Legende (1919)

The songs Stille der Nacht and Legende, both of which require a large, Mahler-sized orchestra, are among his earliest surviving works and they reveal Bürger, though still a student at that time, to be already a master of the large-scale orchestral Lied, in the tradition of Mahler, Strauss, Zemlinsky or Joseph Marx.

Legende shows Bürger at his most overtly Romantic; there is more than a hint here of how a Bürger opera might have sounded. It sets a poem by Christian Morgenstern, who is perhaps best known nowadays for his absurd verses and poems for children; Bürger, though, chose a poem from Morgenstern’s Christzyklus on episodes from the life of Jesus. This one tells of the solitary Christ joining in a peasant dance festival, and his effect on the other dancers. Presumably Bürger was aware that, according to Morgenstern’s superscription, the poem was ‘suggested by a Prelude of Chopin’; but the poet never indicated which one, and as far as I can tell there are no Chopin quotations in Bürger’s setting.

Opening with a quasi-chorale in solemn organum in the strings, the song proceeds to tell the story in sumptuous orchestral colouring. As befits the story-telling style this is a fairly episodic song, failing into several clearly defined sections with changes of key. The exalted mood of the opening gives way to the playful, Hebraic colouring of the oboe-led dance with the bagpipe, and full orchestra (including six horns) is kept busy in the more passionate pages. For all his masterly deployment of his forces, Bürger is alert to the effectiveness of a simple unaccompanied vocal line. The solemn coda develops into a plangent funeral march with mournful Mahlerian trombones that builds up a truly symphonic weight of expression.

— Malcolm MacDonald in the booklet of Toccata Classics TOCC 0001
reprinted with permission

About the Exilarte Edition
G. Schirmer/Wise Music’s Exilarte Edition exclusively publishes works by composers who were persecuted, forced into exile, or murdered by the Nazi regime. All original manuscripts of these works are archived in the Exilarte Center at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in Austria.