Anton Reicha - Works

Works

See also: List of compositions by Anton Reicha

It is difficult to present a coherent list of Reicha's works, because the opus numbers assigned to them at the time of publication are in disarray, some pieces were supposedly lost, and many works were published several times, sometimes as part of larger collections. Reicha's surviving oeuvre covers a vast array of genres and forms, from opera to piano fugues. He is best known today for his wind quintets – 25 works composed in Paris between 1811 and 1820, which were played all over Europe. Reicha claimed in his memoirs that his wind quintets filled a void: "At that time, there was a dearth not only of good classic music, but of any good music at all for wind instruments, simply because the composers knew little of their technique.". Indeed, Reicha's experiences as a flautist must have helped in the creation of these pieces, in which he systematically explored the possibilities of the wind ensemble and invented an extended sonata form that could accommodate as many as five principal themes.

Musically, the wind quintets represent a more conservative trend in Reicha's oeuvre when compared to his earlier work, namely the compositions of the Viennese period. Instead Reicha was inspired by the supreme artistry of his players from the Opéra Comique to explore the technical limits of the five instruments, within writing that combines elements from comic opera, folk tradition, military marches and his lifelong interest in counterpoint. Technical wizardry also prevails in compositions that illustrate Reicha's theoretical treatise Practische Beispiele of 1803, where techniques such as bitonality and polyrhythm are explored in extremely difficult sight reading exercises. 36 fugues for piano, published in 1803, was conceived as an illustration of Reicha's neue Fugensystem, a new system for composing fugues. Reicha suggested fugal answers could be placed on any scale degree (rather than the standard dominant) to widen the possibilities for modulation and undermine the tonal stability of the fugue. The fugues of the collection not only illustrate this point, but also employ a variety of extremely convoluted technical tricks, such as polyrhythm (no. 30), combined (nos. 24, 28), asymmetrical (no. 20) and simply uncommon (no. 10 is in 12/4, no. 12 in 2/8) metres and time signatures, some of which are derived from folk music, an approach that directly anticipates that of later composers such as Béla Bartók. Number 13 is a modal fugue played on white keys only, in which cadences are possible on all but the 7th degree of the scale without further alteration. Six fugues employ two subjects, one has three, and number 15 employs six subjects. In several fugues Reicha establishes a link with the old tradition by using subjects by Haydn (no. 3), Bach (no. 5), Mozart (no. 7), Scarlatti (no. 9), Frescobaldi (no. 14) and Handel (no. 15). Many of the technical accomplishments are unique to fugue literature.

The études of op. 97, Études dans le genre fugué, published in Paris by 1817, are similarly advanced. Each composition is preceded by Reicha's comments for young composers who choose to study the work. Thirty of thirty-four études included are fugues, and every étude is preceded by a prelude dedicated to a particular technique or compositional problem. Again an exceptionally large number of forms and textures is used, including, for example, the variation form with extensive use of invertible counterpoint (no. 3), or an Andante in C minor based on the famous Folia harmonic progression. Reicha's massive cycle of variations, L'art de varier, uses the same pedagogical principle and includes variations in the form of four-voice fugues, program music variations, toccata-like hand-crossing variations, etc., foreshadowing in many aspects not only Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, but also works by Schubert, Wagner and Debussy.

Many of Reicha's string quartets are similarly searching, and too foreshadow numerous later developments. The eight Vienna string quartets (1801–5) are amongst his most important works. Though largely ignored since Reicha's death, they were highly influential during his lifetime, and left their mark on the quartets of Beethoven and Schubert, much as Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier was ignored by the public but well-known to Beethoven and Chopin. Reicha also wrote prolifically for various kinds of ensembles other than wind quintets and string quartets: there are violin sonatas, piano trios, horn trios, various works for wind or string instrument accompanied by strings, works for voice, etc. He also wrote much large-scale music – at least eight symphonies are known, seven operas, choral works including a Requiem, and many more.

Much of Reicha's music remained unpublished and/or unperformed during the composer's life, and virtually all of his work fell into obscurity after his death. This is partly explained by Reicha's own decisions which he reflects on in his autobiography: "Many of my works have never been heard because of my aversion to seeking performances I counted the time spent in such efforts as lost, and preferred to remain at my desk." It must also be noted that Reicha frequently advocated ideas, such as the use of quarter tones, that were too far ahead of his time to be understood by his contemporaries.