''Enoch Arden'', Op. 38, TrV. 181, is a

melodrama A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or exce ...

for narrator and piano, written in 1897 by

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...

setting a German translation of the 1864 poem of the same name by

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

History

Richard Strauss wrote ''Enoch Arden'' for the actor

Ernst von Possart Ernst von Possart (11 May 18418 April 1921) was a German actor and theatre director. Possart was born in Berlin and was early an actor at Breslau, Bern, and Hamburg. Connected with the Munich Court Theatre after 1864, he became the oberregis ...

, who in 1896 had assisted him in obtaining the post of Chief Conductor at the

Bavarian State Opera The Bayerische Staatsoper is a German opera company based in Munich. Its main venue is the Nationaltheater München, and its orchestra the Bayerische Staatsorchester. History The parent ensemble of the company was founded in 1653, under Ele ...

. He wrote it while engaged in composing ''Don Quixote''La Jolla Music Society
/ref> and finished it in February 1897. Strauss and Possart toured together widely with the melodrama, in a German translation by

Adolf Strodtmann Adolf Heinrich Strodtmann (24 March 1829, in Flensburg – 17 March 1879, in Steglitz) was a German poet, journalist, translator and literary historian. He wrote an early biography of Heinrich Heine and emigrated to the United States for a time. ...

.Music Web International
/ref>Answers.com
/ref> It was well received by audiences and Strauss's reputation was enhanced more by it than by his symphonic poems. The following year Strauss capitalised on its success by writing ''Das Schloss am Meere'' (''The Castle by the Sea'') to words by

Ludwig Uhland Johann Ludwig Uhland (26 April 1787 – 13 November 1862) was a German poet, philologist and literary historian. Biography He was born in Tübingen, Württemberg, and studied jurisprudence at the university there, but also took an interest in ...

. The work has been described as falling within the genre of

incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as t ...

. It consists mainly of brief interludes indicative of changes of time and setting, as well as moments of punctuation and commentary. Each of the two parts is introduced by a prelude and concludes with a postlude. Strauss uses

leitmotif A leitmotif or leitmotiv () is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of ''idée fixe'' or ''motto-theme''. The spelling ''leitmotif'' is an anglic ...

s to identify each of the characters: Enoch Arden (a chordal sequence in E flat), Annie Lee (a rising figure in G), Philip Ray (a melody in E),Audiophile Audition
/ref> the sea (G minor).Audiophile Audition
/ref> He does not develop these into melodies as such, but uses them statically. There are long passages where the piano is silent. Because of the sparse nature of the music, performances of ''Enoch Arden'' are largely dependent on the speaker rather than the pianist. Criticisms of the piece as a musical work ''per se'' do not do it justice, as it was never intended to be primarily a piece of music but a dramatic presentation with musical accompaniment. ''Enoch Arden'' was popular in its day, but slipped into obscurity when fashions changed and recitations, declamations and melodramas came to be considered passé. In recent years the work has attracted some notable names in both the speaker's role, including

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (28 May 1925 – 18 May 2012) was a German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous Lieder (art song) performers of the post-war period, best known as a singer of Franz Schubert's Lieder, ...

Jon Vickers Jonathan Stewart Vickers, (October 29, 1926 – July 10, 2015), known professionally as Jon Vickers, was a Canadian heldentenor. Born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, he was the sixth in a family of eight children. In 1950, he was awarded a ...

Michael York Michael York OBE (born Michael Hugh Johnson; 27 March 1942) is an English film, television and stage actor. After performing on-stage with the Royal National Theatre, he had a breakthrough in films by playing Tybalt in Franco Zeffirelli's ''Ro ...

Claude Rains William Claude Rains (10 November 188930 May 1967) was a British actor whose career spanned almost seven decades. After his American film debut as Griffin (The Invisible Man), Dr. Jack Griffin in ''The Invisible Man (1933 film), The Invisible Ma ...

Benjamin Luxon Benjamin Matthew Luxon (born 24 March 1937, Redruth, Cornwall) is a retired British baritone. Biography He studied with Walther Gruner at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (while working part-time as a PE teacher in the East End) and est ...

Patrick Stewart Sir Patrick Stewart (born 13 July 1940) is an English actor who has a career spanning seven decades in various stage productions, television, film and video games. He has been nominated for Olivier, Tony, Golden Globe, Emmy, and Screen Actors ...

and Gwyneth Jones, and the pianist's role, including

Glenn Gould Glenn Herbert Gould (; né Gold; September 25, 1932October 4, 1982) was a Canadian classical pianist. He was one of the most famous and celebrated pianists of the 20th century, and was renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard works of Johann ...

Jörg Demus Jörg Wolfgang Demus (2 December 1928 – 16 April 2019) was an Austrian classical pianist who appeared internationally and made many recordings. He was also a composer and a lecturer at music academies. In composition and playing, he focused on ...

Stephen Hough Sir Stephen Andrew Gill Hough (; born 22 November 1961) is a British-born classical pianist, composer and writer. He became an Australian citizen in 2005 and thus has dual nationality (his father was born in Australia in 1926). Biography Houg ...

Emanuel Ax Emanuel "Manny" Ax (born 8 June 1949) is a Grammy-winning American classical pianist. He is a teacher in the Juilliard School. Early life Ax was born to a Polish-Jewish family in Lviv, Ukraine, (in what was then the Soviet Union) to Joachim and ...

, and Marc-André Hamelin.

Performances

The English opera singer Richard Temple performed the work various times in the early 20th century, including at

Steinway Hall Steinway Hall (German: ) is the name of buildings housing concert halls, showrooms and sales departments for Steinway & Sons pianos. The first Steinway Hall was opened in 1866 in New York City. Today, Steinway Halls and are located in cities such ...

in New York.

presented the work in German a number of times from 1993. He also recorded the work twice, in the mid-1960s and again in 2003.

has performed the work in English a number of times in Europe and the United States, with different pianists. Conductor

Emil de Cou Emil de Cou is an American conductor who became associate conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra (John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts) in September 2003. He has led the orchestra on residency tours in five states, in subscription ...

arranged a version for chamber orchestra and narrator. This was performed with the Virginia Chamber Orchestra and actor Gary Sloan in 2010. The British actor

Andrew Sachs Andreas Siegfried Sachs (7 April 1930 – 23 November 2016), known professionally as Andrew Sachs, was a German-born British actor and writer. He made his name on British television and found his greatest fame for his portrayal of the comical Sp ...

(best known for his role as Manuel in ''

Fawlty Towers ''Fawlty Towers'' is a British television sitcom written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, broadcast on BBC2 in 1975 and 1979. Two series of six episodes each were made. The show was ranked first on a list of the 100 Greatest British Televisio ...

'') and the Australian pianist

Victor Sangiorgio Victor Sangiorgio is an Australian classical pianist. He was born in Italy, grew up and trained in Australia, resides in London and performs internationally. Biography Victor Sangiorgio was born in Italy but his family moved to Australia when he ...

have toured with a two-man show called "Life after Fawlty", which included Strauss's ''Enoch Arden''.

Recordings

''Enoch Arden'' was probably first recorded by Erik Rhodes and

Gordon Manley Gordon Valentine Manley, FRGS (3 January 1902 – 29 January 1980) was a British climatologist who has been described as "probably the best known, most prolific and most expert on the climate of Britain of his generation". He assembled the Centra ...

sometime in the 1950s. Later

and

made the first successful recording in 1962. This was nominated for the 1963 Grammy Awards in the category of Best Documentary or Spoken Word Recording (Other than Comedy). Later recordings include: *

and

(1964)mwolf
/ref> * Hans-Reinhard Müller and Carl Seemann (1978) *

Gert Westphal Curt Gerhard Westphal, stage name Gert Westphal, (5 October 1920 – 10 November 2002) was a German-Swiss actor, audiobook narrator, recitator and director, one of the best-known audiobook narrators and speakers in German, described as "König der ...

and John Buttrick (1984) * Elisabet Woska and Begonia Uriarte (1986; live recording; the first recording with a female narrator) * Bohumil Svarc and Jiri Pokorný (1987; first recording in Czech) * Lucy Rowan and

(1987) * Mac Morgan and William Ransom (1989) * René Schirrer and

Christian Ivaldi Christian Ivaldi (born 2 September 1938) is a French pianist. Ivaldi was born in Paris. He studied at the Paris Conservatory with Jacques Février and took a Premier Prix in piano performance, as well as in chamber music, counterpoint, and accomp ...

(1991) *

Ulrich Wildgruber Ulrich Wildgruber (18 November 1937 – 30 November 1999) was a German actor. He started working on stage in 1963 and is best known for playing Othello in the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, ...

and

Peter Stamm Peter Stamm (born 18 January 1963 in Münsterlingen) is a Swiss writer. His prize-winning books have been translated into more than thirty languages. For his entire body of work and his accomplishments in fiction, he was short-listed for the ...

(1994) * Nick Garrett and Peter Hewitt (1996) *

and Marc-André Hamelin (1998; Vickers’ debut recording as a speaker) * Paul Schmidt and

Yvar Mikhashoff Yvar Emilian Mikhashoff (born Ronald Mackay; March 8, 1941 in Troy, New York – October 11, 1993 in Buffalo, New York) was an American virtuoso pianist and composer. He is best known for his performance of contemporary classical music. Mik ...

(1999) *

and John Bell Young (2002)The Victorian Web: Richard Strauss’s Enoch Arden
/ref> *

and Frederick Moyer (2002) *

and Burkhard Kehring (2003)ArkivMusik
/ref>The Guardian, 1 July 2005
/ref> * Michael Ducarel and Martin Cousin (2003) * Laura Marinoni and Pietro De Luigi (2004; the first recording in Italian). * David Ripley and Chad R. Bowles (2006) * Sir

and

(2007) *

Brigitte Fassbaender Brigitte Fassbaender (; born 3 July 1939), is a German mezzo-soprano opera singer and a stage director. From 1999 to 2012 she was intendant (managing director) of the Tyrolean State Theatre in Innsbruck, Austria. She holds the title Kammersäng ...

and Wolfram Rieger (2013) TwoPianists Records, Set TP1039312, CD 4
/ref> * John Bell and

Simon Tedeschi Simon Tedeschi (born 1 May 1981) is an Australian classical pianist and writer. Early life Tedeschi was born in Gosford to Mark Tedeschi QC, Senior Crown Prosecutor for New South Wales, and doctor Vivienne Tedeschi, the daughter of a Polis ...

(2017)

External links

Score
at

International Music Score Library Project The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library after publisher Ottaviano Petrucci, is a subscription-based digital library of public-domain music scores. The project, which uses MediaWiki softwar ...

.
"Enoch Arden"
- original German text (in

Fraktur Fraktur () is a calligraphic hand of the Latin alphabet and any of several blackletter typefaces derived from this hand. The blackletter lines are broken up; that is, their forms contain many angles when compared to the curves of the Antiqu ...

type) from Strodtmann's ''Tennysons ausgewählte Dichtungen'' at Hathitrust

References

{{Portal bar, Classical music Adaptations of works by Alfred, Lord Tennyson Compositions with a narrator 1897 compositions Chamber music by Richard Strauss Music based on poems