Max Reger
Fantasia and Fugue on B-A-C-H op. 46
“For me, Sebastian Bach is the be-all and end-all of music; true progress lies and resides in him alone.” It was with these programmatic words that Max Reger prefaced his answer to a survey “What does Johann Sebastian Bach mean to me, and what is his significance for our time?”, posed by the editors of a magazine in 1905. Reger had already proven his adoration of Bach with his magnificent homage to the composer, written and published in 1900 and probably the best-known of his works for organ. It is an established work in the concert repertoire of well-known virtuosi, but is also increasingly being performed by ambitious church musicians. Henle has now published this sea of notes and performance directions in an edition with a particularly clear and readable text.
About the Composer
Max Reger
Late-Romantic composer who combines a chromatic tonal language with Baroque and Classical forms, thus anticipating 1920s neoclassicism.
| 1873 | Born in Brand (Upper Palatinate) on March 19, the son of a teacher. First piano lessons from his mother. |
| 1888 | After a visit to Bayreuth (for Meistersinger and Parsifal), decides on a career in music. |
| 1890–93 | Studies with Hugo Riemann at the conservatory in Wiesbaden, composes chamber works. Thereafter he endeavors to publish his own works as a freelance composer, albeit with multiple failures. |
| 1898 | Return to his parents’ home in Weiden. Composition of organ works: choral fantasies, “Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H,” Op. 46 (1900); Symphonic Fantasy and Fugue (“Inferno”), Op. 57. |
| 1901–07 | Living in Munich. |
| 1903 | Publication of his “On the Theory of Modulation,” causing Riemann to feel attacked because Reger espouses a different understanding of the role of chromatics. “Variations and Fugue on an Original Theme,” Op. 73. |
| 1904 | Breakthrough with his first performance for the Allgemeine Deutsche Musikverein (General German Music Association). First volume of his “Simple Songs” for voice and piano, Op. 76; String Quartet in D minor, Op. 74, one of the most significant works in that genre at the beginning of the century. |
| From 1905 | Instructor at Munich’s Academy of Music. “Sinfonietta” in A major, Op. 90. |
| 1907–11 | Music director and professor of composition at the University of Leipzig. Orchestral work “Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Hiller,” Op. 100. |
| 1909 | “The 100th Psalm,” Op. 106, his most popular choral work. |
| 1911–14 | Director of the royal court orchestra of Saxe-Meiningen. |
| 1912 | “Concerto in the Old Style,” Op. 123. Orchestral song “An die Hoffnung” (“To Hope”), Op. 124. |
| 1913 | “Four Tone Poems after A. Böcklin” for large orchestra, Op. 128; “A Ballet Suite,” Op. 130. |
| 1914 | “Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart,” Op. 132 |
| 1915 | He resides in Jena. Late compositions. |
| 1916 | Death in Leipzig on May 11. |
About the Authors
Michael Kube (Editor)
Dr. Michael Kube, born in 1968 in Kiel, studied musicology (with Friedhelm Krummacher and Heinrich W. Schwab), the history of art and ethnology at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. Since 1998 he has been a research associate at the New Schubert Edition (Tübingen) and since autumn 2002 also a member of the editorial board.
Kube is on the panels of different juries and music prizes, and is also a member of the Committee for work evaluation (Werkprüfungsausschuss) of VG Music Edition. His research interests include music for keyboard instruments around 1700, 19th century chamber music, early 20th century music history, as well as Scandinavian music history.
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