Rudi Karl Stephan

Memento vivere / Kythere

He was regarded as the German hope among the composers of his generation and as 'next man of New Music', but his early death quashed all such hopes of the music scene: Rudi Stephan died at the early age of 28, leaving behind instrumental works as well as some songs in which he admitted expressionist concepts of art, as were later expressed mainly by the Viennese School. Clytus Gottwald has taken up the cause of transcribing two of the songs by this composer, who died in the First World War, for nine-part mixed a cappella choir (SSAATTBBB) with solo bass in his honour. In spite of the Latin title, Memento vivere is a German-language secular song based on a text by Friedrich Hebbel which is permeated by harmonies sharpened with dissonances. The music of Kythere to words by Gerda von Robertus is characterized by the excessive use of harmonic shifts in the style of Debussy.