Wieland der
Schmied (Wayland the Blacksmith)
Hausegger
was impelled to write Wieland der Schmied by his readings
of Wagner’s literary fragment based on that legend. Hausegger’s
take on the subject is, characteristically, less bloody and more idealistic. Hausegger also considered the tale an allegory of the
process of artistic creation. A curious sidelight: Wagner’s work was also the
basis for an incomplete opera sketched out by a teenage Austrian music student,
August Kubizek, and his roommate - Adolf Hitler. Hausegger wrote a prefatory text to his score outlining its
program, summarized as follows:
The power and fame his art have
created do not suffice for Wieland; he
yearns for more. A swan-maiden hovers,
descends out of the sky and inclines toward
Wieland. He reaches out, but, frightened by his singeing
subterranean fire, she flies away.
Powerless to follow, he collapses, assailed by the
paralyzing thought that he who would be
lord of the skies is bound insolubly
to earth.
The vision of Schwanhilde
fades; a cripple, Wieland stumbles, friendless
through his life. Of what use is his
art, power, fame? The pain of longing builds
up to a cry for redemption.
Suddenly, the lethargy
melts away. The transfiguring and blissful vision
of Schwanhilde
rises within him. His strength returns, bolder than ever. His art
will carry him to luminous heights!
He forges himself wings
of glittering steel. From the sky, the voice of
Schwanhilde
calls. Free of his earthly woes, he spreads his mighty wings and
flies up to
his woman. United in love, the couple soars into the sun.
Although in one continuous movement
lasting ca. 20 minutes, he divided the work into four sections: Wieland and Schwanhilde; the paralyzed Wieland; Wieland forges his
wings and the flight into the sun. He completed the work on
Piccolo,
2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons
(contrabassoon)
4 horns
(in E flat, E and F - Wagner’s baleful influence here), 3 C trumpets, 3
trombones, tuba
2 tympanists, 3 percussion- bass drum, crash cymbals,
triangle, gong, glockenspiel
2 harps,
(62) strings
Wieland
begins in a manner reminiscent of Mahler’s Resurrection
Symphony, with a stabbing tremolo, followed by a short, explosive figure
symbolizing Wieland’s frustration.
Ex. 1
This
figure - according to the composer the most important theme in the work - builds
sequentially to a rapid climax, to be followed by a more lyric theme, that of
Earthly Longing:
Ex. 2
He soon
combines a variation of it with the theme of Heavenly Longing.
Ex. 3
Hausegger develops these two, with interjections of Ex. 1x in the horns, leading
to an especially anguished outcry of Ex. 2, after which, the mood shifts.
Divisi
violins, flageolet lower string tones and feathery, cascading woodwind
sextuplets introduce Schwanhilde’s theme in E flat
major, on a solo violin. The horn fifth harmonies in the woodwinds clearly
indicate Alpine skies (Ex. 4)
Ex. 4
A
continuation of her melody will gain later significance.
Ex. 5
The contrast between her coloring
and that of the introductory music could hardly be stronger. Hausegger began this work soon after his first marriage. One
wonders if he meant this segment as a musical portrait of his wife, Hertha, a very attractive young woman if photos are any guide.
If so, it’s certainly more flattering than Richard Strauss’ depiction of Frau
S. in Ein Heldenleben.
Wieland’s courtship begins with an
upwardly-striving version of Ex. 1, developed in canon in conjunction with Ex.
2. A more animated version of Schwanhilde’s theme in
diminution with syncopated rhythms might express her alarm at her newly-found
admirer. A new brass theme expresses Wieland’s avid sparking.
Ex. 6
A fff brass climax
on this theme summarizes his earthly woes and the crash of his ambitions,
resulting in inner paralysis.
The second part of the poem, the paralyzed
Wieland, starts with a dragging, disjointed version of Wieland’s theme.
Ex. 7
The
section introduces two new themes. The first is that of Purification. Its
continuing phrase, though Hausegger gave it no title,
will still be important.
Ex. 8
Twice,
that phrase leads to a crescendo, interrupted by Ex. 7, though a brief clarinet
theme offers a hint of change:
Ex. 9
The
music breaks down in a despairing brass climax of the courtship theme, Ex. 6.
Wieland’s efforts have thus far been in vain.
Ex. 10
After the silence following this collapse, Schwanhilde’s
theme (violin solo) appears in B major, expanded in rising sequences, as if to
offer a ray of hope. The end of this calm interlude brings a new theme on the clarinet:
that of Awakening Inner Liberation. Its last segment plainly derives from Schwanhilde’s theme.
Ex. 11
Then ensues a violent crescendo, using bits of Wieland’s theme. It culminates in a
resounding brass call, taking us to the third section of the work: Wieland forges
his wings.
Ex. 12
Our hero
sets about the job with a vengeance. Over a marcato
F# tympani pedal, Ex. 1 appears in a steady, martial guise. The relentless effect
of the driving rhythms curiously recalls the first movement of Mahler’s Sixth
(the pieces were composed at about the same time). As an in-joke, there’s also
a sly reference to Siegfried’s Forging Song from the Ring.
Thrown into the mix are
transformations of Exx. 4 and 9.
As if to prefigure Schwanhilde, the
solo violin plays the theme of Inner Liberation (Ex. 8), eventually taken up in
triumph by the horns and lower brass. The violins contribute an
inversion of Schwanhilde’s motiv
(head over heels in love?).
The final section depicts the union
of Wieland and Schwanhilde as lovers and their flight
into the sun. The music introduces a broad, lyric version of Ex. 1, now in Schwanhilde’s tonality of E flat major.
Ex. 13
Impelled
by the initial phrase of Ex. 8 in sequence, Hausegger
combines the lovers’ main themes into a “distantly beginning love duet”.
Ex. 14
The
lovers unite with a radiant version of Schwanhilde’s
theme, once more accompanied by the woodwind cascades from its first
appearance.
The pace quickens, spurred on by
repetitions of Ex. 13 in ascending sequences. The rhythms become more
irregular, as if the lovers were growing more impetuous. The climax of the duet
combines the trumpets in an augmented version of Ex. 3 (Heavenly Longing), with
the rest of the brass choir playing the extension of Schwanhilde’s
theme, Ex. 5. With some last pealings of Ex. 13, the sonorities pointed by the
glockenspiel, the music ends triumphantly. On the final chord, as is only
proper for a work about a blacksmith, the heavy metal - brass in this case -
prevails. Yet while Wieland’s theme
has the last word, it’s in Schwanhilde’s domain of E flat major. Heroic maidens, those Vikings.
Hausegger
heavily revised this score. My copy has pages of corrections, deletions and
paste-overs in his hand. The revisions are
improvements: lines rescored or reinforced for clarity and redundant parts
deleted. To take two examples, he cut out an obstreperously busy bass drum part
from the final peroration. (One wonders why an experienced composer would
include it in the first place?) The final chord, which
originally the entire orchestra cut off sharply, now has the long fermata for
the brass - both programmatically and poetically the better choice. The only
performance I’ve ever heard of the music uses the revisions.
Rudolf Louis, a censorious guru of
the times, wrote that Wieland was a
step backward from Barbarossa. Though, Barbarossa, with the diatonic themes
and clear-cut tunes fitting its subject is an instantly likeable work, Wieland’s themes are more subtle and its
rhythmic motion more fluid. In a not overly long piece, there are 60 meter
changes. The themes’ transformations also have more psychological insight. E.
g., the segment depicting Wieland’s crippled spirit (Ex. 7 et. seq.) strikes a
greater sense of spiritual desolation.
With its greater fluidity of inner
parts, regardless of occasional clashing dissonances, and the freedom and
mastery with which he combines his various themes, Wieland is the Hausegger work which most
shows the influence of Richard Strauss. Artistically, it represents real
progress. Along with Barbarossa, Wieland is the only Hausegger
work to have been performed in the