' (''The Hermit'') Op. 144a, is a composition for

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

soloist, five-part choir and orchestra by

Max Reger Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (19 March 187311 May 1916) was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher. He worked as a concert pianist, a musical director at the Paulinerkirche, Leipzig, Leipzig University Chu ...

, written in 1915. The German text is a poem by Joseph von Eichendorff, beginning "" (Come, consolation of the world, you quiet night). The composition was published in 1916 after Reger's death by N. Simrock, combined with the '' Hebbel Requiem'', as ' (Two songs for mixed chorus with orchestra), .

History

Reger composed the work in

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

, dating it 15 July 1915, setting a poem by Joseph von Eichendorff. He dedicated it to the Bach-Verein Heidelberg and its founder and conductor Philipp Wolfrum, writing "dem hochverehrlichen 'Bach-Verein Heidelberg' und seinem ausgezeichneten Dirigenten Herrn Geheimrat, Generalmusikdirektor, Professor Dr. Philipp Wolfrum" (to the praise-worthy 'Bach-Verein Heidelberg' and its excellent conductor,

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, Professor Dr. Philipp Wolfrum). Reger sent two works to the publisher , ''Der Einsiedler'' and '' Hebbel Requiem''. He wrote to Simrock on : "I've finished two choral works (Der Einsiedler and Requiem). I think I can safely say that they're both among the most beautiful things I've ever written." ("Ich habe nun zwei Chorwerke (Der Einsiedler und Requiem) fertig. Ich glaube sagen zu dürfen, daß diese beiden Chorwerke mit das Schönste sind, was ich je geschrieben habe.") The two works were as ' (Two songs for mixed chorus with orchestra), . Reger himself had edited the piano version. The ''Hebbel Requiem'' was first performed in Heidelberg on 16 July 1916, after the composer's death, as part of a memorial concert for Reger, with Rolf Ligniez, the choirs Bachverein and Akademischer Gesangverein, and the enlarged Städtisches Orchester (Municipal orchestra), conducted by Philipp Wolfrum.

Lyrics

The German text is poem in three stanzas of six lines each by Joseph von Eichendorff. The poem was first published in 1837 in the

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'' Deutscher Musenalmanach'' (German Musen-Almanach). The first stanza is based on the "Lied des Einsiedlers" (The hermit's song) from Grimmelshausens's '' Der Abentheuerliche Simplizissimus Teutsch'' (1669). A solitary person, forgotten by the world, addresses the night as consolation, reflecting tiredness of day, desire and need, and expecting an eternal dawn. The poem was set to music by other composers, such as a ''Lied'' by Robert Schumann, Op. 83, No 3.

References

External links

*
Max Reger: Der 100. Psalm; Der Einsiedler; Requiem (Hebbel)

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Einsiedler, Der Motets by Max Reger 1915 compositions Musical settings of poems by Joseph von Eichendorff