Frank Van der Stucken was born in Texas, USA. His father was a Belgian immigrant who had emigrated from Antwerp in 1852. However, Frank was sent back to Europe and spent most of his early years studying in Belgium and Germany. By 1882 he was producing concerts of his own compositions, in Weimar and elsewhere in Germany, under the patronage of Liszt. Acting upon the advice of Max Bruch, he returned to the United States in 1884, He settled in New York initially and then Cincinnati. After 1895 he conducted the symphony concerts of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
He moved back to Germany in 1908 and died in Hamburg at the age of 70.
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Pax triumphans ('Triumph of Peace') was composed to celebrate the end of the Spanish-American war. In an introduction to the score Van der Stucken offers an elaborate explanation for his work and the Leitmotifs he uses. The work ends with (yes .... yet another) appearance of "Nun danket alle Gott" but this one is given the full treatment.
Van der Stucken conducted the work in 1906 in Cincinatti at the first May Festival which he lead as a music director. The choral parts at the end were sung by a children's choir. The work is scored for a huge orchestra (I think the children would have been drowned out in the "Nun danket alle Gott")
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Don't be put off by the harsh sounding introduction - it's the conflict before the peace and hope - the music mellows beautifully given time, with a sumptuous legato melody which recurs often - the piece ends majestically and, without question, trimphantly.
Running time 16 mins.
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIWn52aqR9w
Wow, that was quite a ride. I thought I was going to be exhausted by the end, but actually it was pretty exhilarating. Thanks for pepping up my afternoon, Martin!
Looking forward to listening to this later. I first heard of this composer/conductor when browsing IMSLP (https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Van_der_Stucken,_Frank_V.) and have been intrigued to learn more. (Apparently he provided the original German text for Horatio Parker's 1900 "The Shepherds' Vision", besides. :) - and was the dedicatee of Gernsheim's 1882 Das Grab im Busento, a work of that composer's which I have not yet heard, but it's about contemporary with recorded works like his 3rd piano quartet...)
Just a brief mention that under the alias of Valentin Frank, he collaborated with Philipp Scharwenka in the orchestration of Moszkowski's Op12 Spanish Dances.
"Nun danket alle Gott" is known as "the chorale of Leuthen" in Germany, because the Prussian soldiers sung it after their victory in the battle of Leuthen 1757. So for Germans this chorale was long associated with victory in war (Reger used it 1915 in his "Vaterländische Ouvertüre").
Considering that Van der Stucken was an American who studied in Germany, could it be that the peace celebrated in "Pax Triumphans" is a "Siegfrieden"?
Thanks, yet again Martin. With it's strong, and very clear, narrative it reminded me very much of film music; and I don't mean that to be criticism as that genre didn't really exist when it was composed.
Even if it did, really good film music is often really good music.