Herman D. Koppel Edition, Vol. 5: Danish Songs

The Song Composer Herman David

By Christian Westergaard and Esben Tange

Herman D. Koppel was over 40 years old before he truly emerged as a song composer, and it was the tenor Aksel Schiøtz who acted as the catalyst. Both before and after the war, Koppel and Aksel Schiøtz had an intense collaboration, and after a concert in Esbjerg in March 1949, Schiøtz asked once again: ‘Why don’t you ever write any songs for me?’. And when he didn’t get much of an answer to that question, he reached for the Bible in the bedside drawer and opened it to the Song of Songs.

This is how Koppel described, many years later, the situation that led to a long series of vocal works in the following years. In 1949 alone, Koppel wrote four substantial works based on biblical texts, and up until his final compositions around 1990, vocal music played a central role in his work.

However, this is not the whole truth about Koppel as a song composer, for as early as the 1930s, Koppel composed a few songs which, in retrospect, proved to be significant. They are indeed simple, at times naive songs. But with texts by some of the most important poets of the time – from the cultural radical dreamer Otto Gelsted, to the expressionist Tom Kristensen, to the central modernist Johannes V. Jensen - they express a poetic longing to become part of the greater nature at a time when the classical lied was facing headwinds.

Throughout the nearly 60 songs Herman D. Koppel composed during his lifetime, two threads emerge that are central to understanding Koppel as a person, symbolically expressed through his two forenames: Danish-German Herman and Jewish David. Despite Koppel distancing himself from the Jewish immigrant environment he grew up in during his youth, and despite Koppel leaving Mosaisk Troessamfund (The Jewish Community in Denmark) after World War II, it was precisely by studying the Old Testament that he became aware of the possibilities hidden in setting words to music.

Koppel’s expressive music for biblical texts bears witness to contact with hitherto hidden emotions, and Koppel could now also express the painful experience that came with the revelation of the Holocaust, which only became widely known in the years after the war. At the same time, the Old Testament poetry also proved to contain depths of love and a notion of the strength of faith that spoke strongly and directly to him. In addition to the religious songs, which extend all the way up to Three Songs on Psalm 142, the Songs of Songs and Psalm 100 in 1976, this also led to a number of larger choral and orchestral works, such as the oratorio Moses and Requiem.

The immersion in the biblical universe and the recognition of his Jewish roots further led to an interest in the poetry of the time and resulted in a resumption of work on secular songs. From 1950 and for the next 40 years, a series of collections of songs followed, set to texts by mainly Danish, but also Swedish, German and English poets. Here, Koppel expresses strong existential feelings and an intimate sensing of the universe, expressed through Danish nature.

Paul la Cour, whom Koppel met in 1950, plays a major role with neo-romantic texts for a total of 11 songs, the last of which are included in Three Songs to Poems by Tom Kristensen and Paul la Cour from 1989. And in The Seasons from 1957, Koppel returns to some of the poets he cultivated in his youth, as well as the symbolists Johannes Jørgensen and Viggo Stuckenberg.

Koppel’s songs hold a special status among the genres in which he composed. Stylistically, they span widely. From the aphoristic to a soul-shaking expressivity, which is largely tied to the great dramatic talent possessed by his daughter – soprano Lone Koppel – for whom many of the songs were composed. And it is through the songs that we come closest to Koppel as a person. Here, both Herman and David speak.

Vol. 5: The Magic of Nature

By Christian Westergaard and Esben Tange

‘Referat af en drøm’(Report of a Dream), Op. 25 with text by Otto Gelsted stands as a key song among Herman D. Koppel’s early works. Here, he reveals himself as a sensitive young dreamer with a twinkle in his eye. In a simple, almost recitative style, it tells of things in a garden that - as if they were people - dream of stepping out of the shadow and into the sun and life. Or, as in the case of the chair that is put down in the cellar each night, dreams of remaining outside to see the stars in the night sky.

This point must have resonated particularly strongly with Herman D. Koppel, who, being visually impaired, couldn’t see the stars until late in life when he finally experienced that sight after an operation.

In Four Songs, Op. 18, set to texts by some of the finest poets of the time – Johannes V. Jensen, Tom Kristensen, and Thøger Larsen – we remain in a personal universe. The songs have the character of bagatelles, where a mood is captured from the very first notes of the minimalist piano part. In ‘Drengs gravsang’ (Boy’s Grave Song) and ‘En purpurprik’ (A Purple Dot), the theme is longing. Longing for childhood or simply a desire to be free from ‘Reflection’s toothbite’, as Tom Kristensen puts it.

In ‘Min sang’ (My Song), which reflects on the slow-witted carp in the pond, the music bubbles with understated humour. And although in the last song ‘Tilfældighed’ (Coincidence) a drama is sensed when the gaze is directed towards the moon in the night sky, it turns out here too that the absurd and quirky have the last word. ‘What does it matter to me and this song?’ it sounds with stubborn cultural-radical self-assurance.

Besides art songs, Herman D. Koppel also wrote ballads and songs for theatre productions. In ‘Nattevandrer’ (Night Walker) with nonsense text by Jens August Schade, we get a sense of this side of Koppel’s work. With simple musical means, and notes that fall like cunning steps, a cabaret atmosphere is created as we move around in the night, where the shadow covers the wandering hole in happiness.

In Two Songs to Poems by Johannes V. Jensen, written for Aksel Schiøtz, Koppel turns, after his intense engagement with biblical texts, towards Danish nature and the beauty of changing seasons. ‘Naturens afsked’ (Nature’s Farewell) is a quiet autumn song, and from the very first notes in the piano’s falling melody line, a thoughtful seriousness is sensed. In Johannes V. Jensen’s text, nature is perceived through a melancholic autumn gaze, and with calmly advancing music, the strophic song is shaped as if it were a chorale in memory of all earth’s beauty. The contrast to ‘Majsangen’ (The May Song), where the arrival of summer is celebrated in downy light tones, is great. Here, May is praised as the month from which all life springs.

Paul la Cour’s poetry collection Mellem bark og ved (Between Bark and Wood) plays an important role for Herman D. Koppel. Here, Koppel experienced an ecstatic longing that had to be set to music, resulting in Six Songs to Poems by Paul la Cour, Op. 54. Again, it’s the forces of nature that are at play, and Koppel symbolically chooses the poem ‘Grønne guder’ (Green Gods) for the collection’s first song. With music where violent forces are poised – and which are expressed in short outbursts along the way in the piano - it is sensed that nature is an inescapable divine force that must be approached with caution.

In the following three songs, the music has a floating character. The piano tones and the vocal melody lines engage in an organic interplay, and even in ‘Stormen’ (The Tempest), where the forces of nature are set free, the fragile wings of the butterfly are celebrated. With sensitive music, it is sensed that nature is magical. Or as Paul la Cour puts it: ‘Forces that dare to tread quietly have touched me, the joy of nakedness.’

In the title song ‘Mellem bark og ved’ (Between Bark and Wood), the focus is on the untouched field hidden in the tree and rich in inherent powers. And with a lightly running musical movement, Herman D. Koppel is inspired by the text that stages the wind and breeze as well as the spirits of air and light. In the last song ‘Sendebude’ (Messengers), a transformation takes place. With heavy chords and a powerful chanting melody line, words loosen like ‘dove letters’ with hope for love, and are sent out into the world with tightly stretched rhythms as a springboard.

Five Songs to Poems by Paul la Cour, Op. 64 was composed in memory of Paul la Cour, who died in the autumn of 1956. Over the course of the five songs, we experience a day from morning to morning. In ‘Gry’ (Dawn), nature’s awakening is depicted in a refined piano part, where the notes are picked out one by one. Later, the human mind’s pain is introduced in a dramatic middle section with violently rolling movements in the dark part of the piano’s register. Broadly singing and with saturated tones, we reach in ‘Middag’ (Noon) not only the highlight of the day, but we also celebrate the all-encompassing experience of becoming one with the earth’s deep warmth.

Paul la Cour’s poems are characterised by a deep longing. In ‘Angst’ (Anxiety), which is the existential heart of the collection, a latent uncertainty and an insight into a troubled mind are conveyed with music characterised by sudden emphases and quick runs. All the more soothing is the crystal-clear, calmly running music in ‘Fuldmåne’ (Full Moon), where everything according to La Cour is ‘completed’ with a view to ‘Love’s Face’.

With ‘Morgen’ (Morning), a bridge is built to the first song ‘Gry’. Now with a tribute to the magical moments where light is close to overpowering darkness, and there is a prospect of joy with ‘bird cries’ shining tones’.

In the seven songs Årstiderne(The Seasons), Op. 65, composed in the same year as the Five Songs to Texts by Paul la Cour, the cycle concept is expanded to encompass an entire year. The artful strophic songs have a Schubertian simplicity, and with texts by poets from the turn of the century, Herman D. Koppel here connects to the past. But with tense harmonies and surprising melodic turns, the musical tone is entirely Koppel’s own.

‘Valborgs nat’ (Walpurgis Night) is a full-toned celebration of spring, where – in Johannes Jørgensen’s words – ‘heaven’s gate for bright nights’ opens. In ‘Grøn skov’ (Green Forest), we are in the middle of summer, where lazily entwined melodies exude happiness, like the sun-drenched spot in the forest that Viggo Stuckenberg writes about. In ‘Høstsuk’ (Autumn Sigh) with text by Johannes Jørgensen, it’s time for thoughtful, calm tones by the roadside on a quiet autumn day. From here, it’s a short way to ‘Undergang’ (Downfall) and a simple sighing music late in the year, where ‘colours die’ and the moon shines ‘dull melancholy’.

In ‘Nytårsnat’ (New Year’s Eve), the piano’s pearly tones convey the sensation of the luminous snow crystals at play in Stuckenberg’s moonlight in the last hours of the year. In ‘Lærken’ (The Lark), we experience how calmly urging music leads to the arrival of spring and the lark rising towards the sky. With champagne-effervescent music rich in Eastern-sounding whole-tone scales, the celebration of spring’s arrival is a glittering firework display in ‘Forår’ (Spring).

After turning 80, Koppel began composing songs again, and in Three Songs to Texts by Tom Kristensen and Paul la Cour , Op. 64, there is a synthesis with the past. With texts by Tom Kristensen and Paul la Cour, Koppel returns to two of the poetic heroes who have meant the most in his long composing life. And now the compositional style is more aphoristic. In ‘Identitet ved fuldmåne’ (Identity at Full Moon), the music is crystallised down to the most necessary, and with music that glimmers with sudden leaps in both the voice and the piano, the experience that anything can happen in the full moonlight described in Tom Kristensen’s text is conveyed.

In ‘Før solopgang’ (Before Sunrise) with text by Paul la Cour, the melody line floats over the piano’s undulating tone carpet, and with sudden notes in the highest register, the musical space is expanded. We are at the uncertain time late at night, where light is sensed, but only as flickering gleams in the darkness. ‘Juni’ (June) is a happy rebirth after the uncertain atmosphere in the first two songs. We are in nature, where everything is in bloom, and musically we are also in a mild zone, where the melody’s tones are lifted with caution. But Paul la Cour and Herman D. Koppel trick us at the very end, where the word ‘stride’ is emphasised with great force. Despite being in the middle of summer, uncertainty is a universal human condition.