van Gilse

[pjme]

Jan van Gilse: Der Kreis des lebens now available at radio 4

van Gilse

"In 1929, Van Gilse began to set lyrics to music by Rainer Maria von Rilke, who had died of leukemia three years earlier. For what he called Der Kreis des Lebens, Van Gilse drew on early works by Rilke: Die frühe Gedichte (published in 1909) and Das Buch der Bilder (published in its original form in 1902, expanded in 1906 and 1913). You could see a life cycle in the free selection that Van Gilse made, ending with a poem about death. Always in our midst, an echo of the Gregorian 'Media vita in morte sumus'. The reason for Van Gilse's composition was the centenary anniversary of the Society for the Promotion of Toonkunst in 1929. Entries were anonymous, under motto, so that the jury would not be able to see who composed what. To Van Gilse's great frustration, the first prize was awarded to a short work by Rudolf Mengelberg. Van Gilse's wife Ada later recalled that the jury (which also included Willem Pijper) thought Van Gilse's work was the strongest. But that Willem Mengelberg, also a member of the jury, had stepped up. There was no way, Mengelberg argued, that he would get this work in with his choir in a short time. The choice then fell on a much smaller work.
In the end, the cantata for soprano, tenor, eight-part choir and orchestra had to wait years for a first performance. Van Gilse offered them to his successor at the USO in 1931, but this Evert Cornelis believed: 'In particular I have taken into account the demands of the work from a choral technical point of view. And in doing so I have to take into account the capacities of the choral societies available to me. Unfortunately, the result of this mature deliberation turned out to be negative. I really don't dare with one of my choirs.' Ultimately, Der Kreis des Lebens did not have its premiere until June 1937, during the Maneto, the Manifestation of Dutch Toonkunst. Incidentally, fair is fair: when Jan van Gilse had lunch at Mengelberg's later, Der Kreis des Lebens was on the wing of his host. Mengelberg praised this, in his eyes, great work, before toasting Van Gilse: 'I have always stood in the sun and he in the shade. There will come a time when he will be in the sun and I will be in the shade!'
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[pjme]

No merry pranks for this Uilenspiegel.