Die Mutter
9 Ballads from the Didactic Play “Die Mutter” – Concertante Version 1A
[vce(mix ch),instr] 1931/1932 solo: vce (mixed choir) – trp.tbne – perc – pno
vocal text: ドイツ語Description
The “Neun Balladen” [Nine Ballads] are nearly identical to the music Hanns Eisler wrote for Bertolt Brecht’s didactic play “Die Mutter” [The Mother] in the fall of 1931. The only missing piece is the “Lied vom Ausweg” [Song of the Way Out], which survives only as a sketch and was rewritten five years later as the “Lied von der Suppe” [Song of the Soup]. The surviving sources do not clarify whether the final chorus, “Lob der Dialektik” [Praise of Dialectics], to which Brecht refers in his 1935 description of the music, already existed at that time.
To work on the dramatization of Maxim Gorky’s novel The Mother, Brecht gathered a collective of collaborators around him, including Slatan Dudow, Günter Weisenborn, and Hanns Eisler. The first public performance of the play by the “Gruppe junger Schauspieler” [Group of Young Actors] under the patronage of the revolutionary “Junge Volksbühne” took place on 17January 1932 at the Komödienhaus am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin. Helene Weigel, who played the mother at the time, reported that the play had been arranged – also in terms of staging and set design – in such a way that it could be performed anywhere, even in halls in working-class districts. However, this plan was thwarted by the growing fascist reaction. The performance style was directly agitational with regard to the proletarian audience.
The style and gestures of the music also corresponded to this concept. However, Brecht rejected the notion that it was “simple.” “It is quite complicated music-wise, and I know of no music more serious. In an admirable way, it enabled certain simplifications of the most difficult political problems, the solutions of which are vital for the proletariat. Anyone who believes that a mass movement facing unrestrained violence, oppression and exploitation is not suited to such stern yet tender and reasonable gestures as those propagated by this music has failed to understand an important aspect of this struggle.”
The “Neun Baladen” (only seven of which were initially selected) were compiled in the months before the National Socialists seized power; however, publication was no longer possible.
The “Mutter” music underwent several metamorphoses: Eisler wrote a version for two pianos in the USA in 1935/36; created the cantata in 1949; and composed an expanded arrangement for the Berliner Ensemble in 1950.
This edition is based on sources from the Hanns Eisler Archive: the autograph score (EA 70/1-52; C 115), a score transcribed by another hand (EA 17/82-128) and parts transcribed by another hand (EA 154/1-138).
(Manfred Grabs)
DV 1354a
score
EAN: 9790200410242
68 pages / 23 x 30.5 cm / 272 g / softcover
DV 1354c
choral score
EAN: 9790200410259
12 pages / 19 x 27 cm / 31 g / softcover
DV 1354b
set of parts
EAN: 9790200410266
26 pages / 23 x 30.5 cm / 128 g / softcover
Description
Description
The “Neun Balladen” [Nine Ballads] are nearly identical to the music Hanns Eisler wrote for Bertolt Brecht’s didactic play “Die Mutter” [The Mother] in the fall of 1931. The only missing piece is the “Lied vom Ausweg” [Song of the Way Out], which survives only as a sketch and was rewritten five years later as the “Lied von der Suppe” [Song of the Soup]. The surviving sources do not clarify whether the final chorus, “Lob der Dialektik” [Praise of Dialectics], to which Brecht refers in his 1935 description of the music, already existed at that time.
To work on the dramatization of Maxim Gorky’s novel The Mother, Brecht gathered a collective of collaborators around him, including Slatan Dudow, Günter Weisenborn, and Hanns Eisler. The first public performance of the play by the “Gruppe junger Schauspieler” [Group of Young Actors] under the patronage of the revolutionary “Junge Volksbühne” took place on 17January 1932 at the Komödienhaus am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin. Helene Weigel, who played the mother at the time, reported that the play had been arranged – also in terms of staging and set design – in such a way that it could be performed anywhere, even in halls in working-class districts. However, this plan was thwarted by the growing fascist reaction. The performance style was directly agitational with regard to the proletarian audience.
The style and gestures of the music also corresponded to this concept. However, Brecht rejected the notion that it was “simple.” “It is quite complicated music-wise, and I know of no music more serious. In an admirable way, it enabled certain simplifications of the most difficult political problems, the solutions of which are vital for the proletariat. Anyone who believes that a mass movement facing unrestrained violence, oppression and exploitation is not suited to such stern yet tender and reasonable gestures as those propagated by this music has failed to understand an important aspect of this struggle.”
The “Neun Baladen” (only seven of which were initially selected) were compiled in the months before the National Socialists seized power; however, publication was no longer possible.
The “Mutter” music underwent several metamorphoses: Eisler wrote a version for two pianos in the USA in 1935/36; created the cantata in 1949; and composed an expanded arrangement for the Berliner Ensemble in 1950.
This edition is based on sources from the Hanns Eisler Archive: the autograph score (EA 70/1-52; C 115), a score transcribed by another hand (EA 17/82-128) and parts transcribed by another hand (EA 154/1-138).
(Manfred Grabs)
Table of contents
| 1. | Wie die Krähe „Arbeite, arbeite mehr“ |
| 2. | Lob des Kommunismus „Er ist vernünftig“ |
| 3. | Lob des Lernens „Lerne das Einfachste“ |
| 4. | Lob eines Revolutionärs „Viele sind zuviel“ |
| 5. | Im Gefängnis zu singen „Sie haben Gesetzbücher“ |
| 6. | Lob der Wlassowas „Das ist unsre Genossin Wlassowa“ |
| 7. | Lob der dritten Sache „Immerfort hört man“ |
| 8. | Grabrede „Aber als er zur Wand ging“ |
| 9. | Die Partei ist in Gefahr „Steh auf“ |
World premiere
World premiere: Berlin, January 12, 1951