The Academy of Ancient Music opens its season with Ino, a dramatic cantata that Telemann composed right at the end of his life. It is such a fascinating masterwork, which, Janus-like, looks both backwards and forwards stylistically and it got me thinking of other pieces that composers wrote in their later years. I have chosen five examples and am humbled and inspired by what these composers were able to produce at such grand ages. Some reflect their life experiences, contemplating mortality, others, like Telemann, seem to sum up their life’s work in a single composition, yet remaining forever at the cutting edge of musical development.
Composers late in life: Telemann Ino
Telemann had a turbulent private life and perhaps this was one reason he became one of the most prolific composers of all time, throwing himself into the task of writing music with well over 3,000 completed works.
Just by dint of his longevity Telemann lived through many stylistic musical transitions and he was always keen to adopt the latest innovations and keep up with prevailing taste and fashion. Telemann was 84 when he wrote the great dramatic cantata Ino. The plot starts where Handel’s Semele left off and in many ways it feels like a fitting sequel. William Congreve, librettist for Semele, leaves Ino about to marry Athamus, in a ‘happy ever after’ ending, following the tragic death of her sister, the eponymous Semele. Telemann’s librettist Karl-Wilhelm Ramler ramps up the drama, taking the next section of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, where Ino, escaping from her raging husband with their child, throws herself into the sea and is transformed by the sea deities into a goddess.
Telemann does not shy away from these musical and dramatic challenges. In many ways Ino represents a summation of his life’s work, moving effortlessly from one musical epoch to the next. Ino flees her husband in the musical language of the high Baroque, is caressed by the sea nymphs’ galanterie and finally emerges in the very latest classical style, presaging the emotionally charged drama of Sturm und Drang, later championed by Telemann’s godson C.P.E. Bach and Haydn.
Composers late in life: Handel Jephtha
Handel was battling ill-health and failing eyesight as he wrote Jephtha. It was to be his last significant composition and yet it is teeming with musical invention and experimentation. Handel continually plays fast and loose with musical form, often moving away from the stock Da Capo aria to confound the listeners’ expectations with surprising thematic returns and major/minor tonal juxtapositions. The characters are painted as vividly as ever and Handel mines their emotional drama to achieve the most intense musical response. The plot hinges on the hubristic promise that Jephtha made to God, that ‘What, or whoe'er shall first salute (his) eyes, Shall be forever Thine, or fall a sacrifice.’ He wins the battle and the first person he sees is his beloved daughter Iphis. He wrestles with the fact that he must kill his daughter.
The human condition perfectly captured in music...
The oratorio culminates in Jephtha’s great aria ‘Waft her, angels, through the skies’, in which he exhorts the angelic host to carry Iphis heavenwards. She replies with a poignant hymn of farewell with the certainty that ‘brighter scenes above’ await her. In fact God has other plans; an angel descends and saves the day allowing the chorus to finish with a resounding 'Hallelujah!'
During the composition of the closing chorus of Part 2, ‘How dark, O Lord are Thy decrees’, Handel wrote in his score that he had to put down his pen, as his eyesight had ‘relaxed’ in one eye and he could write no more. Fortunately for us, with his indomitable spirit, he was able to complete the masterpiece later in the year. It is extraordinary that a man who did little else but compose and perform throughout his life, seeming to have little need or want of close relationships, could so deeply understand and manifest the human condition in music.
Composers late in life: Bach Mass in B minor
Bach completed the Mass in B minor the year before he died. It seems unlikely that it was intended ever to be performed in entirety and it would appear that he wrote it as an autobiographical summing up of his life’s work. The Sanctus dates from over 20 years earlier in 1724, the Kyrie and Gloria (originating as a Lutheran Missa) from 1733, and the Credo and remaining movements were composed between 1747 and 1749.
Bach is totally at the top of his compositional game throughout, revising the earlier material and breaking ground with the new. There are examples of all the musical styles from Bach’s lifetime dedication to composition, ranging from stile antiche fugues, which trace their roots back to the Renaissance, through to the latest rococo galant style with its decorative figures and lombardic rhythms from France and Italy, that Bach had encountered at the cosmopolitan court at Dresden. The architectural structure of this magnum opus juxtaposes these contrasting styles in such a seamless whole, that I have to agree with Richard Wagner that it is ‘the most stupendous miracle in all music’!
Composers late in life: Monteverdi L’Incoronazione di Poppea
Much ink has been spilt on the subject of how much of L’Incoronazione di Poppea is actually by Monteverdi. There is no original manuscript and it seems certain that Francescos Manelli and Sacrati were involved in the composition and (shock horror!) Benedetto Ferrari is thought to have written the famous final duet ‘Pur ti miro’. Monteverdi’s name was associated with the work in early recorded accounts and it seems most likely that he wanted to encourage and include these young Venetian talents in his compositional process. I like to think of Poppea as being written by the ‘school’ of Monteverdi and I think at the tender age of 75, he was well within his rights to lean a little on his younger colleagues.
Almost as much has been written on how it came to pass that such an immoral tale could be set to music by a priest; Monteverdi had taken holy orders ten years earlier, following the death of his wife. It’s possible that he felt such a lurid plot, full of intrigue, sex and murder, showed how virtuous Venetian society was in comparison. Personally I can imagine him reading Busanello’s libretto with great relish and rushing to set these monstrous but fascinating characters to musical immortality.
Composers late in life: Beethoven String Quartet, Op. 132 No. 15 – Molto Adagio – Andante
Beethoven’s late string quartets baffled his contemporary audience and one musician is purported to have said, ‘We know there is something there, but we do not know what it is.' The quartets have come to be appreciated as one of the great cornerstones of Western musical development.
I have singled out one movement, the 'Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart' (Holy Song of Thanksgiving of a Convalescent to the Deity, in the Lydian Mode) from Op. 132, No. 15. As the title suggests, Beethoven wrote it after a long illness, which he believed to be terminal, in the winter of 1824-5. The movement alternates between two contrasting Affekts or moods.
The opening Molto Adagio is a chorale-like section using the ancient Lydian mode, (perhaps easiest understood for us, as a major scale with a raised fourth), which manages to give the sense of weightlessness, looking both backward and forward in time. This gives way to an Andante ‘neu Kraft fühlend’ (feeling new strength), which brings hope and energy. The contrasting sections continue to alternate, with the third Molto Adagio encouraging the musicians to play ‘mit innigster Empfindung’ – with innermost feeling. Beethoven intensifies the emotions of both sections and leaves us finally back in the Lydian mode, floating in space, giving thanks for his recovery.
Laurence Cummings conducts '1765: Times of Transition' at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge (30th September) and Milton Court Concert Hall (1st October).
