The diverse images of the Apocalypse of St John the Evangelist inspired me to write this work. In two symphonic movements, I tried to capture something of the fascination of the revelations and their significance for our time. It was not only the dramatic scenes of this end-time vision that played a role, but also the mysterious numerical mysticism of John's visions that was important for finding the material and for the formal structure. In the composition, I attached particular importance to the comprehensibility of the musical ideas as well as to clear formal sequences.

The work begins with a five-note sound and its modifications. A three-note motif (symbolising the divine) is added and becomes increasingly important as the movement progresses. The introduction ends with the sevenfold repetition of the note f.

Bitonal mixed tones determine the next, predominantly melodic section, which leads into a vibraphone cadenza.

A sequence of four notes is juxtaposed with the three-note motif. In the development section that now begins, all the elements of the movement are brought together. At the climax of the movement, which is quickly reduced, the three-note motif appears once again in unison in all clarity. A contemplative, tonal episode is followed by a short, violent outburst, which is replaced by a calm coda in which the original material is heard once again.

The 2nd movement is essentially a stormy allegro, signalling the apocalyptic horsemen. The first four notes of a twelve-tone row take on the function of a head motif. Contrasting rhythmic patterns give the movement, which is repeatedly interrupted by contrasting insertions, a musical flavour. After a large-scale build-up at a slow tempo, with the head motif as a basso ostinato, the movement fades away in the outermost pp. The four superimposed triads at the end of the work symbolise the four gates of the heavenly Jerusalem.

The work was composed at the suggestion of the Berliner Philharmoniker between November 1979 and April 1980.

Bertold Hummel

The symbolic power of the images presented to us in the revelations of St John has always stimulated creative forces.

Numerous works that have been created in recent decades show that the artists of our time have a special affinity with the images that appear in the Apocalypse. One reason for this may be that it makes sense to relate the great wars and human hardships of our century directly to the promises of St John.

The question of the critical man of our time is obvious: Are these visions of the evangelist the hallucinations of a schizophrenic, the tormented wishful dreams of a prisoner and a tormented man? John apparently heard voices, saw figures, heard singing, the sound of trumpets and thunderclaps, gave orders and carried them out. All signs of a psychiatric diagnosis of "mental derangement".

On the other hand, there is the value of what is said, the truth of the story. The battle and victory of light over darkness is expressed in a multitude of images. The Apocalypse depicts the drama of the world and humanity in an archetypal way and is therefore "timeless". Are not the fates of individuals and entire peoples sometimes dramatic anticipations of an end time towards which our world is irrevocably heading?

Long before I began composing my "Visions" in November 1979, I had been studying the fascinating "Book of the Seven Seals". I was deeply moved by numerous artistic interpretations of this end-time vision. I received particularly lasting impressions from Olivier Messiaen's "Quatuor pour la fin du temps", which the composer wrote in 1940 while a German prisoner of war and has been a key work in his oeuvre ever since.

It is not only the dramatic stages of the Last Judgement that inspired me as a musician, but above all the mysterious numerical symbolism of the Apocalypse, which lends itself particularly well to an abstract, textless interpretation. It would go too far to attempt a comprehensive in-depth psychological interpretation. Here are just a few numbers and their meaning that play a role in my composition.

The number 7 (7 stars, 7 candlesticks, 7 seals, etc.) is mythologically the number of transformation that leads to fulfilment. It points to a whole that is completed in individual effects and forms.

The number 6 indicates our attachment to matter. The number 4 and its multiplication, especially 12, 24 and 144, is the expression of a final perfection when it is related to a fifth (or a thirteenth).

Based on Hebrew numerical mysticism, WEINREB writes

"12 without the thirteenth is a state of struggle in which God fights with gods, as it says in the Bible, a state of perpetual, restless motion. From the thirteenth comes redemption."

It can be inferred from the above that my attempt at musical interpretation is not content with merely tracing individual dramatic scenes, but also includes the world of images with their sigils. For example, the reference to the heavenly Jerusalem - the eternal city of God - with its 4 x 3 gates at the end of the 2-movement work finds its musical realisation as follows:

Four triads are gradually layered on top of each other to form a sound that encompasses all 12 tones. The work, which was written at the suggestion of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, was completed on 1 April 1980. I have certainly not escaped the danger of including confessional traits in my "visions".

Bertold Hummel

"Visions" for large orchestra op. 73
(after the "Apocalypse" of St John)

An attempt at an interpretation

Although the composer never commented on any of his works as extensively as he did on his "Visions", which he wrote for the Berlin Philharmonic on the occasion of the Katholikentag in 1980, those very comments and analytical schemes are more confusing than they contribute to a deeper understanding of this very thought-provoking tone painting. I say "painting" because the impressions after listening to the music remain just as vivid as when reading the"Apocalypse" of St John of Patmos, from which Hummel, like many artists before him, was inspired.

Initially, Hummel took a critical look at the biblical text. The following quotations are, without exception, taken from an introductory text by Hummel to his"Visions" op. 73, which the composer made available to the author.

Are these visions of the evangelist the hallucinations of a schizophrenic, the tormented wishful dreams of a prisoner and a tormented man? John apparently heard voices, saw figures, heard singing, the sound of trumpets and thunderclaps, gave orders and carried them out. All signs of a psychiatric diagnosis of "mental derangement".

Despite this, Hummel argues in favour of the truthfulness of the Gesichte and sees them as an archetypal depiction of the battle of good against evil: the battle and victory of light over darkness is expressed in a multitude of images. In an archetypal way, the "Apocalypse" depicts the drama of the world and humanity ... Are not the fates of individuals and entire peoples sometimes dramatic anticipations of an end time towards which our world is irrevocably heading?

Throughout his career as a composer, Hummel was repeatedly drawn to apocalyptic themes, especially the visions of St John:

'Long before I began composing my "Visions" in November 1979, I had been studying the fascinating "Book of the Seven Seals".

The author suspects that the reason for this "fascination" can be found in Hummel's own biography, who, like most of his generation, was forced into military service in 1943 when he was not even 20 years old. According to his own statements, this time left him deeply traumatised. He seems to have related the apocalyptic images to his own youthful experiences:

<It is obvious > to relate the great wars and human hardships of our century directly to the promises of St John.

Hummel also repeatedly depicted the horror of war and possible global annihilation in earlier works: in the first two symphonies, music is clearly heard as a mirror of fear. However, both works still have an optimistic finale. The ballet"The Last Flower" op. 55a, premiered in 1975 and based on a picture story by James Thurber, is different: whereas in Thurber's model, destruction and reconstruction of the world are strung together in an endless chain, with people forgetting each time why a war was actually waged (the flower symbolises the belief in the indestructible in man), Hummel finally lets the flower die after a war waged with nuclear weapons.

At the end of his"Visions", Hummel does refer to St John's vision of the heavenly Jerusalem, but only hints at it with a twelve-tone sound layered from four pure triads (the 4 x 3 gates of the city!), which in his other works ("Die letzte Blume","Poem") represents the sphere of dreams. Thus his conclusion remains at least ambiguous, for a dream can mean both premonition and illusion.

Claus Kühnl (from: "Die Sinfonischen Werke Bertold Hummels" in "Bertold Hummel", Komponisten in Bayern Vol. 31, Tutzing 1998)