Zij sluimert (She Slumbers) is the last of the three songs Diepenbrock orchestrated at the request of the tenor Jos Tijssen, who had sung the premiere of the Abendmahlshymne (Hymn of the Last Supper, RC 47) on 19 July 1902. The two songs on texts by Perk were orchestrated shortly after each other in the spring of 1903: Avondzang (Evening Song, RC 59) between 20 and 27 March and Zij sluimert between 29 March and 5 April. Diepenbrock really wanted to start the orchestration in November 1902 – after completing the score of Wenige wissen das Geheimnis der Liebe (Few Know the Secret of Love, RC 58) – but at that point he did not have a copy of the piano version at his disposal. (BD IV:35)
Zij sluimert (She Slumbers) is the last of the three songs Diepenbrock orchestrated at the request of the tenor Jos Tijssen, who had sung the premiere of the Abendmahlshymne (Hymn of the Last Supper, RC 47) on 19 July 1902. The two songs on texts by Perk were orchestrated shortly after each other in the spring of 1903: Avondzang (Evening Song, RC 59) between 20 and 27 March and Zij sluimert between 29 March and 5 April. Diepenbrock really wanted to start the orchestration in November 1902 – after completing the score of Wenige wissen das Geheimnis der Liebe (Few Know the Secret of Love, RC 58) – but at that point he did not have a copy of the piano version at his disposal. (BD IV:35)
After Tijssen had moved to Germany in 1903, Diepenbrock had great difficulty finding a suitable tenor to perform Zij sluimert (see BD IV:164). Therefore the song was premiered by the soprano Aaltje Noordewier-Reddingius at a concert with the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Willem Mengelberg at which Diepenbrock’s Lied der Spinnerin (Song of the Spinner, RC 42/75) and Ik ben in eenzaamheid niet meer alleen (I Am No Longer Alone in Solitude, RC 41/73) were also performed for the first time. In the programme notes – most likely by Diepenbrock – this contradiction concerning Zij sluimert was put into words as follows:
“Although its content makes the text only suitable for male voice and the song was written for tenor, Mrs Noordewier felt the visitors of the Concertgebouw should be made acquainted with this composition.” (BD V:703)
With hindsight Diepenbrock called the performance by a soprano instead of a tenor a wrong experiment
, concluding: I almost believe I should orchestrate it again in an entirely different manner for Noordewier.
(BD V:275)
The main reason for this failure was the fact that in its orchestration Zij sluimert differs from Diepenbrock’s other songs for tenor. There are no descant instruments such as the flute, the oboe and the violin. In the low register the orchestral sound forms a unity with the tenor voice, while a soprano inverts the interval relations between the soloist and the melody in the horns, thus undoing the (symbolic) effect of several passages.
The way Diepenbrock depicts the transition from life to death – the topic of the sonnet – is described as follows in the above mentioned programme notes for Zij sluimert:
Built on 2 motives, the 2nd of which occurs on the words “straks opent zij heur oogen” (soon she will open her eyes). This motive, which in its first occurrence acts as a “life motive”, turns in the 2nd movement (at the terza rimas of the sonnet), after being developed during a short intermezzo, into a “death motive”. It occurs in both the basses and the top voices of the orchestra and almost entirely dominates the second part of the composition. (BD V:702)
Robert Spannenberg
