Hymne und Fuge über das Walhallalied

In 2018 I composed a song set to the famous Walhalla song by E. Förster. First a hymn movement, then a smaller trio on the same melody. To this 2-part piece I have now added a somewhat more expansive fugue for 4 voices in the last two days. The finished work presented here is now in 4 parts:

I - Hymn
2- Trio movement
3- Fugue à 4
4- Hymn

We hear the great Eisenbarth organ at Friesach, which is very well suited for the magnificent hymn movement.

The movements are harmonically very "colourful" and rhythmically emphasised. The fugue is characterised by the first bars of the beautiful melody and a harmonic journey through the circle of fifths. In bars 33-38, it goes completely around this circle.

Here is some information about Valhalla, a memorial on the banks of the Danube for great German personalities and those who died in the wars. For me it was important that the whole thing is not too much of a glorification of the German Reich, and that the victims of the reign of terror of National Socialism are also explicitly commemorated with a bust of Sophie Scholl, next to which no other bust will be erected.

The idea to erect Valhalla must be seen against the background of the political situation at the beginning of the 19th century. After defeats by Napoleon, the Holy Roman Empire was breaking up. Many German princes, of necessity or voluntarily, cooperated with the French in the Confederation of the Rhine. The Electorate of Bavaria had been allied with France since 1805, was elevated to a kingdom by Napoleon, and in the Fourth Coalition War of 1806/1807 Crown Prince Ludwig I marched into Berlin fighting alongside the French against Prussia.