DURATION: ca. 1:30 Min.
TEXT: Klaus Groth (1819-1899)
PUBLISHER: Belmont Music Publishers
It is thanks to the efforts of Arnold Schönberg’s cousin Hans Nachod that this choral composition still survives today. A year before his death, Nachod informed the British musicologist Ena Steiner that Schönberg was planning to burn some early sketches and compositions before moving to Berlin. Nachod was able to convince Schönberg to let him have the material. Eventually, this unofficial part of Schönberg’s estate came into the hands of Steiner and her husband, who introduced the collection to the public through a number of journal articles. The surviving fair copy of “Ei du Lütte” was probably written in 1895/96.
The work resists classification. At first glance, it seems obvious to associate the piece with Schönberg’s choir conducting activities in 1895/96. However, this association is contradicted by the fact that Schönberg mainly conducted male choirs, while “Ei du Lütte” is set for mixed choir. Schönberg took the poem by Klaus Groth from the anthology “Die deutsche Lyrik der Gegenwart.” It was first published in the poetry collection “Quickborn” (1852), with which the poet wanted to counteract the displacement of Low German by High German. Texts by Klaus Groth were also set to music by Johannes Brahms, who was a close friend of the poet. This could explain Schönberg’s unusual choice of a Low German text: Brahms, who was born in the northern German city of Hamburg, was one of his most important role models.
“Ei du Lütte” is a rapturous love poem. Schoenberg set only the first stanza of the original to music and headed the composition with the tempo marking “Frisch” (lively). Formally, this short piece follows a three-part song form and thus fits seamlessly into a multitude of vocal compositions in the folk style that was in vogue within bourgeois musical culture. The composition begins and ends in E-flat major, while the middle section modulates to B-flat major. The references to folk music are reinforced by the modulation back to E-flat major via the minor seventh of B-flat major. The text setting is mostly syllabic. Also noteworthy are the many changes of meter that follow the rhythm of speech, and the alto part that is divided according to the phrase structure. The numerous breathing marks in the score indicate that Schönberg also planned to perform the work, although there is no evidence of a rehearsal.
Sebastian Slameczka | © Arnold Schönberg Center, Wien
