composer
Peter Schat is one of the most colourful and widely-known Dutch composers of the 20th century. He was born in Utrecht, the son of a Protestant baker, and knew from ...
related works
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Piano
Scoring:
pf
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Mixed choir and orchestra
Scoring:
GK4 3322 4231 timp 2perc hp pf str
Aves : symfonie no. 4, voor 3-stemmig gemengd koor en orkest / door Jurriaan Andriessen
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Mixed choir and orchestra
Scoring:
GK3 3222 4330 timp perc hp str
The hollow men : 1948 / [tekst] T.S. Eliot, Kees van Baaren
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Mixed choir and orchestra
Scoring:
sopr bar GK4 2fl 2ob 2cl 2fg 2h 2trp timp perc str
composition
Houdini symphony : opus 25b, for four soloists, mixed choir and orchestra, (1976) / text by Adrian Mitchell, Peter Schat
Other authors:
Mitchell, Adrian
(librettist)
Contains:
Adagio molto
Allegro
Lento molto
Andante
Fanfare
Description:
Program note (English): (Premiere: 22 May 1977 - ISCM Festival, Bonn - Südwestfunkorchester, cond. Ernest Bour) - The Houdini symphony consists of four movements, of which the first two ensue in one another. These are coherent fragments from the circus opera based on the life of Ehrich Weiss, alias Harry Houdini, the great escape artist, 'the magicians' magician, who lived from 1874 to 1926. The libretto from this opera is by Adrian Mitchell, the leading English poet whose name is forever linked to the large anti-imperialistic protest movements, which reached their peak in the 1960's. Just as the independent fragments were published earlier (May 1975 - A Song of Liberation, for two soloists, choir and orchestra; I am Houdini - A Ballet to Sing, for tenor, choir and two pianos, and The Letter scene, for two soloists and piano) this symphony examines an aspect of the central theme of the opera: people who escape. The symphony begins with what in the opera the overture to the fourth act is, the part in
which Houdini mourns his mother's death and the struggle he faces against the forces of superstition and occultism. His decisive battle ends in this act, with the 'Fighting dance', the second part of the symphony. At the height of this act a '12-tone International' appears. The third movement contains the music of Houdini's last escape act; at the time his enormously popular 'Water Can Escape', in which he freed himself from a largely sealed milk can full of water. At the end of this scene however Houdini dies, and his wife, Bess promises to give a sign 'If it can be done'. Houdini, himself did not believe in the possibility, and the last words of 'The man WHO made the impossible possible' are then: ' But I don't think it is possible '. For ten years spiritual associations throughout world have tried in vain on the anniversary of his death (All Saints Day, 1926) to make contact, as represented in the second to last scene of the opera. In the last scene, which is also the finale of
the symphony, he reappears with his wife, mother and manager (beyond the actual action of the opera) in a love song to the world: There is no heaven but the earth
There is no heaven but the people on which the chorus answers: The people or the world Shake off their chains and with this finally the music breaks through liberation song from the third act. - PETER SCHAT