Schicksalslied

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The Schicksalslied (English: Song of Destiny) is a short, powerful work for chorus and orchestra composed by Johannes Brahms between 1868 and 1871, his Opus 54. The text is that of Friedrich Hölderlin's poem Hyperions Schicksalslied, originally part of the novel Hyperion. Brahms discovered the text in an early volume of Hölderlin's verse belonging to his friend Albert Dietrich, and immediately began sketching a setting, although it took him a long time to resolve structural and expressive questions. The poem has only two verses, the first describing the bliss of the gods and the second the sufferings of mankind, "plunging blindly into the abyss"; Brahms originally wanted to create a ternary form with a reprise of the first verse but felt this would be too contrary to Hölderlin's tragic vision. As completed the work refers to the music of the first verse in the coda, but this is purely orchestral. (A draft of his earlier conception, with chorus in the coda, exists and has been recorded.) The premiere took place on 13 October 1871 in Karlsruhe, conducted by Hermann Levi.