Max Reger

Reger Hybrid Edition of Works 2/2: Songs 2 (1889-1899)

With the songs Reger wrote between summer 1889 and spring 1901, he made his mark in the music world. His style displayed a harmonic and melodic intransigence which challenged, fascinated, and irritated performers and audiences in equal measure. The song collections which Reger compiled became ever more extensive: opp. 35 and 37 contained six and five songs, opp. 43 and 48 eight and seven, and opp. 51 and 55 twelve and fifteen songs. As well as this, he wrote some individual pieces for inclusion in the Neue Musik-Zeitung (WoO VII/23-29).

In his assiduous search for texts, Reger turned to contemporary lyric poetry with its plurality of styles. The poems which he set were by representatives of the literary Jugendstil (art nouveau) and impressionist movements, including Otto Julius Bierbaum, Detlev von Liliencron, and Richard Dehmel. Here, Reger's musical hallmarks were intensity and subtlety of feeling, a desire for intimacy, and a modern emotional language. This corresponded with the concentration on the modern declamatory song following on from Hugo Wolf, to whom op. 51 is dedicated. In addition, Reger ventured to set texts which Richard Strauss had also set previously, in the process finding different solutions in mood and tonal language.

In January 2008 the Max-Reger-Institut (MRI) in Karlsruhe began publishing a scholarly-critical edition of the works of Reger (RWA). This is supported by the Mainz Academy of Sciences and Literature, and as a Hybrid Edition is exploring new approaches in editorial techniques. For the first time, in this edition the digital component for this volume will no longer be supplied on a data storage device, but published in an online portal.