''Arche'' (''Ark'', often stylised as ''ARCHE'') is an

oratorio An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is mus ...

for soloists, choirs, organ and orchestra by

Jörg Widmann Jörg Widmann (born 19 June 1973) is a German composer, conductor and clarinetist. In 2018, Widmann was the third most performed contemporary composer in the world. Formerly a clarinet and composition professor at the University of Music Freibu ...

. It was commissioned by

Kent Nagano Kent George Nagano GOQ, MSM (born November 22, 1951) is an American conductor and opera administrator. Since 2015, he has been Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and was Music Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 20 ...

for the opening of the

Elbphilharmonie The Elbphilharmonie (; "Elbe Philharmonic Hall"), popularly nicknamed Elphi, is a concert hall in the HafenCity quarter of Hamburg, Germany, on the Grasbrook peninsula of the Elbe River. It is among the largest in the world. The new glassy con ...

, Hamburg. In the premiere on 13 January 2017, he conducted 300 performers.

Background

composed the

''ARCHE'' in 2016.

commissioned a full-length work for choir and orchestra and did not make any content restrictions. The commission of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra for the opening of the

has 300 performers with two soloists, two adult choirs and a children’s choir. Two child narrators chronicle the acts of creation and the flood. Widmann's work was inspired by the Elbphilharmonie under construction.

Structure

''ARCHE'' is structured in five sections, in which Widmann roams through more than 3000 years of cultural and 300 years of music history. Antithetic or dualistic conceptions characterize large parts of the oratorio.

I – Fiat lux / Es werde Licht

* ''Let there be light'' is based on the

Genesis creation narrative The Genesis creation narrative is the creation myth of both Judaism and Christianity. The narrative is made up of two stories, roughly equivalent to the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. In the first, Elohim (the Hebrew generic word ...

. Beginning with silence: Let there be sound. At first noise-like sounds of wind and nature and "pitchless rustles and whispers". Air sounds and breath noises are created with wind instruments. The acts of creation are partly accompanied with heavenly chorales and burlesque, ironical musical episodes. Two children describe the act of creation.

II – Die Sintflut

* ''The flood'' is based on

Genesis flood narrative The Genesis flood narrative (chapters 6–9 of the Book of Genesis) is the Hebrew version of the universal flood myth. It tells of God's decision to return the universe to its pre- creation state of watery chaos and remake it through the micro ...

and

Noah's Ark Noah's Ark ( he, תיבת נח; Biblical Hebrew: ''Tevat Noaḥ'')The word "ark" in modern English comes from Old English ''aerca'', meaning a chest or box. (See Cresswell 2010, p.22) The Hebrew word for the vessel, ''teva'', occurs twice in t ...

. The catastrophic character is manifested by cascading masses of sound.

III – Liebe

* ''Love'' The center section is characterized by antiphony between the lovers (

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

and

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

) with tragic operatic fragments. All forms of love are found within it – dark, bright, joyous, vile and jealousy. Because of the jealousy of humans, ''Die Liebe'' leads to a double murder in a delusional fever.

IV – Dies irae

* ''Day of wrath'' The strict setting of Dies irae represents the impending apocalypse. The human response is Friedrich Schiller's

Ode to Joy "Ode to Joy" (German language, German: , literally "To heJoy") is an ode written in the summer of 1785 by German poet, playwright, and historian Friedrich Schiller and published the following year in ''Thalia (magazine), Thalia''. A slightl ...

. Widmann's setting of the poem cites Beethoven's

Choral Fantasy The ''Fantasy'' for piano, vocal soloists, mixed chorus, and orchestra, Op. 80, usually called the ''Choral Fantasy'', was composed in 1808 by then 38-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven intended the ''Fantasy'' to serve as the conc ...

V – Dona nobis pacem

* ''Grant us peace'' Modern

Zeitgeist In 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy, a ''Zeitgeist'' () ("spirit of the age") is an invisible agent, force or Daemon dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history. Now, the term is usually associated with Georg W. F. ...

is represented by an alphabet

rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

of the children's choir. The response is a

Dona nobis pacem Dona nobis pacem (Latin for "Grant us peace") is a phrase in the Agnus Dei section of the mass (liturgy), mass. The phrase, in isolation, has been appropriated for a number of musical works, which include: Classical music * "Dona nobis pacem (ro ...

, performed by a boy soprano and the choirs. Man bears the fate of the earth in his own hands. The resolution of the final cadence is not complete.

Scoring

The setting contains voices and a large orchestra. * ''Vocal soloists'': soprano, baritone, boy soprano * ''Choirs'': children's choir, two mixed choirs * two children narrators (boy and girl)

Instrumentation

* ''Woodwinds'': 4 flutes (all with B foot, all doubling piccolo, 3rd doubling alto flute, 4th doubling bass flute), 4 oboes (2nd doubling oboe d'amore, 3rd and 4th doubling lotus flute, 3rd doubling cor anglais, 4th doubling heckelphone), 4 clarinets in B (all doubling in A, 2nd doubling clarinet in E, 3rd doubling bass clarinet in B, 4th doubling contrabass clarinet in B), 4 bassoons (3rd and 4th doubling double bassoon) * ''Brass'': 6 horns (1st and 2nd doubling natural horn), 4 trumpets in C (1st and 2nd doubling in B, 1st doubling high B ad lib.), 4 trombones (3rd and 4th doubling bass trombone ad lib.), tuba * ''Strings'': 16 violins I, 14 violins II, 12 violas, 10 cellos, 8 double basses (all with 5 strings) * ''Percussion'': 4 players, timpani * 2 harps, accordion, glass harmonica, 2 pianos (2nd doubling celesta), organ

Text

The language of the oratorio is German and Latin. Widmann selected a variety of texts from different centuries: *

Matthias Claudius Matthias Claudius (15 August 1740 – 21 January 1815) was a German poet and journalist, otherwise known by the pen name of “Asmus”. Life Claudius was born at Reinfeld, Holstein, Reinfeld, near Lübeck, and studied at Jena. He spent the gre ...

Klabund Alfred Henschke (4 November 1890 – 14 August 1928), better known by his pseudonym Klabund, was a German writer. Life Klabund, born Alfred Henschke in 1890 in Crossen, was the son of an apothecary. At the age of 16 he came down with tuberculo ...

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...

Peter Sloterdijk Peter Sloterdijk (; ; born 26 June 1947) is a German philosopher and cultural theorist. He is a professor of philosophy and media theory at the University of Art and Design Karlsruhe. He co-hosted the German television show ''Im Glashaus: Das Phi ...

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fairy tales, consisti ...

Clemens Brentano Clemens Wenzeslaus Brentano (also Klemens; pseudonym: Clemens Maria Brentano ; ; 9 September 1778 – 28 July 1842) was a German poet and novelist, and a major figure of German Romanticism. He was the uncle, via his brother Christian, of Franz a ...

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...

Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a mystic Italian Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most venerated figures in Christianit ...

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...

Roland Schimmelpfennig Roland Schimmelpfennig (born 19 September 1967) is a German theatre director and playwright. His plays are performed in more than 40 countries. Biography Schimmelpfennig was born in Gottingen. He began his career as a journalist in Istanbul, b ...

Thomas of Celano Thomas of Celano ( it, Tommaso da Celano, italic=no; c. 1185 – c. 1265) was an Italian friar of the Franciscans (Order of Friars Minor) as well as a poet and the author of three hagiographies about Francis of Assisi. Life Thomas was born some ...

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

and from

Des Knaben Wunderhorn ''Des Knaben Wunderhorn: Alte deutsche Lieder'' (German language, German; "The boy's magic horn: old German songs") is a collection of German folk poems and songs edited by Ludwig Achim von Arnim, Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, and publi ...

, Bible and

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

Premiere and performances

Widmann's oratorio ''ARCHE'' had its world premiere on 13 January 2017 on the occasion of the opening festivities of the

in Hamburg. It was performed by the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra conducted by

. Soloists were

Marlis Petersen Marlis Petersen (born 3 February 1968)Heinrich (2018) is a German operatic coloratura soprano. Career Born in Sindelfingen, Baden-Württemberg, Marlis Petersen won six important piano competitions before eventually going to the Stuttgart Conser ...

(

) and (

). The choirs were Chor der Hamburgischen Staatsoper, Audi Jugendchorakademie and Hamburger Alsterspatzen. On 12 November 2022,

Karina Canellakis Karina Canellakis (born August 23, 1981) is an American conductor and violinist. Biography Born in New York City, of Greek and Russian background, Canellakis grew up in a family of musicians. Her parents met as music students at the Juilliard Sc ...

conducted the

Radio Filharmonisch Orkest The Radio Filharmonisch Orkest (''Radio Philharmonic Orchestra''; Dutch abbreviation RFO) is a Dutch radio orchestra, based in Hilversum. The RFO performs under the aegis of the ''Muziekcentrum van de Omroep'' (Broadcasting Music Centre; NMBC), an ...

Concertgebouw The Royal Concertgebouw ( nl, Koninklijk Concertgebouw, ) is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term "concertgebouw" translates into English as "concert building". Its superb acoustics place it among the finest concert halls i ...

, Amsterdam. On 4 June and 5 June 2023, the oratorio was revived at Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg.

Reception

A few German newspapers critically reviewed the premiere of ''ARCHE''. The '' neue musikzeitung'' stated that the oratorio is capable of winning a majority.

Eleonore Büning Elisabeth Eleonore Büning (née Bauer; born 2 January 1952) is a German music journalist and writer, known for her opera reviews in the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung''. Early life and education Elisabeth Eleonore Bauer was born in Frankfurt a ...

, reviewer of the ''

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

'', wrote about the enthusiasm of the audience, and that Widmann's splendid, richly orchestrated music breaks all genre and style boundaries. ''

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. History ...

'' wrote, that the work is diverging, and also undecided in its message. Andrew Clements, reviewer of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', wrote about the CD production: "fails to convince".

Awards

Widmann received the "Composer of the Year" 2019 Award for ''ARCHE''. In 2023, the composer received the

Bach Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg The Bach Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg has been awarded since 1951, since 1975 every four years. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach, the prize was founded in 1950 by the Senate and the ...

, General Music Director

became Honorary Conductor of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra.

Recording

* Arche,

, Thomas E. Bauer,

Iveta Apkalna Iveta Apkalna (born 30 November 1976, Rēzekne, Latvia) is a Latvian organist and pianist. Biography Iveta Apkalna studied piano and organ at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, graduating in both instruments with distinction in 1999 ...

Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg The Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg (Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra) is an internationally renowned symphony orchestra based in Hamburg. As of 2015, Kent Nagano has been General Music Director (''Generalmusikdirektor'') and chief c ...

(

ECM ECM may refer to: Economics and commerce * Engineering change management * Equity capital markets * Error correction model, an econometric model * European Common Market Mathematics * Elliptic curve method * European Congress of Mathematics ...

2018)

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

* * {{italic title Compositions by Jörg Widmann Oratorios 21st-century classical music 2016 compositions Music commissioned by the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra Oratorios based on the Bible