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Stories of Symphonic Music / A Guide to the Meaning of Important Symphonies, Overtures, and Tone-poems from Beethoven to the Present Day cover

Stories of Symphonic Music / A Guide to the Meaning of Important Symphonies, Overtures, and Tone-poems from Beethoven to the Present Day

Chapter 88: TWO FRAGMENTS (AFTER THE "SONG OF ROLAND"): Op. 30
By Lawrence Gilman
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About This Book

The guide offers concise, non-technical explanations of symphonies, overtures, and tone-poems, arranged by composer, that orient concert-goers to the illustrative or poetic intentions behind each work. A preface argues for knowing a composition's programme when it is central to the music; individual entries summarize a work's descriptive basis, thematic outline, and salient orchestral effects without indulging in speculative interpretations. Coverage ranges from Beethoven through late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century composers and selects items likely to appear on contemporary orchestral programs, providing practical background to enhance informed listening.

TWO FRAGMENTS (AFTER THE "SONG OF ROLAND"): Op. 30

  1. THE SARACENS (Die Sarazenen)
  2. THE LOVELY ALDÂ (Die schöne Aldâ)

MacDowell, while living in Wiesbaden, Germany (from 1885 to 1888), projected a symphony on the subject of the Song of Roland, and a portion of it was composed; but the plan was afterwards abandoned, and the music which was to have formed part of the symphony was published, in 1891, in the form of two short tone-poems founded upon episodes in the poem, and entitled: Die Sarazenen; Die schöne Aldâ: Zwei Fragmente (nach dem Rolandslied) für grosses Orchester. MacDowell has quoted on the fly-leaf of the score those portions of the poem from which the conception of his music sprang.

"The Saracens," a tempestuous Allegretto feroce, is a sombre portrayal of the scene in which Ganelon swears to commit treason against Roland, while the Saracens feast amid the flaring of pagan fires and the wailing of sinister music. It is based on these lines from the Song (printed in the score in old German):

THE SARACENS

"With blasts of trumpets and amid festal and warlike scenes, tumultuously rushed forward the heathen hordes and all their high chiefs. Quoth Ganelon: 'I swear to you that of Roland I shall make an end.'" [103]

The second "fragment," "The Lovely Aldâ," an Andantino teneramente of grave tenderness, depicts the loveliness and the grieving of Aldâ, Roland's wife. [104] MacDowell uses as a preface lines from the German version, which, in translation, read thus:

THE LOVELY ALDÂ

"Then came forward the lovely Aldâ; graciously was she received by the Emperor himself and all his court. Spake she: 'Karl, consecrated sovereign, where is my Roland? Bring back to me my hero, he to whom you gave me as wife! Ah, what joy should I have in beholding him once more!'"