Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente

Song cycle

Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente (English: Six Hölderlin Fragments) is a song cycle for high voice and piano composed in 1958 by Benjamin Britten (1913–76), and published as his Op. 61. It consists of settings of six short poems and verse fragments by the German lyric poet Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843).

Britten had been introduced to the poetry of Hölderlin by Prince Ludwig of Hesse, and the cycle is dedicated to him. It was recorded by Peter Pears (tenor) and the composer (piano) and broadcast by the BBC in November 1958.^[1]^[2]^[3]

A performance typically takes about 13 minutes. The songs are:^[4]

"Menschenbeifall" ("Public Applause")
"Die Heimat"" ("Home")
"Sokrates und Alcibiades" ("Socrates and Alcibiades")
"Die Jugend" ("Youth")
"Hälfte des Lebens" ("The Middle of Life")
"Die Linien des Lebens" ("The Lines of Life")

References

^ Carpenter, Humphrey (1992). Benjamin Britten: A Biography. London: Faber and Faber. p. 388. ISBN 0-571-14324-5.
^ Evans, Peter (1979). The Music of Benjamin Britten. London, Melbourne and Toronto: J. M. Dent & Sons. pp. 365–370. ISBN 0-460-04350-1.
^ "Sechs Holderlin-Fragmente". Britten-Pears Foundation. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
^ "Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente: Song Cycle by (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)". The LiederNet Archive. Retrieved 25 April 2015.

Benjamin Britten

List of compositions

Opera and operetta

Paul Bunyan (1941)
Peter Grimes (1945)
The Rape of Lucretia (1946)
Albert Herring (1947)
The Little Sweep (1949)
Billy Budd (1951)
Gloriana (1953)
The Turn of the Screw (1954)
Noye's Fludde (1958)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960)
Owen Wingrave (1971)
Death in Venice (1973)

Church parables

Curlew River (1964)
The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966)
The Prodigal Son (1968)

Film/Ballet

Orchestral

Sinfonietta (1932)
Simple Symphony (1934)
Soirées musicales (1937)
Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (1937)
Mont Juic (1937)
Sinfonia da Requiem (1940)
Matinées musicales (1941)
The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946)

Concertante

Piano Concerto (1938, rev. 1945)
Violin Concerto (1939, rev. 1958)
Young Apollo (1939)
Diversions for Piano Left Hand and Orchestra (1940 rev. 1954)
Cello Symphony (1963)

Vocal/Choral Orchestral

Our Hunting Fathers (1936)
The Company of Heaven (1937)
Les Illuminations (1939)
Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (1943)
Saint Nicolas (1948)
Spring Symphony (1949)
Nocturne (1958)
Cantata academica (1959)
War Requiem (1961)
Cantata misericordium (1963)
Children's Crusade (1969)
Phaedra (1975)

Vocal

Beware! Three Early Songs (1922–26)
Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (1940)
The Holy Sonnets of John Donne (1945)
Britten's Purcell realizations (1945)+
5 Canticles (1947–75, including Canticle I: My beloved is mine and I am his, Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac (1952), Canticle III: Still falls the rain (1954) and Canticle IV: The Journey of the Magi (1971)
A Charm of Lullabies (1947)
Winter Words (1954)
Songs from the Chinese (1957)
Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente (1958)
Songs and Proverbs of William Blake (1965)
The Poet's Echo (1965)
Who Are These Children? (1969)
A Birthday Hansel (1975)