Extract from the booklet notes for "Strauss - A Capella"

breadth, ‘flourishes à la rückert’, and spirituality
by christian goubault

A favourite source of inspiration of both Strauss and Gustav Mahler (the Rückert-Lieder and three of the Kindertotenlieder), the Bavarian poet Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866) was also an orientalist,
translator of the Persian Hafez, and prolific author of ‘oriental’ poems, intimate elegies, and introverted lyrics. Strauss admitted to his librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal in 1911: ‘You probably know my predilection for hymns in Schiller’s manner and flourishes à la Rückert. Things like that inspire me to formal orgies ...’
These ‘flourishes’ made the writer smile. But they may indeed be found in the ‘Hymne’ from op. 34 and the following choruses, among them the ambitious masterpiece that is the Deutsche Motette, the peak of Straussian choral art.
Deutsche Motette (German Motet), op.62
Scored in twenty real parts (sixteen for the choir, plus SATB soloists), the Deutsche Motette was composed in the first half of 1913 (it was finished at Garmisch on 22 June) and premiered on 2 December at the Berlin Philharmonie by the Hofoper Chorus under its conductor Hugo Rüdel. Only the motets Ecce beatam lucem (1561; ten parts in each of the four voices and continuo ad libitum) by Alessandro Striggio and Spem in alium (after 1567) by Thomas Tallis (forty independent parts laid out for eight five-voice choirs) surpass this number.
The Deutsche Motette is rarely performed or recorded because of the technical feats it requires of its interpreters. It calls for seasoned professional singers with keen ears, an extended vocal range, and absolute security of pitch. The overall compass spans four complete octaves, from the bottom C of the basses to the sopranos’ top D flat. In spite of clear tonal reference points, the web of harmonic turbulences, modulations, enharmonics and chromaticism remains entirely unsupported throughout this long composition (around twenty minutes). One must marvel at its instrumental character, with its progressive superimpositions of voices, its dovetailings, its contrasts, and above all its sonorous dynamics.
The breadth of the work amply justifies Strauss’s remark on the ‘flourishes’ of Rückert’s poem, which is inspired by the ghazals of Hafez, imitated in the West by Goethe, Rückert himself, Karl August von Platen, and Gottfried Keller.
After a calm introduction, the score’s keyword (‘Licht’, light) is underlined by a radiant chord. In the lower registers, the basses and tenors, then the altos, and finally a quartet of basses, invoke this light to protect them from the powers of darkness. A flexible triple-time rhythm, with melodic intertwinings, creates a sort of hubbub and an increasingly paradisiacal atmosphere. The second section consists of an imposing fugue whose subject is set to insistent demands that the creator be shown his work finished (‘O zeig mir, mich zu erquicken’ – Oh show me, to revive me). The concluding lullaby breathes confidence and bliss in the light of heaven. Is this a religious work? The composer expressed his spiritual sensibility on several occasions: he was instinctively and profoundly pantheistic, open to the mystical character of Rückert’s Motette, which embraces the whole of Creation.

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