(SW 1012)
In Ridil’s "Die Mär von Bischof Hatto” for mixed chorus with piano, composed in 1998, is presented again how close one can compose in a choral work on the text material.
The ballad of the drunken bishop, who had built - in the delirium tremens - the so-called “Mäuseturm” in the middle of the river Rhine near Bingen in order to escape his plague spirits in the form of white mice, is presented as a bitter-sweet street ballad.
The chorus part is mostly composed in a syllabic way and presents itself in a typical “Ballad mode”. At the end, the composer allows himself to quote the chorale “Vom Himmel hoch" for to say: “ich bring euch gute neue Mär...”.
At all the work is full of associations, which is so typical of Ridil’s works. This is especially evident in the infinitely fine, pianistically and musically highly demanding piano part. Here, the individual stanzas are not only connected in a preliminary way, but rather, the text is commentated throughout the whole work. Especially the “Dies irae”, sequence from the “Requiem mass”, as one of the most striking motifs, accompanies the story of the deadly drunkard.
The synthesis of homophonic chorus part and infinitely finely chiselled polyphonic piano setting is striking in the effect and shows the sovereign handling of the compositional material.