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Jansson, Marten: An Elemental Elegy
choral sheets
Mĺrten Jansson says: "The ensemble wanted a work about the beauty and fragility of nature. I instantly turned to lyric poet Charles Anthony Silvestri and he, being as excited about the commission as I was, completed the inspirational poem 'An Elemental Elegy' just three hours later:
Wildflowers spread across the hillside green,
A single ash stands sentinel.
Sparrows flit amid the lazy sway
Of tall grass in the whispering wind.
Glassy water touched by dragonflies,
Beneath, a flash of silver minnows,
Deeper still lie the woods beyond,
With many paths for wandering.
This idyll may soon be but a memory,
As plans and progress shall advance.
They burn the flowered hillside bare,
Root up the signal ash,
Drain the pond and pave the meadow
And, greedy, eye the woods beyon d.
Now the wildflowers grow through cobblestones,
And sparrows nest among the chimney stacks.
Profound the harm we've done to Her, and yet
Nature, ever-changing, elemental, finds a way.
I found it extremely inspiring to set these verses which are about the beauty of nature, its endangerment by man and the belief that it will recover from our interferences, to music. In the first place my music aims to enhance the meaning of the words.'
In the autumn of 1923, a young man produced the first music editions of his newly founded publishing house in his parents’ living room. He named his company Bärenreiter. In the spring of 1924 when Karl Vötterle came of age, he was able to register it with the German Publishers and Booksellers Association. At first, he mainly put out folk song collections, church as well as organ music including early music by Leonhard Lechner and Heinrich Schütz, at the time primarily known in specialist circles.
During the last months of the Second World War, the publishing house in Kassel was destroyed and once more a fresh beginning had to be made. With the start of the extensive German music encyclopaedia MGG – "Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart" – as well as numerous series of scholarly-critical complete editions such as the “New Mozart Edition” and the “New Bach Edition”, the visionary founder of the publisher created the basis for the further development of Bärenreiter. The musicological editions increasingly aroused interest abroad, and Bärenreiter found itself on an expansion course.
When Karl Votterle died in 1975, his daughter Barbara took over the helm, supported by her husband Leonhard Scheuch. Under their leadership, the catalogue grew significantly and the brand BÄRENREITER URTEXT was established. Finally, in 2003, their son Clemens Scheuch joined the publisher which today he is managing together with his parents. Thus Bärenreiter has remained a family business to this day and has become a company of international standing in the world of classical music.
