Download Max Reger (Robert Brown)

MAX REGER
by Robert Brown.
Appeared in April 2000 issue.
German composer, pianist, organist, conductor and teacher, Max Reger, was born at
Brand, Bavaria in 1873, the son of a schoolmaster. His earliest musical instruction
was provided by his mother, and then by Adalbert Lindner. From 1886 to 1889 he
was organist at Weiden Roman Catholic Church. In 1890, Reger became a pupil of
Hugo Riemann at the conservatory in Wiesbaden, where he joined his master as a
teacher. A period of military service began in 1896. He was discharged in 1898 and
returned home to Weiden where he suffered a long illness. Barely recovered, he
settled in Munich in 1901, where he married Elsa von Bagensky soon after his arrival.
He taught theory, composition and organ at the Akademie der Tonkhunst. Reger
became Director of Music at Leipzig University in 1907, but soon relinquished this
position. He retained a teaching post at Leipzig Conservatory for the rest of his life.
In 1911 he was invited by Duke Georg to revive the fame of the historic court
orchestra at Meiningen. A period of active orchestral composition followed until the
Duke died two years later. Reger died from a heart attack at Leipzig in 1916, aged 43
years. His vast output includes music for organ, piano, orchestra, instrumental
ensembles, chorus and 260 songs.
Views about Reger’s place in music history have changed considerably during the
course of the 20th century. The Fifth Edition of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and
Musicians, published in 1954, concentrates on the hostility Reger’s compositions
aroused during his lifetime. There was ‘a widespread misconception of his technical
procedures’ … ‘he was regarded as a revolutionary harmonist’ although ‘in his
handling of musical form he was a rigid traditionalist’. ‘What annoyed his
contemporary critics was his loose stringing together of chords with a pretence of
making new discoveries; but they were themselves to blame for not noticing that he
was only playing a game of his own devising with old material’. ‘In justice to Reger
… he could modulate with great skill and originality when he chose’. ‘What has
earned him lasting respect … was not his pretended newness nor any fundamental
originality, but his tenacious upholding of the great traditions in composition, based
mainly on a study of Bach’s art …’
The Larousse Encyclopedia of Music, published in 1971, says ‘Reger is an inspired
artist, both in the austerity of his style and in the facility and perfect mastery of his
technical resources. One might say that he continued and accentuated the classic side
of Brahms’ genius. There are few remaining traces of Romanticism. He was a
magnificent craftsman who made a great contribution to musical language. … he
developed under the banner of J.S. Bach the chromatic harmonies of Wagner and
created a sort of panchromatism which anticipates the atonal school. In some ways
Reger also anticipates serial music, but he remained apart from the great upheavals of
his time, apart from all avante-garde movements’.
Reger’s beautiful Romanze in G Major was originally composed for the violin, but has
subsequently been transcribed for viola, ‘cello, flute, horn, clarinet, oboe and trumpet,
all published by Breitkopf. The flute version was prepared by the German flautist
Maximilian Schwedler (1853-1940) in about 1910. Schwedler was solo flautist of the
Gewandhaus Orchestra for many years and a professor at the Leipzig Conservatory.
He also edited or transcribed other pieces of music for publication, including the
Peter’s edition of the Handel Sonatas. Because of their association with the Leipzig
Conservatory, it seems probable that Schwedler consulted Reger while preparing the
flute version of the Romanze.
James Pellerite, writing about Reger’s Romanze, says ‘A poetic quality is introduced
in this short movement; 6/8 meter lends a pastoral rhythmic characteristic; thematic
fragments are purposefully textured in the various registers of the flute’. The 6/8
rhythmic pattern of two crotchets followed by two quavers, which first appears in bar
5, is unique to Reger’s Romanze. The diamond-headed D in the last bar of the
Breitkopf edition is an interesting curiosity. It appears to be a hangover from the
original version for violin, where the D is to be played as a normal note in bar 29 and
as a harmonic in bar 30. A diamond-headed note indicates to a violinist the nodal
point on the string to be touched to produce the harmonic. The change of tone quality
achieved by doing this was apparently intended to give the piece a mysterious
conclusion. For the modern flautist it is safest to continue sustaining the D with the
regular fingering and to use the embouchure to control the tone quality; listen to
prevent the D from going flat. An experienced performer could try overblowing the D
an octave in bar 30 to produce a mysterious effect. Schwedler introduced his Reform
Flute in 1885. This was a wooden conical bored flute with a cusped mouth-hole that
was intended to retain the tonal characteristics of the earlier 8-keyed Flute but took
advantage of the modern key work. The Reform Flute was popular in Germany,
where many flautists scorned the Böhm Flute during the Brahms and Wagner era.
Perhaps Schwedler had a ‘mysterious effect’ on his Reform Flute in mind when the
diamond-headed note was retained.
Compositions by Max Reger that include the Flute:
From 6 Vortragsstücke (Suite, Opus 103a) for violin and piano. Burleske, Menuet and
Gigue, arranged by Reger for flute and piano. Bote & Bock, 1908.
Allegretto Grazioso, for flute and piano. Musica Rara, London, 1966; Otto Junne, Munich.
(James Pellerite, writing about the Allegretto Grazioso, says ‘A gracious and lyrical manner
inherent in the romanticism must guide the articulated passages, a suitable choice in bridging
the varied styles for recital programming’.)
Romanze in G Major, transcribed Schwedler, for flute and piano. Breitkopf, No 3422.
Serenade, Opus 77a, for flute, violin and viola. Bote & Bock, 1904, 1952; Eulenburg, IMC.
Serenade, Opus 141a, for flute, violin and viola. Peters No 3453a, 1915, 1952; Eulenburg;
IMC.
(Leonardo De Lorenzo describes Reger as ‘that splendid German theoretician and composer,
wrote two fine trios for flute, violin and viola’.)
Satz einer Serenade, for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns. Unpublished
manuscript, 1904.
Canon Ré, arranged Schwadron, for flute, clarinet and bassoon. Kendor.
Fugue, Opus 56/2, transcribed Brown, for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon. Western
International Music.
Bibliography:
Anthony Baines. Woodwind Instruments and their History. Faber, 1967.
Chambers’s Biographical Dictionary, Revised Edition, 1968. W. & R. Chambers, Ltd.
Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Fifth Edition, 1954. Edited by Eric Blom.
MacMillan.
Larousse Encyclopedia of Music, edited by Geoffrey Hindley. Hamlyn, 1971.
Leonardo De Lorenzo. My Complete Story of the Flute. Texas Tech University Press, 1992.
Andrew Fairley. Flutes, Flautists and Makers. Pan Educational Music, 1982.
James J. Pellerite. A Handbook of Literature for the Flute. Zalo Publications, 1978.
Bernard Pierreuse. Flute Literature. Editions Musicales Transatlantiques, 1982.
Percy A. Scholes. The Oxford Companion to Music, Tenth Edition, 1970. Oxford.
Franz Vester. Flute Repertoire Catalogue, 1967. Musica Rara, London.
World Book Encyclopedia, 1972. Field Enterprises.