The Reed-grown Waters (Seven Pastels from the Lake of Constance), Op. 96, No. 4

I recorded this work several months ago. It was my intent to complete the entire set of 7, but now, recovering from my operation, I don't have the energy to do so.

There are 2 "odd mistakes" in this recording, and I'm not sure if they are mine, or a glitch on the speech of the particular note, as it is the same note twice.

It's not that I don't make mistakes, but I was going to omit the recording because of them.

Anyway...

Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933) was born Siegfried Theodor Karg in Oberndorf am Neckar, Germany, the youngest of twelve children. The family finally settled in Leipzig in 1882, where he received his first musical training and private piano instruction. At a gathering of composers in Leipzig, he presented his first attempts at composition to the composer Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek, who arranged a three-year tuition-free scholarship at the Leipzig Conservatory, where he studied with Jadassohn, Reinecke, Reisenauer and Teichmüller.

Shunned and neglected in Germany, he accepted an invitation for an organ concert tour of America in the spring of 1932. The tour proved to be a disastrous mistake. He was suffering from the diabetes which would soon kill him, and his limited powers as an organist compared unfavorably to the virtuoso standard of organ performance to which American audiences had grown accustomed.

After his return to Leipzig, his health started deteriorating rapidly. He died there in April 1933, only 55 years old.

Karg-Elert's "Seven Pastels from the Lake of Contance" was published by Novello in 1923.

Lake Constance, lying below the northern edge of the Alps, is the largest lake in Germany. It offers strikingly beautiful scenery with incredible views of the Swiss Alps.

"The Reed-grown Waters" is the fourth piece in the set. It is full of mysticism and highly impressionistic in its descriptive style.

The score is attached below, as well as two photos of Karg-Elert, and some photos of the lush Allgäu landscape and wildlife there.