Presents
Richard Thiele
String Quartet No.1 in the Comic Style, Op.27
Richard Thiele (1847-1903) was born in Berlin. His initial music lessons were from his father Siegfried a composer and organist. Subsequent studies were in Berlin and Leipzig. He made his career as a theater director and composer. Between 1880 and 1900 his comic operettas were amongst the most popular in the German-speaking world. He is generally recognized as the greatest composer of Bieroper (beer operas), a kind of comic opera performed in operetta theaters and German student associations. Several are still freuquently performed, including Rinaldo Rinaldini, Tannhäuser in Purgatory a parody of Wagner's opera which features 22 student and popular folksongs. Perhaps his most famous work is the march Stolz weht die Flagge Schwarz-Weiss-Rot (The black, white and red flag waved proudly) which comes from his Singspiel Unser Marine (Our Navy). It is one of the most famous marches ever written and regularly performed by military bands all over the world from Japan, to Europe to America. Thiele was also one of the most assiduous collectors of German comic Volkslieder (folksongs), which he not only used in his operettas but also in his three string quartets in the comic style. These are classically conceived and finely written works.
String Quartet No.1 was composed in 1878. The first movement, Andante und fugue, is based on the German folksong "Guter Mond du gehst so stille" (Good moon, you walk so quietly) dating from at least 1800. In its orginal format, it is beautiful, sweet and calm. It is still frequently used as a lullaby for children. Here, however, Thiele presents it in a solemn and almost dissonant fashion in the opening Andante. It is followed by a light-hearted, lively fugue, hardly the thing you would sing a child to sleep with. The second movement is a Menuet and short trio based on the famous Viennese folksong "Ach, du lieber Augustin" (Oh, you dear Augustin) It originated during the Plague of 1769 and recounts how the famous Viennese ballad singer and bagpipe player Augustin one night was so drunk that he fell into a gutter on the street. Grave diggers came along and presuming he was dead, picked him up and tossed him into a plague pit outside the city walls reserved for those who had died from the plague. The next morning Augustin awoke in the pit and to everyone's astonishment began to play the bagpipes. He apparently did not get the plague despite having laid alongside people who had died from it and as such became a symbol of hope for the people of Vienna. The tune is usually presented, as it is here, in a lively and jaunty upbeat fashion. The last movement, Allegro, is based on the very old folksong "Eins, zwei, drei, an der Bank vorbei" (One, two, three past the bench). It is a childrens' nursery rhyming song, the origin of which is not known. Some sources believe that it was used in dancing lessons. The words to the first verse are roughly translated as, "One, two, three, past the bench / Past the woman, past the girl by the bench / and back again in place, two, three" Other sources claim it is a nonsense song which is taught to children to help them with various unpleasant tasks such as washing up or cleaning their rooms. Here, Thiele first presents it as a quick, energetic military march and we hear the bugle sounding the call to charge. Excitement follows, but then it suddenly morphs into a jolly unmilitaristic dance and then further on it becomes a kind of dramatic, operatic coda barreling toward a triumphant conclusion.
If you are not beyond enjoying a superbly written work based on humorous folksongs, you can do no better than this fine quartet. Fun to play, not at all hard and surprisingly effective in the concert hall.
Parts: $19.95
