ABSTRACT
Introduction Th e occasion for Reger’s pompous op. 126 — Römischer Triumphgesang (text by the German poet Hermann Lingg) for four-part men’s chorus and orchestra — was, as with his Psalm 100 op. 106, the awarding of an honorary doctorate, an M.D. from the medical faculty of the Friedrich-Wilhelm University of Berlin, to whom op. 126 is
dedicated. Th e work received its premiere on 6 June 1913 at the Tonkünstlerfest of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein, held that year in Jena. Despite what Reger’s ultraminimalist “analysis” might suggest, the work is disposed in a single movement cast in E-fl at major. Th e “themes” given here are of course entirely fi ctional, and it is appropriate that the “essay” that delivers them closes this volume, since it actually may be seen to represent the composer’s most radical statement about the impotence of critical writing. Reger’s submission prompted a note by the editor of Die Musik, who, instead of publishing a portrait of Reger (as with the other twenty-four composers whose music was heard at the festival), off ered instead three recently completed caricatures by Wilhelm Th ielmann.
