Seele, vergiß sie nicht: poet Friedrich Hebbel, composer Peter Cornelius and his Requiem

Friedrich Hebbel - death mask

The German poet and dramatist Friedrich Hebbel (1813-1863) is not, perhaps, a well-known name today. But Hebbel's friendship with the composer Peter Cornelius (1824-1874) was an important one and on Hebbel's death, Cornelius made a choral setting of one of Hebbel's poems, Seele, vergiß sie nicht creating a work now known as Requiem, and their story creates a thread with links to Liszt, Wagner and the 'New German School'.

Hebbel was the son of a bricklayer, but studied at grammar school in Hamburg and went to university in Heidelberg and Munich. He made his name with his drama Judith, and spent time in Paris thanks to a stipend from King Christian of Denmark. Support from Prussian noblemen enabled him to settle in Vienna and mix with intellectuals. He had a high opinion of his artistic endeavours and something of a horror of the hand-to-mouth existence of the itinerant artist. As a result, he abandoned his friendship with a woman who had helped and supported him during his poverty-stricken period in Munich and married a rich actress. With much self-justification about the duty of the artist. He wrote a series of tragedies as well as comedies and short stories. Perhaps most interestingly, his final work is a trilogy, Der Nibelungen from 1862 which won the Schiller Prize.

Cornelius is not the only composer to have been inspired by his music, Max Reger wrote a Hebbel Requiem whilst Schumann's opera Genoveva is based on Hebbel's tragedy from 1840. The Belgian-Danish composer Eduard Lassen (1830-1904) who was music director at Weimar for most of his career and conducted the first performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde outside of Munich, wrote incidental music to Hebbel's Die Nibelungen in 1873. In 1878/79 Franz Liszt combined music from the Die Nibelungen setting with excerpts from Lassen's incidental music to Goethe's Faust, in a single piano transcription, Aus der Musik zu Hebbels Nibelungen und Goethes Faust (S.496). [Hear Leslie Howard's performance of it on YouTube]

Friendship seems to have been important to Peter Cornelius, and his life is notable for these interactions. The son of actors, he had early contact with the stage and with dramatic literature. His uncle was the painter Peter von Cornelius (1783-1867) and the young Peter lived with his uncle in Berlin and met luminaries such as Alexander von Humboldt, the Brothers Grimm, Friedrich Rückert and Felix Mendelssohn. Five years in Weimar included a period of study with Liszt, who remained a big influence. Whilst in Weimar, Cornelius started writing music criticism for the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik whose editor, Franz Brendel coined the term 'New German School'. Brendel had taken over editorship of the journal in 1845, following on from Robert Schumann.

Then in Vienna, Cornelius became friends with Richard Wagner, often defending the man in the press. So much so that Cornelius moved to Munich at Wagner's behest, though the relationship was not entirely straightforward: Cornelius did not attend the premiere of Tristan und Isolde, using the premiere of his own opera Der Cid as an excuse.

Peter Cornelius

Cornelius' major work is, perhaps, his comic opera Der Barbier von Bagdad which premiered in Weimer in 1858 under Liszt's direction. Though, intrigue surrounding the premiere robbed the piece of initial success and led to Liszt's resignation in Weimar. Cornelius' second opera Der Cid, for which he wrote his own libretto, also premiered in Weimar

However, in the UK his best-known piece is Ivor Atkins' choral adaptation, The Three Kings, which is based on one of Cornelius's Weihnachtslieder setting his own texts. These were written in 1858 but revised at least twice: Cornelius's insecurities led him to be a great reviser of his music. It was Liszt's suggestion that Cornelius add the Lutheran chorale in the bass, ‘Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern’.

Cornelius's Hebbel setting, Requiem ('Seele, vergiß sie nicht') seems to have remained in manuscript, and Cornelius revised it at least once, in 1872. It is known thanks to its inclusion in the 1904 published anthology of Cornelius’s music, which was edited by Max Hasse (1859-1935). Ben Byram-Wigfield, in his excellent modern edition of the work, suggests that Hasse may have completed the piece.

It is one of the composer’s most personal, profound and intense musical expressions, its music reflecting Cornelius's period of study with Liszt and particularly the influence of Liszt's religious music. Commenting in 1867 on this, Cornelius wrote, "Liszt trod … the path of the thorough reform of church music, which had declined through secularism and unbelief". For those who know Cornelius only through The Three Kings or perhaps his operatic comedy, Requiem is a window into a very different, very intensely late-romantic world.

Wagner too remains a thread that runs through this narrative. Cornelius's final, uncomplete work was an operatic project, Gunlöd, based on the Norse eddas, notably the story Hávamál. The opera's story and psychology has similarities to both Wagner's Ring Cycle and Lohengrin. It was completed by composer Karl Hoffbauer for its 1879 publication. But it was not performed until 1891, when it was presented at the Hoftheater, Weimar with new orchestrations by our old friend Eduard Lassen.

London Concord Singers, conductor Gerard Lim, perform Peter Cornelius' Requiem as part of their concert Seele, vergiß sie nicht at St Saviour's Church, Pimlico on Friday 12 December 2025, further details from TicketSource.