Svendsen, Johan

Zorahayda, op. 11

Zorahayda, Op. 11

([fr]: Zorahayda Légende pour Orchestre)

([fr]: Zoraidée)

JSV 58

 

Dedicatee: Oscar II

Zorahayda, Légende pour Orchestre, Op. 11, was written in August 1874 in Christiania. Its first performance was given under the title Zoraidée on 3 October of the same year at the gymnastics hall of Akershus Fortress. The programmatic work is based on a scene from Washington Irving’s retelling of a Moorish legend about love, magic and religious conflict. Svendsen’s work focuses on the story’s turning point, that is, the meeting between Zorahayda and Jacinta by the fountain. It appears likely that Svendsen was inspired by his own situation when he composed the work. In 1871, he had married Sarah Levett (1843–1911), a Jewish American woman with a child from a former marriage. The following year, Richard Wagner himself persuaded Svendsen to have Sarah and her son baptized, and both Richard and Cosima Wagner were godparents at the baptism. In 1879, Svendsen revised the work and titled the new version Zorahayda. Zorahayda was widely acclaimed and became one of Svendsen’s most popular works during his lifetime.

Composition: 1874-08.

Christiania.
Revised 1879, in Paris

Instrumentation:

2 fl., 2 ob., 2 cl., 2 fg., 4 cor., 2 tr., 3 trb., timp., str.

Moderato

Metre: 4/4

Key: G minor

Extent: ca. 15 min.

Reproduction (edition or facsimile):

+ Sources

+ Performances

+ Primary texts

 
 

File title:

Zorahayda, op. 11

File publication:

Norsk Musikkarv (NM)
Institutt for musikkvitenskap
Postboks 1017
Blindern 0315
Oslo
WWW: http://www.musikkarven.no/
E-mail: mailto://bjar-eng@online.no

Bjarte Engeset (Editor in Chief), Editorial Committee: Morten Christophersen, Bjarte Engeset, Jørn Fossheim, Audun Sannes Jonassen, Jørgen Langdalen, Øyvind Norheim


Last changed 2022-02-19 by bjarte