Works
poet
: Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
instrumentation: tenor and piano ♦ In June 1885 Th.J. Roothaan in Amsterdam published the Drie Ballades (Three Ballads) for tenor and piano by Alphons Diepenbrock. The composer, who was a student at the University of Amsterdam, was 23 …
instrumentation: mixed choir a cappella ♦ Dämmerung (Twilight), number VIII of the cycle Chinesisch-Deutsche Jahres- und Tageszeiten (Chinese-German Seasons and Times of Day), is the first poem by Goethe that Diepenbrock set to music. There i…
instrumentation: contralto and piano ♦ Diepenbrock’s earliest compositions include five songs on texts by Goethe. Two of them, the ballads Mignon and Der König in Thule (The King in Thule, RC 16) date from 1886. After a revision by the com…
instrumentation: mezzo soprano and piano ♦ Diepenbrock got acquainted with Goethe’s poetry around the age of 15. The author plays an important part throughout his oeuvre. In 1910 Diepenbrock called Goethe a great genius in a letter to the poet…
instrumentation: solo voice and piano ♦ In the summer of 1886, two years after setting Goethe’s famous poem Mignon to music (RC 12), Diepenbrock turned to another poem from Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship): Mign…
instrumentation: alto, tenor, bariton, bass and piano ♦ In 1882 – the same year the Academische feestmarsch (Academic Festive March, RC 2) was composed – Diepenbrock wrote his first setting of Goethe’s Wandrers Nachtlied (Wanderer’s Night Song). Later he s…
instrumentation: contralto or mezzo-soprano and piano // soprano and piano ♦ On 30 April 1898 the soprano Aaltje Noordewier-Reddingius performed seven songs by Alphons Diepenbrock in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. One of them was the sonnet Die Liebende schreibt (The Lover Write…
instrumentation: vocal male quartet ♦ The little sketchbook C-3 contains a setting for male vocal quartet of the beginning of Goethe’s Gesang der Geister über den Wassern (Song of the Spirits Over the Waters). The fragment comprises the f…
instrumentation: contralto and orchestra ♦ Between 1906 and 1908 Diepenbrock revised and orchestrated several of his early songs. In a letter to one of his friends of December 1907 he explained the reason for the series of orchestrations: The …
instrumentation: contralto and orchestra ♦ The ballads Mignon (RC 12) and Der König in Thule (The King in Thule, RC 16), composed in 1884 and 1886 respectively, were orchestrated shortly after each other in February and March 1907 at the reque…
