Thomas Daniel Schlee’s Symphony No. 2 is a commission to mark the 200th anniversary of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, and will be premiered by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra conducted by Manfred Honeck.
A dark opening scenario determines the character of the opening of Thomas Daniel Schlee’s 2nd Symphony. The three-part work begins with an opening movement entitled “Umbrae” and leads into brightness, via an extended middle movement “Spes unica” into the open colourfulness and energy of the final movement “Sursum corda”.
“The three-movement form of the work returns to the origins of the symphony, and is quite free.” This allows an openness in the shaping of the contrasts. For Schlee, the tradition of the symphony “continues to represent a meaningful point of reference in dealing with large forms, now that it is no longer bound to a strict pattern of movements and is totally timeless”. What is intended in the sense of the classic darkness-to-light topos, essentially with a spiritual foundation, is characterized by a further principle in the structure of the movements. The symphony is concerned with the phenomenon of sound shadows – not only in the first movement.
“Here, shadow is not intended as something colourless, but as something colourful, as a reflection, a commentary, that is also in the sense of a temporal succession.” All three movements have a coda, each of which, after a caesura, adds a commentary on the preceding. “In the first movement it is the transformation of the basic motif which is then examined in chamber music for large forces under a very gentle light. In the central movement, it is a long cantilena section, and finally in the third movement, a chorale-like episode in the orchestral tutti, which occurs like an answer. Each movement is added to with a kind of shadow which comments or answers what has been thrown up before.
Musically, in the first movement “Umbrae” I play with shadow as a colouring in the low sound spectrum, but also with specific harmonic sequences which emerge from the melodic processes. “The piece is built from a quite simple element: it is based on ascending minor thirds, viewed from various perspectives, made up of whole tone or semitone steps. It is an invocation, a peaceful pressing forward.” The wealth of dark colours extends to sound clusters, whose diffuse density of sound draws each and every colour from the chord and blackens it. The second movement, “Spes unica”, whose title refers to the hymn “O crux ave, Spes unica” – “Hail to the cross, our only hope”, examines another aspect of the phenomenon of “colour” by using a chordal sculpture.
The harmonic structure of the symphony is shaped through the use of modes, through diverse third relationships and finally the clear tonal foundation in the Finale. The brightest colour radiates from the third movement, which alludes to the liturgical invocation “Sursum corda” (Lift up your hearts), and reveals a clear B flat major. For Schlee, the rich colour palette of the large orchestra holds the attraction of “working with beautiful sound combinations, finding my way back to instrumental lines and creating meaningful forms which can be shaped without explanations.”
Marie Luise Maintz
(from [t]akte 1/2013)
Thomas Daniel Schlee on his Symphony no. 2 op. 81
My Symphony No. 2 Op. 81 was composed in 2010-13 in response to a commission from Dr. Thomas Angyan on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna.
I. “Umbræ”: the meanders of life … manifold gestures of invocation develop out of the interval of an ascending minor third. Deep, dark sounds and lines are, however, brightened by resonances: music is able to differentiate shades through the quality of shimmering colours, to almost reinterpret them in their contrasts. The middle of the movement depicts a terrifying nocturnal scene, over which the plaintive cries of the small E flat clarinet stand out. With increased motion, the sounds become more intense. Then a descending harp glissando, an aftershock of the bass drum, silence. From this emerges a slow, consoling melody, which is handed from one solo instrument to the next before everything sinks again into a low, colourless dark cluster.
II. “Spes unica”: at the centre of the symphony stands a confessional portrayal of the sentence “O crux, ave, spes unica” taken from the Passion hymn “Vexilla Regis”. A densely-woven introduction in rapid movement is followed by the urgent invocation of the cross with its iambic rhythms. The acceptance of the Passion in the “ave” is expressed through an extended section relating to the symbol of grace flowing down. The music finds its “telos” anew in a broad-spanned, lyrical answer (“spes unica”). Its melodic arches are shot through with gentle blocks of sound in the form of a cross.
III. “Sursum corda”: the orchestra answers the liturgical cry “lift up your hearts!” quoted in the title of the last movement with joy and emotion. The form combines a progressive (or rising) structure (A–A’–B–Coda) with the rondo-like return of an energetic refrain in horns and strings. Instead of the cantabile farewells which conclude the first and second movements, a kind of chorale is introduced in the brass instruments, rhapsodized by a further thematic development of the opening of the movement in the strings. In the short coda, the music once more gathers around the B flat triad central to the Finale.