Requiem with variations
How do composers in different periods translate their preoccupation with death and dying into music? A weighty book looks in depth and remains very close to the scores.
Urs Stäuble's recently published volume So that we become wise is an unusual book in many respects. It begins with the title, the meaning of which only becomes clear when you know the whole sentence from which it quotes: "Teach us to remember that we must die so that we may become wise."
This verse from the 90th Psalm, which Johann Sebastian Bach wrote in his Actus tragicus now puts the reader on the right track. Starting with the Gregorian Requiem, Urs Stäuble discusses eight works that deal with death on his journey through music history. In addition to Bach's aforementioned cantata, these include the Musikalische Exequien by Heinrich Schütz, the Requiem settings by Mozart, Verdi, Brahms, Dvořák and Fauré as well as No. VIII from Le Laudi by Hermann Suter.
The formal structure of the book is also unusual: the individual contributions are grouped as a "theme and eight variations", whereby the similarities and differences in the settings are presented in a short epilogue. The analyses of the individual works - explained using numerous musical examples - reveal an author who knows this music not only from listening to it, but also from playing it himself. The wealth of material always includes very personal and original insights that only a practicing musician can provide.
The individual chapters or variations each begin with a biographical sketch that sheds light on the composer's life up to the creation of the work under discussion. In Mozart's case, this logically concerns his entire life. At first, you might be taken aback. What's the point? However, these sketches are very successful introductions that should not be missed.
Urs Stäuble's book is of course also unusual in its length. The 560 pages are not suitable for a one-off read-through. The volume is a rich treasure chest and invites us to linger and compare again and again - so that we become wise ...
Urs Stäuble,
So that we become wise
One theme and eight variations
568 p., hardcover, Fr. 129.00
Books on Demand, Norderstedt
ISBN 978-3-9522448-1-4
