TEXT 1

Music in the spirit of Freemasonry

At all times in its 300-year history, the world of Freemasonry has moved artists from all directions: poets created lively works with their living words, composers clothed them in garments of sound, and music interpreters breathed life into them. From all epochs and all parts of the world, we find representatives who belong to this circle: Goethe, Mozart and Liszt, but also Rudyard Kipling, Duke Ellington – or Josephine Baker.

Some of these poems and compositions were created for practical use in the lodges – whether in ritual or for entertainment in social gathering. Many other musical works – mainly spiritual, but also operas, folk songs or jazz – were inspired by Masonic ideals. Even if you do not listen directly to many a piece, Masonic spirituality forms the character of the work and finds expression in the work.

With this CD we will recall some of these pieces: over three centuries, from Germany, Austria, France, England, Italy and Finland, they testify to the contemporary and world-wide character of this art; their diversity of languages shows: they are marked by the spirit of our brotherhood. The recording wants to show the connection between music and freemasonry and give an impression of how music can help turn the Masonic ideals into harmony in every human being.  

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TEXT 2

All composers and several songwriters of our CD were Freemasons:

Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, 1676-1749, member of the Coustos-Villeroy Lodge in Paris.
The cantata “Les Francs Masçons”, published in 1743, is a plea for Freemasonry, who even during this early period of our history, wanted to reach out.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756-1791, member of the Viennese Lodges For Charity, For True Concord, Newly Crowned Hope. The text of Franz Heinrich Ziegenhagen, in 1753-1806, member of the Lodge To the Three Keys in Regensburg, covers the relationship of the progressive and masonic ideal to the commandment of love:The principles of our brotherhood are emphasized, even if the text is confined to Masonry.

Johann Nepomuk Hummel, 1778-1837, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832, were lodge brothers of the Amalia Lodge in Weimar. Their joint work, the “Drey Gesänge von Göthe” (“Three Songs by Goethe”), was created in close co-operation during the Lodge celebration on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the entry into government of Grand-duke Karl August, member and protector of Amalia Lodge, on September 3, 1825. Heinz Sichrovsky found the handwritten scores in The British Library in London. After the re-performance in 2011 at the Mozart house in Vienna, the first recording of this celebration text is available here.

The musical highlight of the successful opera “Zar und Zimmermann” by Albert Lortzing, 1801-1851, member of the Zur Beständigkeit und Eintracht Lodge in Aachen, and later of the Balduin zur Linde Lodge in Leipzig was the Song of the Tsar. Lortzing wrote a Masonic text on the same melody and in a similar musical style: „Zwei Sterne hoch oben am himmlischen Zelt“ (“Two stars high up on the celestial tent”).  
From his work “Eight Songs compiled with the accompaniment of the piano, and the St. Johannis Zum goldnen Rade lodge in Osnabruck. To Osnabrück most respectfully devoted by brother A.G. LORTZING in April of the year 5829 “we bring three songs.

Franz Liszt, 1811-1886, member of the Lodges Zur Einigkeit, Frankfurt, Zur Eintracht, Berlin, Honorary member of Modestia cum Libertate, Zürich, lived in Rome from 1861 onwards. In the spring of 1862, he composed the great praise of St. Francis of Assisi, “Cantico del sole e delle creature”, for baritone, piano or organ, and unanimous choir ad lib. The original Umbrian dialect of poetry was translated into contemporary Italian. In later years, he orchestrated the work: we offer the original version here: his attachment to Catholicism since his childhood days, finds expression in a work which points far away from the inner church view into a free view of the creation.

Sir Arthur Seymore Sullivan, 1842-1900, Grand Organist of the United Grand Lodge of England, who became famous as composer of comic opera, wrote a variety of sacred compositions, such as, for example, “Courage, Brother” – are still used today in the church as well as in Masonic ritual.

The eleven songs and organ pieces of the cycle “Rituaalimusiiki” op. 113 by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957, member of Suomi Lodge no. 1, Helsinki) and of his brother mason and essential songwriter Samuli Sario (1874-1957) come from 1927 and 1946. The unity of the musical style over the period of almost 20 years is amazing and bears witness to the unity of the spiritual thought and its musical realization: the demand “Wandre Volk zu Deinem Ziele” finds their answer in the call “Eilt zum Heimatlande hin”, which should not be considered as as a geographic country or national location, but as a shining “salem” in the vision of the seer.

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TEXT 3

People already sang in the first Freemason lodges 300 years ago. At first, these were simple songs with melodies which everyone could sing along. Originated from the Masonic spirit, they sang of the brotherly cooperation in harmonious chain songs, or were enthusiastic about the ideal temple construction of humanity. There also was ritualistic music, such as merry drinking songs in symbolic rhythms, with which one celebrated ritual drinking together at lodge tables.  
Most of these songs are now long forgotten, and the singing was replaced by the listening in the lodge boxes. Sound recorders have replaced notebooks and choral singing, and today’s Masonic music selection very rarely continues in the tradition of the forefathers.
In addition, some of these have culture-historical significance, especially through the musical level of their composers. All the more astonishing that some of the works that the Freemasons Mozart, Liszt, Lortzing, Clérambault, Sibelius, Sullivan or Hummel (and others) composed for the Lodge, are only now being found and rediscovered.
Swiss Freemasons have proceeded on the track of masonic compositions by the conductor and pianist Andres Joho and the baritone Otto Georg Linsi. It was an exciting journey of discovery, because it has been possible to trace, edit and record unpublished works from three centuries and six countries. With a lot of idealism and professionalism a production was realized, which has not existed before in this form.

Jens Oberheide
Former Grandmaster A.F.u.A.M. of Germany and former Chairman of the Masonic Association of artists, PEGASUS

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TEXT 4

If a few pages of my book have served a purpose in the sense of the Royal Art, this is an honor and joy. We often forget where we come from, namely, from artists (for what else would architects and sculptors be?), who carried the light of better knowledge into the dark times of the Middle Ages. Such lights can, in again darkening times, also record music and literature. That is why I want this CD to spread far beyond the circle of brothers.  

Heinz Sichrovsky
Austrian cultural journalist and ORF presenter