Komm ! Hebe dich… (Symphony n° 2)

Composed in
1987

For
Large Orchestra

Instrumentation
4/4/4/4 – 6/4/3/1 – 6 Perc. – 2 H – P – Strings

Duration
15′

First performance
November 7, 1987 at deSingel in Antwerp (B). Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders conducted by Günter NEUHOLD.

Commissioned by
Royal Flanders Philharmonic (deFilharmonie)

Dedicated to
Günter Neuhold

Awards
This work was awarded the First Prize at the European Competition for Composers in Metz (F) in 1988.

Commercial recordings
Cyprès CYP 2609 (2cd)

Publisher
Donemus

Luc about Symphony No. 2:

This symphony consists of three movements that are played consecutively without interruption. The orchestration is very large (100 musicians), and the percussion section is particularly notable due to the use of rather unusual instruments such as: an (empty) oil tank, a bathtub, a timpani with a bungee cord, and so on. These ‘unconventional’ elements were used solely with the resulting sound in mind: for quite some time now, my music has been based on overtones, with all the (im)possible implications that entails. In this work, I attempted for the first time to incorporate that idea in a dynamic way (most so-called “spectral” music tends to be so static).

In the slow middle movement, there is a quotation from Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 (hence the title!), which was actually added only after the work had been completed, because I felt something was still missing from the whole.

There are many more special ‘ingredients’ in this music, but any explanation of them seems completely unnecessary to me. After all, the music speaks for itself.

Harry Halbreich about Symphony 2 (CD Booklet Cyprès 2609):

This Symphony was written from July to September 1987 as a commission from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders, which premiered under Günter Neuhold (the dedicatee of the work) the 7yh November of that year at the Singel hall in Antwerp. The same orchestra then revived it several times, also abroad.(…)The work’s subtitle, ‘Komm, Hebe dich…’ stems from a very short quotation (added after the work was completed) from Mahler’s Eight Symphony, which occurs at the very end of the second of its three linked parts. The complete quotation (from Goethe’s Second Faust) is: ‘Komm! Hebe dich zu höheren Sphären. Wenn er dich ahnet, folgt er nach.‘ (‚Come! Raise yourself to higher spheres. If he forebodes you, he shall follow’)As compared to the First Symphony, the Second is more substantial, more richly contrasted, more individual and more clearly articulated. Here the spectral harmony is fully developed (over the fundamental C), resulting in that intense luminosity so typical of Brewaeys’ tonal palette. The work consists in three parts played without a break (in the ‘classical’ succession moderata-slow-fast), each part breaking down into several sections.The first main part has four such sections.A. (bars 1-14): the work opens in full strength and dazzle, with electrifying fst runs of the high brass, also to appear later.B. (bars 15-36): after this brief openings gesture, there follows a quieter episode, whose ascending and descending glissandi of the strings playing harmonics and of the percussion are reminiscent of some places in the First Symphony.C. (bars 37-61): violent, ‘telegraphic’ rhythms of the winds are added, gradually becoming more continuous.D. (bars 62-87): after a brief zone of repose, tension gradually grows, the very broad progression leading to a colossal and sustained climax, during which the quick rungs of the brass are unleashed in a relentless turmoil through triple reiteration of certain harmonic structures. This climax breaks up abruptly.The second main part is also in four sections.A. (bars 87-96): this slow middle part of the work, a meditation of radiant beauty, begins with long held, quiet spectral harmonies, still over the fundamental low C.B. (bars 97-103): here a long episode senza tempo begins, an enchantment of small tonal drops from the ‘gamelan’ instruments (metallic percussions and keyboards) above spectral harmonies of the strings, and with the participation of three low male voices (the parts are to be sung by three skilled orchestral players), modulating their vocal sounds through the nose and always changing the repartition of overtones like in Stockhausen’s Stimmung.C. (bars 104-108): the senza tempo is continued, however without the voices, but instead with ‘telegraphic’ rhythms of the claves (a reminiscence from section C of part one), then with free cadenzas for the harps, the piano and the metallic percussions.D. (bars 109-126): the long-held spectral harmonics from section A turn back to round off this second part. At the very end, after a very soft horn solo, we hear the Mahler quotation, played very softly by the piano, with the horn giving a faint, almost inaudible echo.The very concise Third main part follows at once: under the last notes of the Mahler theme, the regular pulse of fast demisemiquavers of the timpani and the log-drum is brought in, to remain the whole final part during a breathtaking, ever accelerating progression. This is a kind of coda-stretto to the whole work, breaking down into only two sections (bars 127-151 and 152-184), the second of which brings back the brutal ‘telegraphic’ rhyuthms of the brass from section C of part one, as well as (just before the end, from the upbeat of bar 178) the quick runs of the brass. As so often with Brewaeys, the music suddenly stops at its very climax.

Listen to Luc about this symphony (in Dutch):