Viktor Ullmann’s The Emperor of Atlantis (1943):
An Opera Composed in Terezin Concentration Camp
Robert Rollin
Victor
Ullmann was the oldest and perhaps the most influential of the four great
Czech-Jewish composers incarcerated in Terezin Concentration Camp. The others
were Hans Krasa, a student of Zemlinsky and Roussel; Gideon Klein, a student of
quarter-tone composer Alois Haba and a leading Prague piano soloist; and Pavel
Haas, a student of Janáček. All four perished
after transport to the death camps.
Born
January 1, 1898 in T.siÁ (Teschen)
on the Moravian/Polish border, the son of a high Austrian officer of noble
birth, Ullmann spent his early days in Vienna studying piano with Eduard
Steuermann and theory and composition with Arnold Schoenberg. He went to Prague
in 1919 under Schoenberg’s recommendation to be Alexander Zemlinsky’s assistant
conductor and piano accompanist at the prestigious New German Theatre. Among young the Ullmann’s colleagues were
Erich Leinsdorf and George Szell.
In
1929 Ullmann was appointed senior director at the Aussig Opera (Usti Nad
Labem), where he premiered Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, Krenek’s Jonny
Spielt auf, and other important operas. From 1930 he was a Czech Radio
commentator and music critic for major newspapers and music education
journals. At the same time he studied
quarter-tone composition with Alois Haba, but abandoned it after one piece for
clarinet and piano, and by 1942 he had composed four piano sonatas, two operas,
a piano concerto, and several song cycles.
Despite
his demanding career, Ullmann also managed to run an Anthroposophical Society
book store, and to direct the Zurich Theatre Orchestra; thus his pre-war life
was hectic and rather disjointed. After the crowded and perilous train ride to
Terezin, he soon undertook the directorship of the Terezin New Music Studio
Concerts and oversaw the various Terezin rehearsal schedules. He also served as
Ghetto newspaper music critic, writing some 27 reviews in less than two years.
The
threat of the transport to points unknown and the constant privation somehow
focused and settled him more than previously, and he became the most prolific
Terezin composer, writing his marvelous Third String Quartet, the opera,
The Emperor of Atlantis, three piano sonatas (the last of which includes
notes for transformation to a symphony) and several song cycles and choral
settings - a total of about 20 works in a scant two years.
The Emperor of Atlantis was among the most
important of Viktor Ullmann’s major Terezin works. Regrettably, when summer
1944 rehearsals were nearly completed, an SS delegation made a surprise visit
and cancelled the production because of its allegorical references to Hitler
and the World War. The one-act opera, scored for small orchestra, reflected
Terezin’s limited musical forces, and its instrumentation resembled
Stravinsky’s and others’ in the post World War I era. For Stravinsky and
Ullmann, both, severe economic and political problems prompted new small
combinations with single winds and available exotic instruments. Ullmann scored
for alto sax, banjo (changing to guitar), harpsichord (changing to piano), harmonium,
percussion, a small woodwind complement, one trumpet and strings, exploring
Kurt Weill’s coloristic world in a more experimental musical language.
Peter Kien, a poet and painter and 1941 Terezin detainee, wrote the libretto in which The
Loudspeaker’s opening prologue introduces the cast of the Emperor Over All,
Life, Death, Harlequin, a Drummer Girl, a Boy Soldier, and a Girl Soldier.
The
four-scene opera is about 70 minutes long, and begins with Life and Death
commenting on a world where existence is no longer satisfying, and death no
true release. Then Death decides to break his sword and not permit the unworthy
world final release. In Scene Two, the Emperor decides to condemn an attempted
assassin, but discovers that execution is not possible, and that his and the
enemy’s soldiers simply will not die. A Soldier Boy and Girl from opposing
sides meet in Scene Three, and discover that they are unable to kill each
other. Despite the Drummer Girl’s exhortations, they embrace and sing a duet
seeing a ray of hope in their adversity. In Scene Four, Harlequin, Death,
Loudspeaker, and Soldier Girl meet the Emperor.
Death says that dying can only resume if the Emperor is the first
candidate. The Emperor agrees. Death then takes him by the hand and, assuming the
aura of Hermes, leads him through a magic mirror to annihilation, as the others
sing a paean on Death’s release to the Lutheran chorale melody, Ein’ feste
Burg ist unser Gott (A Mighty Fortress is Our God).
The
expressionistic opera shows the influence of Schoenberg, but the music is more
tonal and, like the Third String Quartet, reflects moderating French
influences and Kurt Weill’s dry wit as well. To start the finale of The
Emperor of Atlantis, Ullmann’s very literate background leads him to quote Ein’
feste Burg ist unser Gott, the chorale that J. S. Bach used in Cantata
No. 80 (the cantata employs the hymn tune in every single movement.)
Ullmann was well-educated in history and literature, and the pivotal presence
of Ein’ feste Burg very likely reflects more than simply the spiritual
resignation implicit in the text. It also connects with two works by two Jewish
predecessors: Felix Mendelssohn’s Reformation Symphony and Giacomo
Meyerbeer’s opera, Les Huguenots. Mendelssohn quotes the original
chorale setting in the stately introduction to the Andante fourth movement and
the chorale melody in dotted quarters against a syncopated six-eight
accompaniment in the ensuing Allegro
vivace. Meyerbeer opens his overture with the chorale, and further closes
his powerful second act ensemble with interjections sung from the chorale
Example 1a: Ullmann, The Emperor of Atlantis. a. Finale, mm. 1-7
.** - pianissimo woodwinds freely double
voices from m. 2;
+ - should
probably be B flat,not C flat based on woodwind doubling
All reductions and translations by the author.
This and all subsequent reductions refer to
the full score, 1992 Schott edition.
Example
1b:
Emperor
of Atlantis Final 8 measures
Ullmann’s own
citation alludes to the futility of religious and political conflict throughout
Western history, and for the need to seek serious spiritual support and solace
in miserable, vicious times. Chorale phrases are presented with complex
neo-romantic harmony over pedal tones at the beginning of the Finale. Original
chromatic material (appearing first in violins 1) alternates with sung chorale
phrases (Example 1a). Later, the original chromatic material makes its way to
the vocal parts on the words, “You should not take the great name of death in
vain” (Example 1b).
Musical
paraphrase is endemic to serious music history in medieval and renaissance
cantus firmus compositions, baroque chorale preludes (not to mention Bach’s wholesale
citations and adaptations of Vivaldi), classical and romantic variation forms,
and many more. Ullmann, closely tied to Czech and Austrian music, begins his
opera with a musical allusion to the Asrael Symphony, Op. 27, by Josef
Suk (1824-1953), Dvorak’s son-in-law and an important Czech composer. The
symphony, composed in 1906 to mourn the deaths of Dvorak, and Suk’s wife,
Otilie, became a symbol for the First Czech Republic, 1918-38, and was played
on tragic national occasions. Suk’s death motive contains two ascending
gestures followed by a descending one. It first appears in a slow, diatonic
version and later in several more chromatic guises.
Example
2: Death Motive Versions, Suk’s Asrael
Symphony. a: mm. 3-4, bass clarinet, viola, cello (diatonic).
b. No. 7, strings (whole tone).c: No. 56,
winds (intervals as in b).d: No. 59 (partial with extensions).
Ullmann uses the
chromatic version as an exhortation or call to attention at the very opening,
in other citations, and in gestural transformations:
Example 3: Use of Asrael motive in Ullmann’s The
Emperor of Atlantis.
a. Opening of opera,
Prologue, mm. 1-7 (exact whole tone and partial whole tone statements).
b. Exact versions,
Scene II, pp. 61, 63, and 73 (whole tone)
c. Gestural, Scene IV,
No. XV, Quartet, p. 125, voice and flute/violin 1 (partial whole tone)
d. Gestural, Scene IV,
p. 130, trumpet, clarinet, voice (diatonic and octave-displaced whole tone).
The
opening Suk quotation and the closing Lutheran chorale help frame the opera
both emotionally and historically, and illustrate the composer’s nationalistic
pride, and bond with his musical predecessors.
In
Scene 1, Section 3, Harlequin, who symbolizes benevolent and positive things,
presents rhythmic and melodic gestures from “The Drunken One in Spring,”
Mahler’s Song of the Earth, V, though Ullmann’s use is more
expressionistically Schoenbergian (Example 4a and 4b). A more subtle
instrumental reference takes place in the penultimate section, thereby framing
the opera with allusions to Mahler. This section also treats voice, solo oboe,
and strings canonically suggesting a Bach cantata texture. Soon there is a
change to a more disjunct melodic treatment reminiscent of “The Departure,”
Mahler’s Song of the Earth, VI, and, shortly thereafter, another
reference to “The Drunken One in Spring” (Example 4c).
Example
4: Comparison of
Gestural Motives in Ullmann and Mahler
. a.
Mahler, Song of the Earth, “The Drunken One in Spring,” m. 43, piccolo;
mm. 52-4, voice part.
b Ullmann’s The
Emperor of Atlantis, Scene I, p. 6 - 7, voice part.
c. Ullmann, The
Emperor of Atlantis, Scene IV, p. 141, trumpet.
The sardonically
parodied tune, Deutschland Über Alles, exemplifies
yet another external musical source. Early in the opera, the Drummer Girl
loudly proclaims the Emperor’s call for “war of all against all” in which the
Nazi tune transformation appears in the first scene with Aeolian, Phrygian, and
chromatic melodic elements:
[We, in
God’s grace, Overall, the absolute, honored of the Fatherland, blessing of
humankind ...]
Example 5: Parody of Deutschland über Alles, Ullmann,
The Emperor of Atlantis, Scene I, p. 41.
Ullmann
bridges the gap between parody and the drama by using traditional formal
elements. He includes a passacaglia treatment in the Drummer Girl aria closing
Scene 1 to help portray Death’s relentlessness. Scene 2 is framed by an
instrumental Intermezzo marked “Tempo di Menuetto (Totentanz),” giving it an
arch shape. The death dance is, of course, a recurring nineteenth-century idiom
which often includes the ancient “Dies Irae” theme as in Berlioz’ “Witch’s Sabbath” in the Fantastic
Symphony and Liszt’s own Totentanz. Ullmann alludes to these works
in a stately parody minuet which never actually quotes the chant, but, hints at
it with stepwise melodic treatment and squarely-recurring phrasing. It is a
parodied dance of a death who has broken his sword, and who refuses to provide
sweet rest to a mankind capable of hideous atrocities. The minuet’s
strangely-mechanical quality is echoed in the loudspeaker’s sing-song and the
repeated announcements that “Death is expected at any moment,” when, in fact,
Death never arrives at all to take the condemned souls.
In Scene 3
a subdued instrumental cabaret-dance intermezzo punctures the intense
seriousness of the Boy Soldier and Drummer Girl love duet. Later, in Scene 4,
after Harlequin’s expressionistic exhortation to the Drummer Girl to sing
Death’s praise, and before Death’s final aria, Ullmann inserts a trio marked “Shimmy,” a dance popular between the
world wars (Hindemith used it in his Suite 1922, Op. 26 for piano.) The
Drummer Girl, Harlequin, and the Emperor, all sing different texts
simultaneously, not unlike similarly-situated passages in nineteenth-century
Italian comic opera. The bickering stops suddenly, and, as the instruments
continue, Emperor Over All uncovers a magic mirror and sees Death. As the
Emperor accepts his fate, the tragic mood resumes for the opera denouement.
There is
much original material in The Emperor of Atlantis. In measure 24 of the
opening, Ullmann introduces an important and frequently recurring descending
chromatic motive. It appears throughout the Prelude coupled with a simple
accompaniment (Example 6).
Example 6: Original Chromatic Material with Pedalpoints,
Ullmann’s, The Emperor of Atlantis, Scene I, Prelude, mm. 1-8.
The tightly-constructed
motivic content and chromaticism point to Ullmann’s study with Schoenberg.
The
aforementioned Drummer Girl’s aria burlesquing Deutschland über
Alles
introduces a four-bar passacaglia theme praising death (Example 7). The
passacaglia amalgamates original and parodied material, and moves from voice to
instruments and back until interrupted by a recitative. The theme connects two triad pairs a tritone
apart, and, thus, freely derives itself from the original death theme. The
downbeats actually spell Suk’s whole-tone motive in free order and register.
The sets, mixing thirds and half steps, (see Example 7) are free references to
the aforementioned original chromatic theme (cf. Examples 6 and 7). These
sophisticated relationships show great skill and musical imagination, providing
one of the opera’s most powerful moments.
Example 7: Ullmann’s, The Emperor of Atlantis, Passacaglia
Theme, Scene I, p. 46.
More than
any other Terezin work, The Emperor of Atlantis embodies the struggle of
life and art against death, callousness, and deceit. Ullmann’s genius lies in his ability to
illuminate this profound-yet-tortured struggle, while interspersing cabaret
music, contrapuntal techniques, and references to themes by Czech and other
important musical forebears among his own vibrant musical ideas.