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Archive for the Libretto Category (13 posts)

Hoffman’s Tales

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Over here in Washington DC, it is truly feeling like winter! With temperatures well below freezing, it is not hard to picture oneself in a frozen Prussian landscape; which is fitting, since today is the birthday of German writer, music critic, and composer E.T.A. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus) Hoffmann, born in Königsberg, East Prussia (today known as Kaliningrad, Russia) in 1776.

A portrait of E.T.A. Hoffmann by an unknown painter, from before 1822. Displayed under Creative Commons License.

A portrait of E.T.A. Hoffmann by an unknown painter, from before 1822. Displayed under Creative Commons License. 

Hoffmann’s stories were very well-known in the 19th century, and many of them were the basis for operas, ballets, and other works. His style of writing is steeped in German romanticism, and has elements of fantasy, fairy tales, as well as the macabre. In addition to writing tales that influenced music compositions, Hoffmann was also well known for his music criticism. He was a contemporary of both Beethoven and Schubert, and is best known for his reviews of many of Beethoven’s instrumental works.

Hoffmann is widely cited for elevating instrumental music over vocal music in terms of being “the most romantic of all art” (Sie ist die romantischste aller Künste). Hoffmann died at age 46, after suffering from Syphilis.

Below are some pieces in the NLS Music Collection that are based on the writings of E.T.A. Hoffman.

The Nutcracker

Perhaps the most famous in this list, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker is based on Hoffmann’s Nussknacker und Mausekönig (The Nutcracker and the Mouse King), written in 1816. French writer Alexandre Dumas adapted Hoffmann’s tale in 1844, and that is the version that Tchaikovsky used in the setting of his ballet.

Braille
Tchaikovsky, Peter Illyich. Chinese Dance: for Piano Duet (BRM04812, piano 1, piano 2). Section by Section

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy: Piano Solo (BRM07118). Bar over bar

Nutcracker Suite: Piano Solo (BRM00517). Bar over Bar

Trepak: for Piano Duet (BRM04815, piano 1, piano 2). Section by Section

Digital Talking Book
Brown, Bill. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (DBM03308). Piano by Ear

Waltz of the Flowers (DBM03539). Piano by Ear

Music About Toys (DBM00259). Discusses Victor Herbert’s “March of the Toy Soldiers” from Babes in Toyland and Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from The Nutcracker

The Music of Tchaikovsky (DBM00023). Excerpts from The Nutcracker Suite, Sleeping Beauty, and Symphony no. 4, showing how Tchaikovsky’s music is rooted in Russian folk music.

Nutcracker Ballet (DBM00081). Relates the story of The Nutcracker, as set to music by Tchaikovsky.

Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann

A photo portrait of Jacques Offenbach, taken by Atelier Nadar, 1910. Public Domain.

A photo portrait of Jacques Offenbach, taken by Atelier Nadar, 1910. Public Domain.

Perhaps the second most famous Hoffmann adaptation bears Hoffmann’s own name: Jacques Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann (Tales of Hoffmann). This opera’s libretto was adapted by Jules Barbier, and weaves three of Hoffmann’s Tales (Der Sandmann [The Sandman], Rath Krespel [Councillor Krespel, also known as “The Cremona Violin”], and Das verlorene Spiegelbild [The Lost Reflection]) into an Opera fantastique with a main character named after Hoffmann. This was Jacques Offenbach’s final work, as he died a year before it premiered in 1881.

Braille
Offenbach, Jacques. “Barcarolle” from Tales of Hoffmann (BRM11940). For voice and piano

“Grand potpourri” for piano from the opera, Les contes d’Hoffmann (BRM27466)

“Je me nomme Coppelius” from Tales of Hoffman (BRM26862). For bass/baritone and piano

“Legende de Kleinzach” from Tales of Hoffman (BRM22708). For tenor and piano

Les contes d’Hoffmann: opera in four acts (BRM35160, French libretto, English libretto, French and English libretto [vol. 1, vol. 2]). Libretto in English and French

“Les oiseaux dans la charmille” from Tales of Hoffman (BRM26863). For soprano and piano

“Valse” from Tales of Hoffmann (BRM06527). For piano, bar by bar

Digital Talking Book
Barclay, Michael. Michael Barclay Lectures on “Les contes d’Hoffman.” (DBM00859)

Kreisleriana

Lastly, Schumann’s piano work Kreisleriana is based on a recurring character in Hoffman’s works: Johannes Kreisler. This character is portrayed as a musical genius, although he is often unpredictable and moody. Schumann’s eight-movement work plays on this characterization, as each movement contrasts heavily, in both tempo and mood, with each other as well as within themselves.

We have this work for piano available in a few different braille formats:

Schumann, Franz. Kreisleriana (BRM36061). Bar over bar

Kreisleriana (BRM06413). Bar by bar

Kreisleriana (BRM21349). Section by section

Additionally, you may be interested in some of these other works in the general NLS Talking Book and Braille Collection:

The Golden Pot, and Other Tales by E.T.A. Hoffmann (DB 47927)

Tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann (BR 07175 [3 volumes])

To borrow these books, you may access BARD or request a copy on digital cartridge by contacting the Music Section by phone at 1-800-424-8567, option 2, or e-mail [email protected]

A Composer for All Seasons: Benjamin Britten

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This blog is a brief look at some of Benjamin Britten’s compositions and relevant materials from the NLS Music Section.

Carnegie Hall of the South: Nashville’s Musical Legacy, Part 2

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This is the second half of a two-part post on Nashville’s musical history and related books in the NLS Music Collection. Read the first part here: Athens of the South: Nashville’s Musical Legacy, Part 1. Nashville’s most famous music venue, the Ryman Auditorium, was completed in 1892 and was originally a church called the Union […]

Athens of the South: Nashville’s Musical Legacy, Part 1

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Here in the Music Section of the National Library Service we are counting down the days until the National Conference of Librarians Serving Blind and Physically Handicapped Individuals begins next month in Music City, Nashville, Tennessee! As I mentioned in my last article, I’ve been taking the opportunity to learn about the musical history of […]

Bernstein at 100

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When I was in grade school, our chorus teacher let us hear a record called What Is Jazz (DBM00704), where tone color, blue notes, syncopation, and other aspects of jazz were described by a man named Leonard Bernstein (I assumed that he was a jazz piano player). By sixth grade I was listening to classical music […]

Going with “Ahmal” Once Again

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“Oh, no—opera!” I thought as the recording of Amahl and the Night Visitors started. I was perhaps a fourth grader at the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children in Pittsburgh then, hearing this one-act opera for the first time. Although I could not always understand the words, I had to admit that the mother’s operatic […]

Celebrating that “Parisienne Gaiety”

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When I was a teenager, I began learning about classical music by listening to radio programs in the evening. Often the shows would begin with an overture or “light classic”, such as the Light Cavalry Overture (which our school band played), or the William Tell Overture (the “Lone Ranger” to me). There was also a […]

American Composers and Musicians from A to Z: A (Part 1 – Adams, John)

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The following is a guest blog post from the new section head of the NLS Music Section, Juliette Appold. Have you ever thought about listing classical and contemporary composers by their last names from A to Z? How about identifying American composers from A to Z? And how about filling the alphabet with names of […]

Vacation Listening, and Much More

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On May 13, I was baking cookies and listening to the Met Broadcast of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. One of the announcers explained that this production would take place not in the 18th century, but in 1911, the year it was composed (also the year that Mahler died, I thought to myself). And that’s when it […]

Music History: 101

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Recently, we mentioned the Music Section’s acquisition of the sixth edition, Norton Anthology of Western Music, Vol. 3, Twentieth Century. This time of year also marks the beginning of the college spring semester, and we have seen a rise in the average amount of our music history related inquiries. Music history has been on the “brain” of […]