“Restore the Golden Days of Paradise”? An Anti-Utopian Approach to Honor and Duty in Brahms’s Cantata Rinaldo (op. 50, 1869)
Johannes Brahms composed several works based on medieval topics in the 1860s, but his depiction of a reimagined Middle Ages in these works has drawn little comment from music scholars. For example, although the drama of the cantata Rinaldo revolves around the confrontation between the titular character (the tenor soloist) and the knights who come to “rescue” him (a male chorus), previous studies have focused on biographical readings using the orchestral motives associated with Armida. Brahms’s musical portrayal of the knights in Rinaldo differs significantly from contemporaneous depictions of Crusaders and knights by other composers. His cantata provides a critical response to earlier works’ utopian vision of the Middle Ages.
Hitherto unexamined cantatas from 1866 provide the necessary backdrop for a fresh analysis of Brahms’s compositional choices. Franz Wüllner’s prize-winning Heinrich the Fowler and Niels Gade’s The Crusader present idealized knights as models for modern men. All three works depict brooding individuals who make personal sacrifices for the good of the community, but unlike the character of the hero in earlier settings, Brahms’s Rinaldo resists joining the knights through the end of the piece, suggesting a critique of earlier nationalist depictions of medieval communities. Rinaldo and the knights maintain a musical distance by singing in contrasting styles and keys throughout the work, with the chorus frequently interrupting Rinaldo’s sensuous, rhapsodic arias in stolid chorale-inflected tones. When Rinaldo finally boards the ship to leave, his distinct musical voice dissolves into the texture of the chorus, rendering the titular character uncomfortably silent. Rinaldo’s reluctance to leave the pleasant isolation of the island and return to his quotidian duties reflects Brahms’s own ambivalence about the demands of public community life and their impact on personal freedom for modern citizens and especially for artists such as Brahms.
Johannes Brahms composed several works based on medieval topics in the 1860s, but his depiction of a reimagined Middle Ages in these works has drawn little comment from music scholars. For example, although the drama of the cantata Rinaldo revolves around the confrontation between the titular character (the tenor soloist) and the knights who come to “rescue” him (a male chorus), previous studies have focused on biographical readings using the orchestral motives associated with Armida. Brahms’s musical portrayal of the knights in Rinaldo differs significantly from contemporaneous depictions of Crusaders and knights by other composers. His cantata provides a critical response to earlier works’ utopian vision of the Middle Ages.
Hitherto unexamined cantatas from 1866 provide the necessary backdrop for a fresh analysis of Brahms’s compositional choices. Franz Wüllner’s prize-winning Heinrich the Fowler and Niels Gade’s The Crusader present idealized knights as models for modern men. All three works depict brooding individuals who make personal sacrifices for the good of the community, but unlike the character of the hero in earlier settings, Brahms’s Rinaldo resists joining the knights through the end of the piece, suggesting a critique of earlier nationalist depictions of medieval communities. Rinaldo and the knights maintain a musical distance by singing in contrasting styles and keys throughout the work, with the chorus frequently interrupting Rinaldo’s sensuous, rhapsodic arias in stolid chorale-inflected tones. When Rinaldo finally boards the ship to leave, his distinct musical voice dissolves into the texture of the chorus, rendering the titular character uncomfortably silent. Rinaldo’s reluctance to leave the pleasant isolation of the island and return to his quotidian duties reflects Brahms’s own ambivalence about the demands of public community life and their impact on personal freedom for modern citizens and especially for artists such as Brahms.