REGER, Max – Sacred Motet ‘Der Mensch lebt und bestehet’, Op. 138, No. 1 – EIGHT SOLO CELLOS

Other Identification:
‘Der Mensch lebt und bestehet’, Op. 138, No. 1, is a sacred motet for unaccompanied mixed choir by Max Reger. The German text is a poem by Matthias Claudius, beginning with “Der Mensch lebt und bestehet nur eine kleine Zeit” (“Man liveth and endureth but a short time” – or in more modern English: “Man lives and exists for but a little time”). The piece is set in A minor (with the last section in the major) and scored for eight voices in two choirs SATB. Composed in Meiningen in 1914, it was published in 1916 immediately after Reger’s death as the first of ‘Acht geistliche Gesänge’ (Eight Sacred Songs).

Despite the brevity of Reger’s career, he was most prodigious in output. Max Reger lived in times of change. His music represents both a late flowering of German Romanticism and a foretaste of the Modernism to come. His mature chamber works demonstrate the best of both worlds, combining expressivity with innovation. Max Reger was an important composer whose artistic worth far surpasses his still generally poor representation on the concert stage and in recordings. Away from fashion, he wrote music that was both ahead of its time and inextricably bound to the past.

In all Reger composed eight motets forming the ‘Acht geistliche Gesänge’ (Eight Sacred Songs), Op. 138. After a lifelong reputation of a composer of amazingly complex chromatic creations, here he shines as a master of “new simplicity”. The poem reflects how short-lived and transient are both the human existence and the splendour of this world, in contrast to one who is eternal. However, Reger died before completing his review of the proof from the publisher. The proofs were next to his bed when he was found dead in a hotel in Leipzig on 11th May 1916, so this is an amazing document as to the very LAST compositional effort of Max Reger on the last day of his life….