Henze here set the same well-known Walt Whitman poem that Ralph Vaughan Williams set forty years earlier in Toward the Unknown Region, but one can hardly imagine two more dissimilar approaches. Where Vaughan Williams used full chorus, orchestra, and a lush romantic sound, Henze's setting for soprano soloist and either piano or eight solo players (trumpet in C, xylophone, vibraphone, glockenspiel, percussion, harp, celesta, cello) anticipates the 1950s serial style exemplified by Boulez's Le Marteau sans Maître.

The text retains its integrity in Henze's setting; the vocal line doesn't disintegrate into isolated vowels and broken-up syllables as in many vocal pieces over the following two decades, and the musical phrase structure corresponds to the textual structure. Henze composed the piece shortly after a suicide attempt, which no doubt explains the attraction Whitman's text held for him ("Darest thou now, o soul/Walk out with me toward the unknown region").





© All Music Guide