When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd: A Requiem for those we love | |
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Oratorio by Paul Hindemith | |
Occasion | Memory of Franklin D. Roosevelt |
Text | "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" by Walt Whitman |
Language | English |
Composed | 1946 |
Performed | 14 May 1946 New York City : |
Movements | 11 |
Scoring |
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When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd: A Requiem for those we love (An American Requiem)[1] is a 1946 oratorio by composer Paul Hindemith, based on the poem of the same name by Walt Whitman. It is the first musical work to include the entirety of Whitman's 1865 poem.[2] Conductor Robert Shaw and the Robert Shaw Chorale commissioned the work after the 1945 death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It received its world premiere on May 14, 1946, at New York City Center, with the Collegiate Chorale conducted by Shaw and soloists Mona Paulee, contralto, and George Burnson, baritone.[3] Paulee performed the work again with bass-baritone Chester Watson and the CBS Symphony Orchestra for the work's first recorded broadcast on CBS Radio on June 30, 1946.[4]
David Neumeyer and others regard the Lilacs Requiem as Hindemith's "only profoundly American work."[5] Paul Hume said, "I doubt if we shall ever mourn Abraham Lincoln's untimely death more eloquently than in the words of Walt Whitman set to the music of Paul Hindemith; it is a work of genius and the presence of the genius presiding over its performance brought us splendor and profound and moving glory."[6]
The work is scored for mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists, SATB chorus, and full orchestra. After an unnumbered orchestral introduction, the text of the poem is divided into 11 movements:
The work is scored for mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists, mixed choir, and an orchestra of 2 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (one doubling cor anglais), clarinet, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons (one doubling contrabassoon), 3 horns, 2 trumpets, off-stage bugle, 2 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, glockenspiel, chimes, tam-tam, triangle, snare drum, bass drum, field drum, organ, and strings (First & second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses).