Auden, Wystan Hugh: Brief an Henze, Hans Werner. New York, Sonntag, 15. Januar 1967
author: Auden, Wystan Hugh
language: en
availability: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Copyright by the Estate of W. H. Auden. By courtesy of the Estate of W. H. Auden. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

77 St Mark’s Place
New York 10003

Jan 15th probably ’67

Dearest Hans:

Many thanks for your two letters [Henze's two letters are not kept among the postal documents at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel. Apparently, Henze did not make any copies of this later correspondence.]. Glad you like my bits.[^1] If the worst comes to the worst, I will, of course, write Part I and the Epilogue, but still have hopes of extracting them from Chester.[^2] (Have just written to a mutual friend in Athens [Kallman was in Athens, as confirmed by a telegram Henze sent him urging him to send his parts for the libretto.]). What is so bewildering about the business is that in Oct, he had nearly finished Part I. I saw his draft with my own eyes and thought it very good. [This sentence confirms that Kallman had actively participated in the genesis of Moralities.]

[^1: Here, Auden is referring to his verses for Parts II and III of his libretto for Moralities, which Auden sent Henze on 5 January 1967, as he wrote in his letter, and which Henze set to music at this time.]

[^2: Here, Auden is referring to Part I and Epilogue of Moralities. Kallman was supposed to write the libretto for Part I and the Epilogue, but failed to do so, and it was for this reason that Auden wrote the entire libretto.]

Regarding The Christmas Oratorio[^3]

- 1) I would love you to set whatever you find settable.
- 2) Though the oratorio forms were in my mind when I wrote it, I did not write it directly for music. If I had, it would of course, be half the length. So, slack it to bits as you find best.[^4]
- 3.) For a performance, it is important that they hire a really good actor for Herod’s speech. [In his oratorio, Auden writes a long monologue for King Herod about the clash between faith and reason, entitled The Massacre of the Innocents.]

[^3: From Auden's three subsequent comments, it is assumed that Henze asked the librettist to set his long poem, For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio (written in 1941 and 1942, and first published in 1944), to music. Henze, however, would never set these verses to music.]

[^4: As the scholar Arthur Kirsch states: Auden originally intended For the Time Being to be set to music by Benjamin Britten as an oratorio, but it proved to be altogether too long and complicated, and Britten declined to do it. See Kirsch, To Choose What is Difficult All One'Days: W.H. Auden's For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio , p. 73]

Terribly sorry to hear about your health.[^5] Alcohol, I think, is still permitted, if nicotine is not. The most important thing in my opinion is to get plenty of sleep. Without it no medicine is any good.

[^5: As Henze recounts in his Autobiography, pp. 225-226, Henze had health problems in early 1967, after the performance of Die Bassariden on 3 January 1967 in Berlin, which he himself conducted, due to hypertension.]

much love
Wystan