Herbeck: Selected German Works, Part 1

Johann Herbeck (1831–77) joined the Wiener Männergesang-Verein in 1852, rose to the position of conductor in 1856, and continued as honorary conductor until his early death. During this time, he composed over a hundred works for men's chorus, both a cappella and accompanied, most of which were settings of German lyric poetry. The thirty-six compositions in this edition, amounting to one-half of his output for unaccompanied men's chorus, have been selected to illustrate his full command of a variety of styles and forms over his career of twenty-five years. Herbeck wrote for a chorus in four parts (TTBB), augmented in some pieces by solo voices. His works range from charming folk-like settings in strophic form and diatonic harmony, to dramatic expressions of the text in a chromatic idiom cast in modified-strophic and through-composed designs. The edition includes a biography of the composer and an evaluation of his works in this genre.