Karl Amadeus Hartmann
Karl Amadeus Hartmann was a 20th Century German composer who was born in 1903. During his lifetime he experienced many life changing world events, including World War I, World War II, and the Great Depression. It was after the defeat of the Nazis that Hartmann started revising many of his works. Symphony No. 1 was one of them. The first symphony, “The Search for a Requiem,” gives evidence to the importance of Mahler. [ (Morgan, 1994) ] Symphony No. 1, “Essay for a requiem” was first written in 1936 as and solo alto piece with orchestra. Poems from Walt Whitman were used for the text of each movement. The work was later renamed “Our Life: Symphonic Fragment” and was used to bring forth the terrors that people had to face under the Nazi regime. After World War II, the piece was renamed “Symphonic Fragment: Attempt at a Requiem” to honor the millions killed in the Holocaust. Finally from 1954-1955 Hartmann modified his work and renamed it “Symphony No. 1.”
Hartmann’s Symphony No. 1 is very visual and musically dramatic. Movement one, Introduktion: Elend, begins with a dark feeling given by the loud fast percussion rolls in the beginning. Then following is the brass with fanfare type chords that are loud and precisely articulated. When the solo voice enters, the singer sings in a low octave in a recitative style on the same pitch. This adds to the dramatic effect and the listener can gain a strong sense of misery right away. The melodic line then moves to other notes to add feeling. The text is depicted in the countermelody. in the emphasized by an expressively contoured melody and rapid declamation of the text, disconnecting the vocal line from the slow orchestral ostinato underneath. The melody reaches its apex and the movement closes with a return to the opening monotone style.
The second movement, Fruhling, begins somewhat like the first in that it is very dramatic and uses density within the orchestra for effect. Using the orchestra verses only percussion
Hartmann’s Symphony No. 1 is very visual and musically dramatic. Movement one, Introduktion: Elend, begins with a dark feeling given by the loud fast percussion rolls in the beginning. Then following is the brass with fanfare type chords that are loud and precisely articulated. When the solo voice enters, the singer sings in a low octave in a recitative style on the same pitch. This adds to the dramatic effect and the listener can gain a strong sense of misery right away. The melodic line then moves to other notes to add feeling. The text is depicted in the countermelody. in the emphasized by an expressively contoured melody and rapid declamation of the text, disconnecting the vocal line from the slow orchestral ostinato underneath. The melody reaches its apex and the movement closes with a return to the opening monotone style.
The second movement, Fruhling, begins somewhat like the first in that it is very dramatic and uses density within the orchestra for effect. Using the orchestra verses only percussion
Cited: Morgan, Robert P. Modern Times. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1994. “Hartmann, Karl Amadeus.” In New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, 11:80-82. London: Macmillan, 2001.