Mertz J.K. (1806 – 1856) - Kukuk / Cuckoo / Coucou (3CD)

Joseph Kaspar Mertz (1806 – 1856) - Kukuk / Cuckoo / Coucou (3CD)

Pavel Steidl / Martin Krajčo – gitara / guitar

Kukuk is a collection of “136 short amusing pieces for guitar”, written by the native of Bratislava, composer and guitarist Joseph Kaspar Mertz (1806 – 1856). Arranged in 12 fascicules, it contains “folk melodies from various nations, and favourite motifs from opera and elsewhere”. From the trilingual title page of the first edition issued in 1851, one may assume that the publisher counted on distribution not only in German-speaking countries but also in the English and French milieux.

Mertz is one of a few striking figures whom Pressburg gave to European music. While Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778 – 1837) made his mark as a piano virtuoso and Miska Hauser (1820 – 1887) as a master violinist, Mertz made the deepest impression on the music of the early romantic guitar. This reached its peak in the 1820s and 30s, but in subsequent decades it experienced a sharp decline, which was manifested most of all, it would seem, in a dwindling of concert life. This circumstance, together with serious health problems which afflicted Mertz, actually intensified his compositional activities. The number of titles issued by publishing houses in Vienna and Munich shows that Mertz was one of the prestigious composers for guitar, and at a time of shrinking concert opportunities this work might have served him as a means of sustenance. Cuckoo. Musical Panorama, which confirms the composer’s unique position in 19th century guitar music, appeared gradually: fascicules 1 – 6 in November 1851, fascicules 7 – 9 in May 1852, and fascicules 10 – 12 in February 1853. Even though some of the opera themes overlap with his Opernrevue and Portfeuille, the concept, purpose and treatment are different. While the preceding collections offered exclusively vocal (primarily operatic) and thus in practice only German, French and Italian music, Cuckoo also includes folk music, and the national dimension is far more diversified, taking in further, including more distant, European and

extra-European spaces. The intended audience must have been the amateur guitarist, and the purpose was evidently in the first instance entertainment, of a kind which developed, educated, and perhaps even trained the musician. In contrast to the virtuoso music which had dominated the guitar literature, including arrangements of opera music, in the preceding period, this collection is a unique contribution for a broader amateur public. To make matters easier,

the sheet music for these pieces also includes fingering. If we choose to judge the level of the contemporary amateur scene by the difficulty of the pieces, it is evident that the amateurs

too were fairly gifted guitarists. To transpose the many parameters of vocal and orchestral music, to unify the melodies, accompaniment and rhythmic structures for a guitar texture, is not

easy. It is remarkable how well Mertz managed, even with the simplicity of the treatment, to maintain relatively faithfully the original forms of the transcribed models, and in particular,

their original character. The contents of the collection may primarily be divided into two groups:

arrangements of folk music – songs, including hymns, and dances (87 pieces), and transcriptions of music by other composers – operas, dances, marches, and other melodies (49 pieces). In exceptional cases the description of a given piece may be questioned, as when, for example, there is no mention of Haydn’s authorship of the Austrian national anthem, or in the case of the German song üb’ immer Treu’ und Redlichkeit, which most people nowadays know as an aria from Mozart’s Magic Flute. That may be an indication of the extremely fragile boundary between popular music and composed music. In terms of nationality, the music which dominates the published fascicules is German (39) – assuming that we unify such regions as Swabia, Upper Bavaria, Westphalia, and German Silesia –, Italian (29), and French (15). There is a relatively conspicuous representation (from 9 to 4 pieces) of Austrian, English, Russian, Spanish, Hungarian and Polish music. Individual pieces from other, sometimes more distant, places complement the collection (Armenia, Czech Republic, Greece, Holland, India, Norway, Portugal, North America,

Switzerland, Sweden, Ukraine). The national question, indeed, comes to the forefront conceptually. Each fascicule opens with a series of folk songs from various countries, and half of them open with a national anthem. Many of them are still accepted national anthems to this day, though some of them have changed their texts (God Save the King, otherwise identical with the current British national anthem, is now known as God Save the Queen), or indeed their state

affinity (Öesterreichische Nationalhymne, following a complete change of text, is now the national anthem of present-day Germany). On the other hand, Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła, which is presented as a Polish folk song, is the current national anthem of Poland. In territorial terms, the

folk song in Mertz’s collection is plainly dominated by Austrian and German songs, but Russian and British (English, Irish and Scottish) songs are favourites also. (text from booklet by Martin Krajčo)

Zbierka 136 krátkych zábavných skladieb z 19. storočia pre sólovú gitaru od bratislavského rodáka, skladateľa a gitaristu Josepha Kaspara Mertza vychádza v podobe 3-CD albumu vo svetovej premiére. Obsahuje skladateľove obľúbené ľudové melódie, hymny rôznych národov, tance, ale aj operné motívy, ktoré boli určené pre širokú verejnosť.