Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von

CONTAINING HIS SUGGESTIONS FOR THE COMPOSER AS TO HOW THE CANTATA MIGHT BE SET TO MUSIC, informing him that when he was notified by the Sing-Akademie of their intention to celebrate Zelter's seventieth birthday with a musical evening gathering, the idea occurred to him to write a cantata praising such a notable life, enclosing his poem for the cantata as well as a table elucidating the symmetrical and parallel structure of the whole [both not included here], explaining additionally for the benefit of the composer that he has divided the chorus into three groups, "Bauende", "Singende" and "Dichtende" [representing the arts, respectively, of architecture, singing and poetry], in order to obviate the fact that the personified arts are thoroughly unusual, commenting that while it is for the composer to determine the leading figure of each chorus, he has envisaged the solos of the "Bauende" to be given to the bass, those of the "Singende" to the tenor and those of the "Dichtende" to a treble voice, stating that he has conceived the occasion dramatically or, rather, theatrically, providing instructions for the entrance of the singers, including for the treble soloist, outlining how the theatre should be plunged into darkness at the words "Blitz und Schlag [Thunder and Lightning]" and advising that the composer reflect this by suggesting in the music the feeling of darkness, noting that at the words "Ist unser Mann [Is our man]" the theatre is suddenly illuminated, and that this too must be reflected by the composer in the way the music should increase in brightness and energy to the end, drawing his attention to the dramatic, developmental nature of the cantata, and consequently requesting that the music should not linger too long at any one point and that the musical motives should not be treated too extensively, stating his wish that the performance should be over before anyone realises it, remarking that it will soon become apparent to what extent his views are compatible with those of the composer, adding finally that they will have to wait to see if he can provide anything else for the Liedertafel, noting that at all events the last aria 'Was braucht es weiter' could be set for choruses

...Als ich benachrichtigt ward, die ansehnliche Singacademie zu Berlin gedenke Zelters siebzigsten Geburtstag dergestalt zu feyern, daß sie sich Abends versammeln und den werthen Mann mit Gesang begrüßen wolle[,] ging mir der Gedanke bei, eine Cantate aufzusetzen, wodurch der Werth eines so bedeutenden Lebens einigermaßen ausgesprochen würde...Bei dieser Absicht, daß die Cantate in dramatischen d.h. immer fortschreitendem Sinn behandelt würde, wäre zu wünschen, daß die Musik sich nirgends zu lange aufhalte, die Motive nicht zu weitläufig aufführe und im Bedeutenden immer vorschreite, so daß die Exhibition vorüberrauschend zu Ende wäre, ehe sich jemand besinnen könnte...  



3 pages, folio (c. 33 x 20cm), the text of the letter in a secretarial hand, later pencil annotation to otherwise blank fourth side, stitching holes, with a two-page typed transcription, Weimar, 21 October 1828, original horizontal and vertical folds, some light creasing to edges

R. Larry Todd, Mendelssohn: A Life in Music (Oxford, 2003), p. 192; Lorraine Byrne Bodley, Goethe and Zelter: Musical Dialogues (Aldershot, 2009), p. 415 n. 316.

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A REMARKABLE LETTER IN WHICH GOETHE PROFFERS ADVICE ON THE MUSICAL SETTING OF THE TEXT OF HIS CANTATA FOR ZELTER. 

The recipient of Goethe's cantata was his friend and musical adviser, Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832), famous not only as a teacher of Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer, and as a notable composer of lieder (75 of his solo songs are to texts by Goethe), but also as conductor from 1800 of the celebrated Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, founded in 1791 by C.F.C. Fasch on the model of the London Academy of Ancient Music. The 900-odd letters that Zelter and Goethe exchanged between 1799 and 1832 form one of the great nineteenth-century correspondences, and are a valuable source of music history, containing as they do accounts of such notable events as Goethe's meeting with Beethoven and the seminal performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, under Mendelssohn's direction, at a Sing-Akademie concert in 1829.

Although it might tempting to imagine that the letter was directed to the eventual composer of Goethe's cantata - Zelter's assistant Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen (1778-1851), who had succeeded Zelter as first director of the Sing-Akademie in 1833 - the three third-person references in the letter to "der Musikus", "der Componist" and "der Musiker" would seem to rule this out. The cantata, whose verses symbolically unite the arts of architecture (Zelter had trained initially as a mason), poetry and singing, was entitled Zelters siebzigster geburtstag, gefeiert von Bauernden, Dichtenden, Singenden am 11ten Dezember 1828; it was scored for the three choirs envisaged by Goethe, plus continuo. Rungenhagen's 82-page score, from Goethe's music collection, is preserved in the Goethe-und Schiller-Archiv Weimar. It has been suggested that Mendelssohn may have been approached first to set the cantata to music but declined.

The work was evidently well received. The Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung reported on the performance thus: 'On the same evening the Sing-Akademie celebrated the 70th birthday of [...] Professor Zelter with a celebratory performance of a cantata to poems by Goethe, which the Director of Music, Rungenhagen, the real assistant to Zelter [sic], had set to music with considered order [of form], clarity and warmth of feeling, simple and melodic, as appropriate' (AMZ, 31 (1829), no. 1, 7 January, col. 18).

The Liedertafel mentioned by Goethe near the end of the letter was the nationalistically inclined men's choir established by Zelter in 1809. In the event, on 6 December, Goethe despatched verses for a drinking song, Tischlied ("Lasset heut am edlen Ort"), to Mendelssohn in Berlin, who set them at breakneck speed for SATB solo voices and SATB choir (MWV F2).

For an important series of forty letters by Goethe, please see Lot 17