«Ein Schöpfungsgesang»
Is there any other composer in the history of post-Baroque music who created his main opus for just three female voices?
Christian Lahusen's «Schöpfungsgesang» comprises a hundred and fifty «Lieder», which reflect the sheer wealth of his work in praise of life. That is enough to keep a concert audience happy for four or five evenings!
In simple terms, and in as fas as still verifiable today, «Ein Schöpfungsgesang» was written in four stages. In the first phase, from 1942 to 1944, i.e. following Lahusen's expulsion from the teaching profession, he wrote the initial versions of the first eight songbooks. The most intensive year of work on the cycle was probably 1946, when the composer revised or even rewrote six of the cycles. In a number of the «Lieder» published in 1952 in a collection entitled «Licht der Musik, das die Erde erhellt» (Light of Music that illuminates the Earth), however, new stylistic traits start to appear. In this context, the most decisive in terms of Lahusen's style were the last of the «Lieder» written between 1956 and 1961, although their outstanding merit obviously went unrecognised, and much to the composer's chagrin his main opus, here again, never appeared as complete edition.