November / December 2016

Hugo Wolf's Works for String Quartet

The name of Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) is perhaps not unknown to most music lovers. However, most of those who do know of him are familiar with his lieder, or art songs as they are sometimes called, and not with his instrumental music, and certainly not with his chamber music, with the possible exception of his Italian Serenade. And even this, they probably have only heard in its orchestral arrangement rather than the original string quartet setting. Wolf is often considered, after Schubert, as the most important composer of lieder. And it seems highly improbable that he would have thought of himself as a composer of chamber music, especially after his string quartet was rejected for performance in 1885 by the famous Rosé String Quartet of Vienna. Wolf made two further attempts to compose chamber music, both were for string quartet. The first was his Intermezzo, dating from 1886 and the other, the Italian Serenade, finished the following year. After this, there is no evidence he ever considered writing any chamber music. Yet, despite the fact he only wrote three works, two of which are but one movement, these works are too interesting and original in conception to assign them to the dustbin of oblivion.

Hugo Wolf was born in the town Windischgrätz, now in the republic of Slovenia and renamed Slovenj Gradec, but then a part of the Habsburg Empire. Windischgrätz was a German-speaking enclave surrounded by a Slovene countryside. Although his father’s family was German and had lived in Windischgrätz for several generations, Wolf’s mother was of Slovene origin. Wolf was to recall how he was made fun of for speaking German with a Slovene accent when he attended Gymnasium in the Styrian capital of Graz. This is of some importance because Wolf often thought of himself as an outsider and his reactions to many with whom he was to come in contact sometimes reflected this fact. Wolf’s father Philipp, a leather merchant, was a self-taught but gifted musician, a fine performer on the piano and the violin, but also able to play several other instruments. Hugo, the fourth of six children, clearly inherited his father’s musical talent. His primary and secondary school teachers found him interested in music and little else. This, coupled with a hot temper, little discipline and a lack of respect for authority, resulted in his being ejected from several of the schools he attended. Finally, his father, who had not wanted him to pursue a career in music, gave in and sent Hugo to the Vienna Conservatory. There, he continued his piano studies and began composition lessons with the famed teacher Robert Fuchs. At first, things went well, perhaps because Fuchs was of a gentle and indulgent nature. However, when Wolf began studies with the disciplinarian Franz Krenn, things predictably started to go awry, culminating in his expulsion in 1877. Wolf was later to claim that he quit in frustration over the conservatism then in ascendance at the Conservatory, but the official record reads that he was dismissed for a breach of discipline.  While at the Conservatory, he composed several songs and piano sonatas as well as an unfinished violin concerto. It was during this period that he became a Wagnerite after attending performances of Lohengrin and Tannhäuser. While a student, he was able to meet Wagner in Vienna. The great man was generous with praise but little else. Still, this only served to further Wolf’s hero worship, the need for which was an important part of his personality. After his expulsion, Wolf stayed on in Vienna, earning his living as a teacher and was able to find patrons who gave him support and encouragement. It was also around this time, 1878, that Wolf contracted syphilis from his brothel visits. Its diagnosis plunged Wolf into a bout of depression. It was also during this period that he had a romantic relationship with Vally Franck, the daughter of one of his most generous benefactors. Her jilting him led to even darker moods.

It was in such a state that he began his String Quartet in d minor. The first movement, Grave-leidenschaftig bewegt, with its outbursts of declamatory passion, has always attracted the most attention. The movement bears the motto “Entbehren sollst du, sollst entbehren”, variously translated as “You must renounce, renounce” or “You shall do without, do without”. Several hypotheses have been put forward as to why Wolf may have chosen it. First, it is important to know that these were the words spoken by Goethe’s Faust when making his deal with the devil. Next, one needs to understand that at this time, it was thought that syphilis could be transmitted by means other than sexual intercourse. And therefore, Wolf avoided traveling in the same railway compartment as his friends or eating at the same table with them. Hence, the most widely accepted theory is that Wolf, after his diagnosis of syphilis, realized he would have to give up the company of those with whom he was fond. However, a second, and more plausible, hypothesis suggests that it was the result of receiving a letter in 1880 from his disappointed father. It reads in part, “You have already acquired all the caprices and bad habits of Beethoven...If you have any feeling at all for your parents, pull yourself together, work and do without, otherwise you are lost!!!” Wolf and his father enjoyed a very close relationship and when the latter died in 1887, he was plunged into a deep and lengthy state of depression. Hence, it seems likely that Wolf, in response to his father’s heartfelt admonition, chose the Faustian motto. It should be noted that the movements to the quartet were not written in order. The third movement (Resoluto) was completed first in 1879, while the first movement, which bears the motto, was being composed in 1880 just at the time he received his father’s letter.

Although it is known that he began in 1879, he did not complete the final movement until 1884. By then his style of composition and musical expression had radically changed and the fourth movement barely sounds as if it was written by the same composer who had penned the first three movements. In it, one can hear much of the same kind of music he put into the Italian Serenade three years later.  From the opening measures of the first movement, Grave-leidenschaftig bewegt, the mood in which Wolf began this work is quite clear. The Grave serves as a slow introduction, and comes closest in feeling, with its violin recitatif full of pathos, to the motto (Renounce, you shall renounce). Instantly, a very high emotional pitch is established and continues to be reflected in the descriptive tempo markings, We find: “Gradually more animated”, followed by “With passionate animation”, then “raging” followed by “As fast as possible”. At points, there is an undeniable similarity between the quicker Leidenschaftig bewegt, with its wildly jagged march rhythms, searing dissonances and implacable defiance and Beethoven’s Grosse fuga. The movement makes a powerful and indelible impression.

A lengthy slow movement, Langsam is of extraordinary breadth. It begins almost inaudibly with a series of ethereal chords in highest register of the violins. At one point the peaceful and heavenly idyll is briefly interrupted by three heavy chords in the cello that bring to mind the opening bars of the fourth movement to Beethoven’s Op.135. These chords represented the ominous ‘knock on the door’ of Beethoven's landlady demanding the rent. These chords also appear much later to create a sense of disturbing unease. The lovely second theme seems to bear some relationship to the slow movement of Bruckner’s Third Symphony.

The third movement, Resolut, is short by comparison to the two preceding ones. It serves the purpose of a scherzo. And in fact, with its dotted rhythm, it brings to mind the scherzo of Beethoven’s Op.95 quartet. The finale, Sehr lebhaft. does it match the psychological depth of the preceding three movements. And this is hardly surprising since it was composed quite a while after them. Wolf was almost certainly in a different frame of mind and certainly, as noted earlier, he no longer was composing in the same style that he had been.

Sometime in 1882, Wolf began work on a scherzo which when it was completed some four years hence in October of 1886, Wolf titled Intermezzo. Although there is no hard evidence for or against, the general consensus of Wolf scholars seems to be that originally, Wolf had in mind composing another string quartet. Once again, he was unable to secure a performance of what in his correspondence, he referred to as his “Humorous Intermezzo.” As a result, it was forgotten for many years before it was eventually published some decades later. Of all of Wolf’s works for string quartet, the Intermezzo is not only the most forward looking but also the most original. There is very little if anything in the repertoire which sounds like it or is constructed like it. It is a rondo with episodes and varied restatements all so cunningly derived from the main theme as to suggest different aspects of the same characters linked by an ongoing dialogue with a hint of dance. It begins with a gorgeous melody which Wolf interrupts without warning with what must have then seemed like very jarring interludes, both from a rhythmic and tonal standpoint. This writing is far in advance of anything being written at the time. Wolf takes the listener on an incredible journey to unimagined places only in the end to return to the familiar and well-loved. At 505 measures, it is too long for an encore and hence is rarely heard in concert. Technically, it makes no demands which cannot be handled by amateurs, however, a strong sense of rhythm is a must.

The last work Wolf wrote for string quartet is the Italian Serenade. It is his best known instrumental work, but ironically few have heard it in its original version for string quartet, or even know that the orchestral version is an arrangement made by the composer. Max Reger wrote: “This appealing work belonging to the most enthralling works that we have in the whole of the serenade literature will soon be a repertoire piece among all of our better orchestras. This one movement is of such enchanting charm, of such a captivating, highly original color that it certainly will inspire the greatest enthusiasm.” Wolf composed it in May of 1887. It is a one movement work which was to have been the first of a three movement effort. A couple of pages, with precious little on them, other than the tempo markings, exist. The Serenade is designed as a rondo and certainly does capture a certain Mediterranean quality. It was inspired by a novella Der Soldat I. which is about a young violinist who leaves his country home and grumbling father to make his fortune. He soon charms everyone with his gifts but also alienates many with a streak of triviality. Wolf could hardly have found a character who more closely resembled himself. In the novella, there is in fact an Italian Serenade played by a small orchestra and this fact may have led Wolf to arrange it for such an ensemble. The consensus is that the quartet version is more successful. It makes a fine encore and certainly should not be missed.

You can hear soundbites from each movement on our website and if you desire purchase the parts from Edition Silvertrust by clicking on the links above.