Die Nonnen (The Nuns) can be regarded as a companion piece to Reger’s monumental 100th Psalm. While the latter is a large-scale work climaxing in a Lutheran chorale, Die Nonnen is a setting of a poem by Martin Boelitz, which is infused with the spirit of monastic devotion. The composer strove to evoke this “Tristan-like mood of supernatural, religious sensualism” in a symbolist tone painting.
Mysticism and a recurring sense of ecstasy, modal inflections for the nuns’ prayers as well as modernist touches, intense calm in piano-pianissimo passages and a fiery, undulating chromaticism are artfully interwoven to reach an ending designed to “culminate in supreme transfiguration!”.
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Composer
Max Reger
| 1873-1916Born in Brand, Bavaria, in 1873, Reger studied music in Munich and Wiesbaden with Hugo Riemann. From 1905 on he worked at the Academy in Munich as a teacher for organ and composition. He moved in 1907 to Leipzig to become the music director of the university until 1908 and professor of composition at the conservatory until his early death in 1916. Personal details
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Editor
Christopher Grafschmidt
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Editor
Claudia Seidl
| 1990
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Songwriter / Librettist
Martin Boelitz
| 1874-1918