Formation scheme for the Gurrelieder

“Formation scheme for the Gurrelieder | About 1914 | Maybe not until 1918, because the 4th choir is already planned | Arnold Schönberg” In a letter dated March 1914, Arnold Schönberg first presented to his publisher revision plans for the Gurrelieder, which had premiered the previous year, and also mentioned his intention to establish a fourth male chorus voice. This fourth chorus was to serve to make the main voices in a chorus from Part III stand out more clearly. “Irrespective of the entirely unrivalled complications in the score, the individual parts not only exist on paper, you can also hear them. Each one is a separate entity. The orchestra produces an extravagant flood of sound, a sea of lush euphony.” (Ludwig Karpath, Die Gurrelieder von Arnold Schönberg, in Neues Wiener Tagblatt, 24 February 1913)