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Fanchon-Lieder - Four Songs for Mixed Choir for Mixed Choir
Mixed Chooir
Difficulty: 3=Medium
NDV 1190212
1. Die Welt ist nichts als ein Orchester (= The world is nothing but an orchestra)
2. In Europa kennt man mich (= In Europe they know me)
3. Von Pracht und Schimmer (= Of Splendour and Shimmer)
4. Auf und trinkt! Der Becker winkt! (= Up and drink! The Becker beckons!)
Hermann Grollmann has rearranged four songs for mixed choir, wonderfully transferring for choir the lightness and joie de vivre that the operetta songs radiate.
In their light-heartedness, the Fanchon songs remind us that life does not only consist of work and obligations and from the perspective of kings, princesses and the rich, but that music, friendship, conviviality and true life have their right to exist and their importance with all people.
The Fanchon songs are a delightful and humorous addition to the secular choral Programme.
Friedrich Heinrich Himmel (1765-1814) was recognised early on as a musical prodigy. After studying theology in Halle, he achieved fame as a piano virtuoso and played before the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm II, who was so impressed by his abilities that he granted him a scholarship to study music with Johann Gottlieb Naumann in Dresden. After he was able to perform his oratorio "Isaak" in Berlin in 1792, the king appointed him chamber composer. At the same time, he allowed him to go to Italy to perform several operas. On his return in 1795, he was appointed Royal Kapellmeister, succeeding Johann Friedrich Reichardt. Himmel composed piano, opera and orchestral works.
His operetta "Fanchon, das Leyermädchen" was his most successful stage work. The play continued to appear on German and European playbills for decades. At the time of the Third Napoleonic War, the following remarkable anecdote is said to have occurred in 1807 during a performance of "Fanchon" at the Königsberg Theatre:
During the performance, Prussian officers became so incensed and booed the actors when they appeared in French uniforms. Count Peter Daru reported the incident in a letter to Napoleon and he was so incensed that he demanded exemplary punishment and refused to withdraw his troops until the main culprits should be shot. In the end, however, the matter was not pursued and Barnekow, one of the ringleaders, escaped scot-free.
Friedrich Heinrich Himmel died in Berlin at the age of only 48 after a long illness.
The librettist August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue (1761 - 1819) was a German playwright, author and librettist. Kotzebue's popularity was unprecedented. He was the most prolific and successful playwright of his time in all of Europe. Goethe staged 87 of his comedy plays and dramas in 600 performances. Ludwig van Beethoven composed the music for Kotzebue's "The Ruins of Athens" (op. 113) and "King Stephen" (op. 117), Antonio Salieri for " Hussites before Naumburg" (1802/03), Franz Schubert for the Singspiel "Der "Spiegelritter" (1813) and "Des Teufels Lustschloss" (1813/14). Albert Lortzing created his libretto for the opera "Der Wildschütz" (1843) based on Kotzebue's "Der Rehbock" (1815). Lightness, audience appeal, but also social, political and cultural aspects play a major role.
