Program note for the American premiere in the Alice Tully Hall of Lincoln Center New York, on the 10th of december 2002.

‘Der Einsame im Herbst’ for large ensemble

In 1998 the Gergjev Festival, a Festival programmed by and around the conductor Valery Gergjev, commissioned the Dutch composer Robin de Raaff to write a piece based on the  theme of the festival that year, tragic love’. Arnold Schönberg was the main present and absent in the program. He was to be the subject of De Raaffs composition. Schönberg had survived his artistic sons Alban Berg and Anton Webern, and as a result lost the most important younger representatives of his twelftone technique. The title Der Einsame im Herbst (The lonely one in Autumn), named after the second part of Gustav Mahlers Das Lied von der Erde, captures in a striking way the tragedy of a men left alone in the autumn of his life.
The Kammerkonzert by Berg, written for Schönbergs fiftieth birthday, starts with the initials of Schönberg, Webern and Berg as three separate musical motifs simply played next to each other in the first three opening measures. That was to become the entrance to his composition in which De Raaff has blown up each of these initials into complete and separate movements, which are linked to each other. Creating a piece of 16 minutes out of the three opening measures of Bergs Kammerkonzert.

The first part of ‘Der Einsame im Herbst’ is based on the Schönberg 8-tone motif, which is used in a fast way in the lower register of the ensemble and in a very slow way, as a long stretched melody, in the higher register of the ensemble. But mostly emphasizing the darker and deeper side of the ensemble.

The second part is based on the initials of Berg. This 4-note motif has been verticalised into a chord. From the background, constantly in the middle register, these four voiced harmonies are slowly surfacing, accelerating and behaving more and more like a real choral. Towards the very end it puts its surrounding to the background, ultimately taking over completely. 
Just as Berg used the choral ‘Es ist genug’ (It is enough, Lord) of J.S. Bach in the 2nd movement of his Violin Concerto as a tribute to Bach, De Raaff creates a choral based on the Berg motif as a tribute to Berg.

The third part is based on the smallest of the three motifs, a three tone motif based on Webern, whose pieces are well known for their sparse textures and durations.
This movement is the thinnest and shortest movement. Thin, in terms of the emphasis on the lucid higher register, as well as the use of very thin, soft and slow staccato motifs.

Dramatically seen the piece starts thick, dark and heavy and over the course of the three movements, it vanishes into thin air as a metaphor for life and death.
In an abstract sense the composition is about, the difference between forground and background and the exchange of these dimensions. Dutch writer Harry Mulisch who is well known for his typical use of structure in his novels, wrote `De elementen' (The elements), in which a comparable situation appears that inspired De Raaff for the structure of the 2nd movement of ‘Der Einsame im Herbst. In Mulishs book every chapter has an element as a title. In the beginning seemingly unimportant, but little by little the chapters become shorter and the title more important. Accelerating towards the end the titles have become an inevitable catastrofic force.

Amsterdam, october 2002

Robin de Raaff