A Book of Burlesques | Page 3

backs, hitch their coat collars and pull
on their black gloves. The clergyman has arrived. From above comes
the sound of weeping.)

II.--FROM THE PROGRAMME OF A CONCERT
II.--From The Programme of a Concert

"Ruhm und Ewigkeit" (Fame and Eternity), a symphonic poem in B flat
minor, Opus 48, by Johann Sigismund Timotheus Albert Wolfgang
Kraus (1872-).
Kraus, like his eminent compatriot, Dr. Richard Strauss, has gone to
Friedrich Nietzsche, the laureate of the modern German tone-art, for his
inspiration in this gigantic work. His text is to be found in Nietzsche's
Ecce Homo, which was not published until after the poet's death, but
the composition really belongs to Also sprach Zarathustra, as a glance
will show:
I
Wie lange sitzest du schon auf deinem Missgeschick? Gieb Acht! Du
brütest mir noch ein Ei, ein Basilisken-Ei, aus deinem langen Jammer
aus.
II
Was schleicht Zarathustra entlang dem Berge?--
III
Misstrauisch, geschwürig, düster, ein langer Lauerer,-- aber plötzlich,
ein Blitz, hell, furchtbar, ein Schlag gen Himmel aus dem Abgrund:
--dem Berge selber schüttelt sich das Eingeweide....
IV
Wo Hass und Blitzstrahl Eins ward, ein Fluch,-- auf den Bergen haust
jetzt Zarathustra's Zorn, eine Wetterwolke schleicht er seines Wegs.
V
Verkrieche sich, wer eine letzte Decke hat! In's Bett mit euch, ihr
Zärtlinge! Nun rollen Donner über die Gewölbe, nun zittert, was
Gebälk und Mauer ist, nun zucken Blitze und schwefelgelbe
Wahrheiten-- Zarathustra flucht ...!

For the following faithful and graceful translation the present
commentator is indebted to Mr. Louis Untermeyer:
I
How long brood you now On thy disaster? Give heed! You hatch me
soon An egg, From your long lamentation out of.
II
Why prowls Zarathustra among the mountains?
III
Distrustful, ulcerated, dismal, A long waiter-- But suddenly a flash,
Brilliant, fearful. A lightning stroke Leaps to heaven from the abyss:
--The mountains shake themselves and Their intestines....
IV
As hate and lightning-flash Are united, a curse! On the mountains rages
now Zarathustra's wrath, Like a thunder cloud rolls it on its way.
V
Crawl away, ye who have a roof remaining! To bed with you, ye
tenderlings! Now thunder rolls over the great arches, Now tremble the
bastions and battlements, Now flashes palpitate and sulphur-yellow
truths-- Zarathustra swears ...!
The composition is scored for three flutes, one piccolo, one bass
piccolo, seven oboes, one English horn, three clarinets in D flat, one
clarinet in G flat, one corno de bassetto, three bassoons, one
contra-bassoon, eleven horns, three trumpets, eight cornets in B, four
trombones, two alto trombones, one viol da gamba, one mandolin, two
guitars, one banjo, two tubas, glockenspiel, bell, triangle, fife,
bass-drum, cymbals, timpani, celesta, four harps, piano, harmonium,
pianola, phonograph, and the usual strings.

At the opening a long B flat is sounded by the cornets, clarinets and
bassoons in unison, with soft strokes upon a kettle-drum tuned to G
sharp. After eighteen measures of this, singhiozzando, the strings enter
pizzicato with a figure based upon one of the scales of the ancient
Persians--B flat, C flat, D, E sharp, G and A flat--which starts high
among the first violins, and then proceeds downward, through the
second violins, violas and cellos, until it is lost in solemn and indistinct
mutterings in the double-basses. Then, the atmosphere of doom having
been established, and the conductor having found his place in the score,
there is heard the motive of brooding, or as the German commentators
call it, the Quälerei Motiv:
[Illustration: Musical Score]
The opening chord of the eleventh is sounded by six horns, and the
chords of the ninth, which follow, are given to the woodwind. The
rapid figure in the second measure is for solo violin, heard softly
against the sustained interval of the diminished ninth, but the final G
natural is snapped out by the whole orchestra sforzando. There follows
a rapid and daring development of the theme, with the flutes and
violoncellos leading, first harmonized with chords of the eleventh, then
with chords of the thirteenth, and finally with chords of the fifteenth.
Meanwhile, the tonality has moved into D minor, then into A flat major,
and then into G sharp minor, and the little arpeggio for the solo violin
has been augmented to seven, to eleven, and in the end to twenty-three
notes. Here the influence of Claude Debussy shows itself; the chords of
the ninth proceed by the same chromatic semitones that one finds in the
Chansons de Bilitis. But Kraus goes much further than Debussy, for the
tones of his chords are constantly altered in a strange and extremely
beautiful manner, and, as has been noted, he adds the eleventh,
thirteenth and fifteenth. At the end of this incomparable passage there
is a sudden drop to C major, followed by the first statement of the
Missgeschick Motiv, or motive of disaster (misfortune, evil