder MELODEYEN (1638); rpt. titled Arien ed. Hermann Kretzschmar, Denkmäler deutscher Tonkunst, No. 12 (1958).
Both texts appeared in Simon Dach, Poetische Werche (1696; rpt. 1970) and in an edition of Dach’s complete works: Simon Dach, Gedichte, ed. Walther Ziesemer, Schriften der Königsberger Gelehrten Gesellschaft, No. 5 (1937), II, 281–318. Dach’s dramas are little studied. Aside from scattered references, only an inaccessible typescript dissertation treats them: Herbert Bretzke, “Simon Dach’s dramatische Spiele: Ein Beitrag zur Literaturgeschichte des 17. Jahrhunderts,” Diss. Königsberg (1922).
Georg Philipp Harsdörffer, Frauenzimmer Gesprächspiele, ed. Irmgard Böttcher, Deutsche Neudrucke, Reihe Barock, No. 16 (1968), IV, text 33–165; score 489–622.
On Staden’s score, see Peter Keller, Die Oper Seelewig von Sigmund Theophil Staden und Georg Philipp Harsdörffer (1977). I am indebted to my Iowa colleague, Professer of Music Martin Jenni, for many insights into this opera.
David Schirmer, Poetische Rauten-Gepüsch (1663); available in the Faber du Faur microfilm collection, no. 338 a, reel 67. On Schirmer, see Anthony J. Harper, David Schirmer: A Poet of the German Baroque, Stuttgarter Arbeiten zur Germanistik, No. 32 (1977), although this work (like the few others referred to in its bibliography) concentrates on the non-occasional lyric poetry of the Poetische Rosen-Gepüsche collection published in 1657.
Andreas Gryphius, Gesamtausgabe der deutschsprachigen Werke, ed. Marian Szyrocki and Hugh Powell, Neudrucke deutscher Literaturwerke, Vols. VII and VIII. Dietrich Walter Jöns has discussed the musical presentation of Majuma and Piastus in his essay on these texts in Die Dramen des Andreas Gryphius: Eine Sammlung von Einzelinterpretationen, ed. Gerhard Kaiser (1968), pp. 285ff.
In Anton Ulrich, Bühnendichtungen, ed. Blake Lee Spahr, Vol. I., part 1 of Werke (1982), 1–81.
Not published until 1678 (a pirated edition) and 1679, although apparently widely circulated in manuscript from the midfifties on. Christian Hofmann von Hofmannswaldau, Der Getreue Schäfer, in Deutsche Übersetzungen und Gedichte (1679); available on microfilm from the collection catalogued by Harold Jantz, German Baroque Literature, reel 269.
Georg Philipp Harsdörffer, Poetischer Trichter (1648–1653; rpt. 1969); although not published until 1679, Sigmund von Birken’s treatise likewise dates substantially from the 1640’s and 1650’s: Teutsche Rede-Bind- und Dicht-Kunst (1679; rpt. 1973).
Vossler, Das deutsche Madrigal, pp. 53–91, discusses these theorists. They include such important figures as Balthasar Kindermann, Der Deutsche Poet (1664); Georg Neumark, Poetische Tafeln (1667)
Daniel Georg Morhof, Unterricht von der Teutschen Sprache und Poesie (1682); Christian Weise in several comments published in 1675 and 1692
Albrecht Christian Rotth, Vollständige Poesie (1688)
Magnus Daniel Omeis, Gründliche Anleitung (1704); and Menantes (Hunold), Die allerneuste Art, zur reinen und Galanten Poesie zu gelangen (1717). Vossler does not know of Stieler’s account of the madrigal in his Die Dichtkunst des Spaten of 1685, a manuscript discourse first published, ed. Herbert Zeman, Wiener Neudrucke, No. 5 (1975), lines 99–100 and 773–784.
See Frederick Robert Lehmeyer, “The ‘Singspiele’ of Anton Ulrich von Braunschweig,” diss. Univ. of California at Berkeley (1971), p. 117
Rand Henson, “Duke Anton Ulrich of Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Wolfenbüttel (1633–1714) and the Politics of Baroque Musical Theater,” diss. Univ. of California at Berkeley (1980), pp. 82–85. Sophie Elizabeth’s activity as a composer is discussed in The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, XVII, 530; her musical abilities and her setting of a musical drama for children written by Georg Schottelius (1642) is also discussed in Heinrich Sievers et al., 250 Jahre Braunschweigisches Staatstheater 1690–1940 (1941), pp. 26–42; however, this survey attributes the scores for Anton Ulrich’s dramatic texts to Kapellmeister Johann Jacob Löwe (41).
A large portion of the score, preserved in manuscript in Vienna, has been published: Marc Antonio Cesti, 11 Pomo d’oro: Bühnenfestspiel, ed. Guido Adler, Denkmähler der Tonkunst in Österreich, Vols. VI and IX (1896). Other, recently discovered fragments have also been published: Antonio Cesti, Il Pomo d’oro, Music for Acts 111 and V from Modena, Biblioteca Estense, ms. mus. E. 120, ed. Carl B. Schmidt (1982). On Cesti, see especially Hermann Kretzschmar, “Die venetianische Oper und die Werke Cavallis und Cestis,” Vierteljahresschrift für Musik-Wissenschaft, 8 (1892), 1ff.
Höfer, Die Rudolstädter Festspiele, p. 181; Herbert Zeman, “Kaspar Stieler: Versuch einer Monographie,” Diss. Wien (1965), pp. 82–83.
Hellmut Christian Wolff, Die Barockoper in Hamburg (1678–1638) (1957) has already pointed out that the strophic arias of the early Hamburg opera depended on Stieler’s songs in the Geharnschte Venus, as well as on songs published in Hamburg by others: “Die unmittelbarsten Vorbilder der Arien waren die Liedersammlungen von Johann Rist…, Jacob Schwieger…, Johann Schop…, Caspar Stieler…, u.a.” (I, 197).
On these productions, see Conrad Höfer, Weimarische Theatervorstellungen zur Zeit des Herzogs Wilhelm Ernst (1914).
In The Spectator, No. 29, 3 April 1710. See Friedrich Heinrich Neumann, Die Ästhetik des Rezitativs: Zur Theorie des Rezitativs im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, Sammlung musikwissenschafdiche Abhandlungen, No. 41 (1962), pp. 14ff.
Werner Braun, Die Musik des 17. Jahrhunderts, in Neues Handbuch der Musikwissenschaft, Bd. IV (1981), p. 95. After discussing the character of Italian stile recitativo, which he also terms “der monodische Sprechgesang,” Werner states: “Daß er aus dem Geist und dem Klang der italienischen Sprache entwickelt wurde, deutet bereits Peri an (1600). Eine mechanische Übernahme des italienischen Rezitativstils bei anderen sprachlichen Voraussetzungen wäre also stillos … [so kam es vor, daß] die Opernspezialisten außerhalb Italiens … das Rezitativ neu gestalteten” (95).
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Aikin, J.P. Creating a Language for German Opera The Struggle to Adapt Madrigal Versification in Seventeenth-Century Germany. Dtsch Vierteljahrsschr Literaturwiss Geistesgesch 62, 266–289 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03375993
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03375993