Giacomo Meyerbeer : Cantatas for Festive Occasions

Giacomo Meyerbeer's (1791-1864) cantatas, spanning his middle and late life, were written in response to royal and civic commissions to celebrate dynastic events and to praise the deeds of famous men. Their festive nature is indicated in the titles: festival song, festival greeting, festival hymn, song, choral song, homage. Like a continuation of the 18th -century tradition of patronage, the more famous Meyerbeer became, the more his services were required by public authorities. Although a burden to him, and a distraction from his dramatic vocation, the composer understood the importance of these works for his life and public perception - especially in Germany, where his Jewishness was always a source of comment. His special relationship with the Prussian Royal Family was one of the most significant features of his life - as it was for Felix Mendelssohn. Meyerbeer's cantatas can be divided into Royal commission and civic/national ones. There are royal birthdays ("the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha", and "the Grand Duchess of Baden"), weddings ("Princess of Louise of Prussia"), marriage anniversaries ("King Friedrich Wilhelm IV and Prince Karl of Prussia"), coronations ("King Wilhelm I") and state visits ("Queen Victoria"). These are parallelled by commemoration of historical events and personages - the invention of printing (1436) by Johann Gutenberg (1397-1468), commemoration of the Prussian national hero Frederick the Great (1712-1786), the unveiling of the monumental equestrian stature of the famous king by the great sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch (1777-1857), and commemoration of the centenary of the birth of the illustrious dramatic poet and chronicler of idealism and freedom, Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805). In all of these works, Meyerbeer's powers of lyric beauty, dramatic perception, orchestral colour and drama, and sense of pomp and circumstance, are amply in evidence. They reveal a side to this great operatic composer that has been completely forgotten, and now awaits discovery. This collection, including both published vocal and full scores, contains the unpublished cantata written for Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (b. 1784, ruled 1806-1844), the father of Prince Albert the Prince Consort of Queen Victoria.

著者

Letellier, Robert Ignatius

出版社

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

発売日

2010-09-01

価格

価格未定（税込・書誌情報提供：openBD）

ISBN

9781443823234

ページ数

270ページ

発売済み