''Tristan'' is a six-movement

orchestral An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, a ...

work by the German composer

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large List of compositions by Hans Werner Henze, oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Igor Stravinsky, Stravinsky, Mu ...

. Scored for

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, tape and full orchestra, its form is innovative for an instrumental concert: solo pieces for piano ("preludes") alternate with orchestral passages, which are played partly without, partly with the participation of the piano. It takes the form of a homage to

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

's opera ''

Tristan und Isolde ''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is a music drama in three acts by Richard Wagner set to a German libretto by the composer, loosely based on the medieval 12th-century romance ''Tristan and Iseult'' by Gottfried von Stras ...

'', with the piano providing preludes to a series of widely divergent material, both live and on tape, including direct quotations from

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, often set within studied ye ...

's First Symphony and Chopin's ''

Funeral March A funeral march (' in French, ' in Italian, ' in German, ' in Polish), as a musical genre, is a march (music), march, usually in a minor key, in a slow Meter (music), "simple duple" metre, imitating the solemn pace of a funeral procession. Some suc ...

'', a

birdsong Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs (often simply ''birdsong'') are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs (relatively complex vocalization ...

-like treatment on tape of a recording of a soloist singing Isolde's part and a child reading extracts from

Hilaire Belloc Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc ( ; ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a French-English writer, politician, and historian. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. His Catholic fait ...

's English translation of

Joseph Bédier Joseph Bédier (28 January 1864 – 29 August 1938) was a French writer and historian of medieval France. Biography Bédier was born in Paris, France, to Adolphe Bédier, a lawyer of Breton origin, and spent his childhood in Réunion. He was a p ...

's account of the death of Isolde, as well as a recording of a human

heartbeat Heartbeat, heart beat or heartbeats may refer to: Science and technology * Heartbeat (biology), one cardiac cycle of the heart * Heartbeat (computing), a periodic signal to indicate normal operation or to synchronize parts of a system ** Heartbea ...

. Henze was both attracted to and repelled by aspects of 19th century culture, and so the passages of Wagner, Chopin and Brahms represent musical romanticism, which can be described in terms of progress, virtuosity and historicism. The tape has its own system in the score, which indicates the actual sound by means of graphic lines. The twelve-tone-set c#-d-a-d#-e-h-f-a#-f#-g#-c-g can be traced back to the three-tone constellation of major-third and minor-second, which also determine the first three notes of Richard Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" (a-f-e).

: "Tristan (1975)". In: Hans Werner Henze, Musik und Politik. Schriften und Gespräche 1955-1984. Erweiterte Neuausgabe, mit einem Vorwort von Jens Brockmeier, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, München 1984, p.227–243, here: p. 232. Commissioned by the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

, it was premiered on 20 October 1974 under

Colin Davis Sir Colin Rex Davis (25 September 1927 – 14 April 2013) was an English conductor, known for his association with the London Symphony Orchestra, having first conducted it in 1959. His repertoire was broad, but among the composers with whom ...

at the

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London, England. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a G ...

in London. The piano soloist was

Homero Francesch Homero Francesch (born 6 December 1947, Montevideo, Uruguay) is a Uruguay-born Switzerland, Swiss pianist. Biography Francesch took piano lessons with Santiago Baranda Reyes in Uruguay. In 1967, he was awarded a scholarship by the German Academic ...

, who later recorded it with the composer conducting. The six movements are: *''Prologue'' *''Lament'' *''Prelude and Variations'' *''Tristan's Folly'' *''Adagio'' *''Epilogue''

References

Further reading