Richard Strauss’s “Die Tageszeiten” (“Times of the Day”)
Notes by TŌN horn player Jack Sindall
Richard Strauss published Die Tageszeiten (Times of the Day) in 1928, four years after the male-voice choir from the Wiener Schubert Society sang for him on his 60th birthday outside his house. It was at this birthday celebration where the choirmaster asked if Strauss might write something for them, perhaps a choral piece to the texts of Joseph von Eichendorff, to which Strauss proclaimed “Very good! He is a full-blooded romanticist who is close to me.” Choosing four poems from Eichendorff’s Wanderlieder, Die Tageszeiten is a serene work for male choir and orchestra, consisting of four movements: Morning, Midday Rest, Evening, and Night.
How many symphonic works can you think of that begin with an a capella male choir? This is how Strauss decided to announce the arrival of morning. The operatic first movement dives straight into a bombastic day break, with dazzling wind writing and rays of sunshine in the strings. This is followed by a warm afternoon: in a Mahler-esque fashion we are transported to the German countryside with folkish, slow-falling melodies perfectly evoking Eichendorff’s poetic description of “untangling from the rigid tracks of life.” A distant timpani roll takes us into Evening. Some 20 years later towards the end of his life, Strauss would compose another (better known) evening song in his Four Last Songs: “Im Abendrot” (“At Sunset”), taking after a similar poem from Eichendorff. While “Im Abendrot” depicts a peaceful conclusion to the journey of life, this Evening song is a more earthly approach, with the chromaticism of lightning not too dissimilar to the Alpine Symphony. The third appropriately segues into the fourth, as evening does into night, the horn solo providing a peaceful transition into a hymnal finale.
It is always exciting to discover a work you haven’t heard before by a composer you love and know well. Die Tageszeiten offers a unique opportunity to hear two forms of German Romanticism under musical forces rarely combined. After hearing this work, it begs the question, why is this not a staple in the programming of major choral/orchestral performance?