Symphony No. 3: Gretchen

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SYMPHONY NO. 3: GRETCHEN

by Kenneth Blanchard Klaus

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Department of Music in the Graduate College of the State University of Iowa August 1950

ProQuest Number: 10991943

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M O S l C r\

TABLE OF CONTENTS page Analysis . . . ...................

iii

Acknowledgements .................

xx

Symphony No. 3, Gretchen, Score

1

ANALYSIS The shadowy figures of Faust, Gretchen, and Mephistopheles have intrigued the writer for many years. The first plans for a musical setting of Faust came about four years ago when some sketches were made which became the nucleus of the present work.

These early ideas were for some

sort of operatic setting, but further study of the work and a study of other Faustian operas pointed out the tremendous hazards of such a venture.

The dialogues are very long, too

long for opera, yet too beautiful to be cut or arranged. Stagings would in scope rival those used in Wagner (although a cinema version would be quite, successful) and would make any performance that much more difficult to secure.

The delicate

dramatic balance achieved by Goethe would be impaired through the slower delivery of song even though Sprechstimme were used.

Therefore, a purely symphonic setting seemed more

feasible; not a "setting” exactly, more of a character sketch of Gretchen, a musical translation of some scenes.

Such a

plan places the balance strictly up to the music, the voice is treated as an instrument in the orchestra--the conscious mind of Gretchen as it were.

The vocal setting is thus framed

by purely instrumental sections, length determined by the musical material and not by the length of dramatic performance iii

for a particular scene.

The result is simply a symphony

with voice. Gretchen was chosen as the character to present musically because the poetry associated with her appeals to the writer very much, especially f,Zwinger.tt As character development, Mephistopheles is the most interesting to me of the three principals,

Faust has several beautiful soliloquies^

especially MWald und H8hle,M but Goethe really made Gretchen the central figure of the drama.

She is responsible for Faust*s

redemption through forgiveness, even though Faust had an affair with the shade of Helen of Troy which was idyllic but not Christian to say the least. unassayed is not virtue.

Gretchen shows that virtue

I do not feel that she is a saint

before her meeting with Faust.

She murders her mother and her

illegitimate child and is the indirect cause of her brother*s death.

The present work deals with Gretchen and her relation­

ship with God, sometimes through the Virgin Mary. From a formal standpoint the first movement is a sonata form with a developed repeat of the exposition, giving two development sections.

One might ask if the result is not

actually one large development, but the exposition repeat retains the same relationships of time length from section to section while the development section proper is a free treat­ ment of the exposed material.

The recapitulation is very short iv

restating only the first theme.

The second movement is

still another development section. scherzo with two trios and coda.

The third movement is a The reprise of the scherzo

is a developed version of the scherzo themes and the second trio is a development of the first, the coda is a reprise of the fir st theme of the first movement.

The last movement is

a short epilogue which brings back and further develops themes from the first movement. Since there is a literary basis for this work, I suppose it might be called program music.

There was little

or no attempt for mere description, rather, the emotional content of the poem is reflected in the music. work of deeply felt emotions, human emotions.

Faust is a The other-world

creatures can be figments of these human minds, none of them are really normal.

The first thirty-one measures suggest

Gretchen*s emotions during the famous spinning-wheel scene. Gretchen has met Faust and is deeply in love with him although she is frightened and seems to have a premonition of the impending tragedy.

The theme in the first violins in the

first five measures is the theme assigned to Faust, the other strings set the mood of disquietude, the bitter-sweet feeling of first love.

The Faust theme is repeated in the flute

beginning in measure six while the English horn has an anticipation of the Gretchen motif. v

This anticipation is

carried out in a different rhythm in the eelli and.basses and in measure fourteen in the second violins and violas. In measure seventeen we have the Gretchen motif in still, another form (it does not occur in full until the vocalist enters).

At measure twenty-five we have a more sturdy

version of the Faust theme suggested by the lines: "Sein hoher Gang, Sein* edle Gestalt, Seines Mundes Ldcheln, Seiner Augen Gewalt. . .rf The Faust and Gretchen themes comprise the first theme group of this movement. The second scene is "Am Brunnen” where Gretchen is at the spring.

Other girls from the village are there gossip­

ing about a girl who is "in trouble.11

Gretchen usually enters

into this sort of pastime, but now she might well be the girl under discussion.

The theme announced in the celli is a

rhythmic transformation of the Gretchen theme, treated in canon with suggestions of the Faust theme in the background. This section is lighter than the first, suggestive of girls gossiping.

They leave one by one and Gretchen is left to her

own melancholy thoughts, made more bitter through the thoughtless remarks of her friends. The next scene is also light and shows Goethe*s remarkable enhancing of emotion through direct contrast. vi

In

"Garten," Faust is walking with Gretchen, making love, while Mephisto is walking with Gretchen*s neighbor, a widow who flirts with the greatly amused devil--one a love affair of poignancy and warmth, the other one of ludicrous impossibili­ ties.

The theme introduced in measure sixty-six and fore­

shadowed from the beginning of the scene is the most important of those in the second theme group. "Nacht...Valentins Tod" deals with the killing of Gretchen*s brother.

The repeat of the exposition begins here

in the formal plan of the work, much of the material is developed by inversion.

The opening of the scene depicts a

dark, narrow street near Gretchen*s home.

There is the

altercation, we have Faust*s theme and sneering sounds from the ever-present Mephisto. two culprits flee.

Valentin is run through and the

The brass in measure 130 announce Valentfcfe

curse to his sister* In the drama "Zwinger" comes before the death of Valentin, but for my own purposes I have interchanged the two scenes.

The poetry of "a&nger" seems to be more poignant and

pathetic if Gretchen recalls the death of her brother, also, it fits well into the plan of a developed repeat of the exposition for I imagine Gretchen before the shrine of the Mafer Dolorosa, placing the flowers and then thinking, recalling the tragic events of the last few days. vii

Therefore, we have hazy

allusions to earlier thematic material harking hack to Faust, the garden scene, and thoughts of Mephisto which make her shudder although she does not know who he really is.

The entrance of the vocal solo at measure 171 exposes

the Gretchen motif in the form in which it appears throughout the rest of the work.

This is the beginning of the develop­

ment section and affords an opportunity for text painting using the material which has occurred earlier, as if these were transitory thoughts--she has difficulty praying, her mind wanders...

At measurel97 there is a double canon on the

Gretchen theme, one subject inverted, the other in its original form.

This canonic writing continues with free

added counterpoint until measure 234.

The recapitulation is

at measure 244 with a very short coda beginning at measure 255 based on thematic fragments of the second theme group. The poetry of "Zwinger” is strophic, but I have made a through-composed setting.

The first and last stanzas of

the poem are exactly the same and the accompanying music also follows this plan but with changes in orchestration. The vocal treatment is in the Wagner-MahlerSchoenberg style, ie., continuous melody, long cantabile, or short, clipped phrases when the text calls for it.

The voice

is treated as an orchestral instrument and is sometimes doubled by other instruments.

In such cases the effect is not only viii

f©r reinforcing the Voice, hut also for the composite tone color.

This has been done in places which need a richness

of texture or a'more poignantly expressive sound, e.g., the doubling of the celli and the voice on the lines: ^Das Schwert in Herzen Mit tausend Schmerzen... Throughout the first movement we have Gretchen getting deeper and deeper in trouble and sorrow.

The second

movement carries her to the depths, her imprisonment, insanity, and death. scene.

The movement opens with f,D o m w or the cathedral

There is a requiem mass being s u %

Goethe doesn't

tell us, but we may assume it is the funeral of Gretchen*s mother, who died from poison by Gretchen*s hand. given an overdose of sleeping potion.)

(ShSt was

Gretchen cannot

pray.

She is plagued by an evil spirit...she faints. In this part of the music I have tried to capture the atmosphere of a cathedral, Gretchen*s mood, and the voice of the evil spirit.

eerie

In the first eight measures we have

sounds of the organ (imitated by the woodwinds) with thematic fragments of the Gretchen theme.

In measure nine the evil

spirit is suggested by the flute and horn doubled in octaves. At the andante sostenuto an unmuted horn intones the chorale "Alle Menschen mHssen sterben,n accompanied by muted brass. At measure seventeen the horn mutes within the phrase and, ix

doubled by the flute an octave higher, suggests the wierd thoughts of Gretchen induced by the evil spirit as she tries to pray.

The music for the rest of this scene suggests

Gretchen*s confused state of mind, the chorale theme is fragmentized and hocketed between muted and unmuted brass, leading without pause into the "Kerker” or prison scene. This is the low point of Gretchen*s life and I have tried to suggest her sane-then-insane ravings and the damp, stagnant atmosphere of the dungeon.

The musical material is further

development of themes from the first movement.

The little

ditty which Gretchen sings when she first enters is anticipated and developed as introduction to the entrance of the voice. The text here is from folk-lore and is a pitiful display of Gretchen*s mental state.

I have tried to give awkward accents

to the vocal line throughout this section.

Measure sixty-six

ends her gory lyricsm and introduces her next delusion, that of the executioner coming for her; the music here is a ghostly march which is interrupted by Gretchen*s wails, there are violent contrasts of tone color.

In measure eighty-seven and

following she begs the executioner to wait until morning, she gets more excited, tries to pray, imagines the seething fires of hell to be under her feet...she suddenly comes to her senses (measure 113) and bitterly recalls what she has done.

The

vocal line is a more expressive version of the little ditty x

sung earlier.

Her last outburst is one of extreme contrition,

she is finally able to pray.

She dies whispering,

ffHeinrich*B

(the name by which she knows Faust), Mephisto, pronounces her doom, but a voice from heaven says she is saved.

I have

chosen only certain passages from this scene and perhaps the full import of the total scene should be presented here. Faust and Mephisto are to arrive and rescue G-retchen, she really is to be executed on the morrow.

When the two get

there they observe Gretchen*s insane ravings, Faust is deeply touched, Mephisto only sneers.

Gretchen recognizes Faust

and they embrace, but Gretchen is too far gone, she lapses back into her deluded world, Faust cannot induce her to leave through the open door of the prison...she dies. Faust is shaken.

Mephisto lures him away through

the gory orgy of the l!Walpurgisnacht.” scherzi written on this subject.

There have been many

The present one places

material from the earlier movements in a diabolical setting and with Faust we meet the strange beings which emerge from nowhere on Walpurgisnacht:

the jack o*lantern which lights

the way up the mountainside, divers witches, sorcerers,. strange voices, the pseudo thinkers who discuss nothing at great length in ponderous tones, enticing witches, Medusa (of whom Mephisto says, "Denn jedem kommt sie wie sein Liebchen v o r .M and the eccentric Proktophantasmist. xi

These characters

are suggested by short, connected bits of music throughout the main body of the scherzo.

The first few measures set the mood

for the evening*s festivities. measure nine.

We meet the jack o*lantern in

At the piu presto we meet a few witches.

Measure seventeen shows us a sorcerer, twenty the strange voices (in the upper strings)*

The percu-ssion at twenty-three suggests

the tumult of the evening and the measures following introduce more witches. ing.

We see Medusa in measure forty-six and follow­

The pseudo-thinkers begin expounding at measure fifty-

eight and Faust leaves the scene.

In the drama this scene

comes before ,fKerkern but I took the liberty of interchanging the two in order to present the "Walpurgisnacht" as scherzo and to add to Faust*s forgetfulness of Gretchen. But the wild orgy fails. Gretchen in Medusa.

Faust saw the face of

Therefore, in the first trio of this

movement we have a setting of "Anmuthige Gegend," or "pleasing landscape," the opening scene of part two of the drama. Mephisto tries to lull Faust into forgetfulness through the beauty of an Alpine landscape.

There are the soft zephyrs of

forgetfullness, nymphs, Aeolian harps and other lyric matter which actually work (for awhile at least.)

Since the entire

third movement of this work is an additional development section of the material presented in the first movement, and in view of the program just stated, I have avoided any xii

suggestion of a full statement of the themes associated with Gretchen.

At first we have Faust*s theme with added counter­

point, he almost falls away, but in measure seventy-six remembers with a twinge of conscience.

Then the lyric elements

go t© work, he feels the soft breezes, sees the valley before him, and gradually all remembrance of Gretchen leaves him and he now desires Helen of Troy. The logical place to find- Helen is at the "Classische Walpurgisnacht" where all of the classical shades have their festivities.

Again we meet strange beings, so

strange that even Mephisto is out of his element— he knows only the romantic ghosts of the north. Helen is found, just returningfhom Troy.

After a long search, The music here is

a reprise of the scherzo, but is a developed retrograde of the scherzo themes. Helen and Faust, guarded by Mephisto in the guise of Phorkyas are in a cavern which is in a beautiful grove. In a clearing the chorus of Helen*s attendants are sleeping. From within the cavern music played on stringed instruments can be heard.

This is what the second trio suggests, being

orchestrated only for harp and strings.

The music is a

developed inversion of the first trio with some added thematic material.

The theme for Helen is an inversion of the Faust xiii

theme.

This music leads directly into the suggested reprise

©f the scherzo, the dance of Euphorion, the son of Faust and Helen (conceived, horn and grown to young manhood in a matter of minutes).

Euphorion must dance, he can do nothing else.

Against all warnings he leaps higher and higher until he leaps too close to the sun and falls in a mass of flames at the feet of his parents.

In great sorrow, Faust and Helen

embrace and Helen disappears leaving behind her garmerts in Faust*s arms.

The music for the dance is a developed inversion

of the s&herzo themes presented with dance-like rhythms.

As

a e©da we have music suggestive of the parent*s sorrow. The last movement deals with the death and salvation of Faust.The dead body of

Faust is being carried away by

Mephisto and the lemures, but they cannot extract his soul from the body. in the sky.

Suddenly a band of beautiful boy-angels appear

The evil-ones are homosexually attracted to the

angels and other angels carry away the soul of Faust to heaven.

In heaven the soul of Gretchen sings to the Mater

Gloriosa begging forgiveness for Faust. granted.

His forgiveness is

The music for this movement is further development

of the basic themes of the first movement. One three-note motif is very important in this work: F, G, G-flat. horn solo

The march of the lemures after the English

is based entirely on this motif. xiv

The motif could

stand for Faust, Gretchen, and Gretchen violated, although I must admit this was discovered long after the motif occurred to me*

This motif appears in some form or other

several hundred times throughout the work. called the signal motif of the drama.

It might he

It is the first

three notes of the Gretchen theme, appears as a secondary themenany times, appears in the finale in muted trombone flutter-tongue to suggest the foul lemures who are trying to carry away the soul of Faust. Only a small part of Faust has been sugges1@din this setting.

The emotional impact of the poem has served as a

catalytic agent for the musioaLideas.

It could just as well

be heard as absolute music without knowledge of the literary background. A detailed analysis of the entire work from a technical point of view would lead to a prose dissertation longer than the symphony itself, the blueprint is not the house.

I use the twelve-tone technique because I lfie the

sound of the music, it is a new, exciting sound, deeply expressive.

I find nothing cerebral or empty about the

twelve-tone music I have heard and studied, it has all been very expressive, never repeating what others have said who use the technique or any other style.

I personally do not try to

be ’’atonal, ” I don’t know what the word means; I do not try to xv

be tonal in the traditional sense;

I do try to say what I

have to

say as well as I can, it matters not what technique

is used

©r if it is tonal or not.

If someone hears tonal

progressions in my music they are welcome to, if they do not they are also welcome.

I write what pleases me, usually the

first idea which comes is the one I keep; I do not tailor the music to fit any standards set by any group or ism. think the idea is good, I keep it. I might change my mind later.)

If I

(If not, I keep it anyway,

This does not mean that no

revisions are made, I prefer to make revisions at a later date when the original fever of composition has passed and I can view the work more objectively.

Often the revisions are in

the direction of simplification _if the same effect can be acquired through simpler means. The twelve-tone technique was the logical one for me to use.

In looking back over earlier works I find an increas­

ing useof chromaticism,

more interest in counterpoint,

orchestral color of a soloistic nature, less interest in key relationships, more interest in inner logic other than logic of root progression, from work to work.

I found that I could

write more interesting melodies, more subtle melodies if the note succession did not gravitate about a single tone or triad as a central tonic, but rather if the sense were to revolve about the succession itself, and the most logical variants xv i

thereof, inversion and retrograde.

Likewise, it is more

interesting for me to derive all the vertical effects from this succession, either a fragment in vertical orientation, or the simultaneous result of these successions taking place at different rates in different voices or combinations of the above. This leads, of course, to infinite possibilities of vertical and horizontal effect. The twelve-tone technique, then, is merely a modus operandi for the composer just as functional harmony is. After all, regardless of the technique used, the end product is what counts.

Good music can be written in any logical

technique--bad musie can also be written in any logical technique.

I am sure the twelve-tone technique will in the

near future be assimilated into the broad vocabulary of musical utterance.

Perhaps that time has now reached us

since many composers are now using at least some elements of the twelve-tone technique. The performance of most twentieth-century music presents many problems to the performer.

It is an unfortunate

fact that much ofthe applied music training presented today gives the future instrumentalist little or no training in playing modern music.

All of the etude material is concerned

with the conventional patterns of scale and arpeggio which are indispensable for the performance of music written from about xv ii

1600 t@ 1900, but d© not cover all patterns written today. Also, the usual etude material (especially for strings) presents very square rhythms.

The result of all this, of

course, is the inability of performers to read modern music with any degree of facility.

We should teach our youngest

students to sing and play simple examples of highly chromatic music.

Little etudes and pieces can be used to supplement

the very necessary work on scales.

I am sure that this

training would be of great value for the performance of all music.

The ability to sing angular melodic lines requires

an acute sense of hearing which can be sharply developed if the student has any sense of pitch discrimination.

In my

own students I have found that chromatic passages in etudes such as Wohlfahrt can be cleared up in an amazingly short time if the student can sing the passage. with studio teachers,

Therefore, I plead

"Please teach the student to play the

unusual patterns of modern music!”

This is necessary in

order for the performer to keep in pace with the composer. Music is not a stagnant art, not all new ideas are of lasting value, but many are and music progresses through them.

This

is not to say that newer music is any better than older music, the amount of lasting music being written today is in about the same proportion as any period in music history.

We should

not expect a composer of today to sound like Schumann any more xviii

than we expect Schumann to sound like Bach, or Bach like Perotin. Gretchen does use some unusual patterns for all instruments, but they were written not to write a difficult work, but to express what I wished to say.

Communication of

emotion and idea is of utmost importance to me in the writing of my music.

I hope that these emotions and ideas are

communicated to the listener in this symphony.

xix

Acknowledgements are due the following people: Dr* Philip Greeley Clapp, Head of the State University of Iowa Music Department, for sound advice and encouragement; Dr* Erich Funke, Head of the State University of Iowa German Department, whose stimulating course wGoethe *s Faust” greatly enhanced the beauty of the poem for me; Professors Imre Waldbauer, Albert Luper, and Thomas Turner, State University of Iowa Music Department, for their encouragement; Miss Dorothy Krebill who sang the vocal part so beautifully at a reading rehearsal; and the State University of Iowa Chamber Orchestra who read part of the work.

xx

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