The Glove

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The Glove was a 1983 musical collaboration and recording project by The Cure's Robert Smith and Siouxsie and the Banshees' Steven Severin.

History

Smith and Severin founded The Glove during a period when they were under heavy stress in their respective bands, The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

In June 1982 Robert Smith was on the verge of a breakdown, drained from the production of The Cure's bleakest album, 1982's Pornography and its tour, substance abuse, and band infighting that led to the departure of bassist Simon Gallup.

In October 1982, guitarist John McGeoch left Siouxsie and the Banshees due to illness, shortly before the start of an important European tour. Smith was asked to fill in and officially became a member of Siouxsie and the Banshees in November 1982. He had previously played live with the band in 1979 on their Join Hands tour, when he replaced guitarist John McKay, who had walked out at the start of the tour. The Cure were the support band for the whole tour, and Smith therefore played two sets per night.

Der Handschuh

Der Handschuh (The Glove) is a ballad by Friedrich Schiller, written in 1797, the year of his friendly ballad competition ("Balladenjahr", "Year of the Ballads") with Goethe.

History

The ballad is based on a true story, which Schiller found in a volume Essais historiques sur Paris de Monsieur de Saint-Foix (1797). It took place at the court of Francis I of France.

Synopsis

Alongside other members of his court, King Francis I watches a fight between wild animals. A lion is sent out into the arena first, but it just yawns and lies down. The king then orders a tiger to be released, but after a few moments of excitement it just walks around the lion before also lying down. Next, the king commands two leopards be brought out. These attack the tiger, the lion roars and stands up, but then they all lie down, hot after their murderous exertions.

At this point Fräulein Kunigund loses her glove: it falls from the balcony into the midst of the animals. She asks the knight Delorges to retrieve the glove as a proof of his proclaimed love. He accepts the challenge, enters the circle, and recovers the glove without being harmed. The court is impressed by his bravery and Kunigunde looks at him with a promise in her eyes, but Delorges throws the glove in her face and says that he has no interest in her gratitude.

Der Handschuh (Waterhouse)

Der Handschuh (The Glove) is a composition by Graham Waterhouse. He wrote the setting of Schiller's ballad for cello and speaking voice in 2005. It was published in 2007 in Heinrichshofen's Verlag.

History of cello and speaking voice

Graham Waterhouse composed Der Handschuh in 2005, as a kind of melodrama in the tradition of spoken narrative to instrumental accompaniment, such as ballads by Robert Schumann and Richard Strauss, a crucial scene of Weber's opera Der Freischütz and 20th century settings by Schoenberg, William Walton and Henze. It is the composer's first major work for the combination of Sprechstimme (speaking voice) and his instrument, the cello. Until then he had occasionally set texts to music for the unusual scoring. In 1995 he wrote Vezza, a limerick on whether/weather as a German might pronounce it, recorded in 2002 with the composer speaking and playing. In 2001 he set Flohlied (Song of the Flea), the satirical song from Goethe's Faust I, to music, published by Heinrichshofen's Verlag. The final poem of his 2003 song cycle Sechs späteste Lieder (six latest songs) after Friedrich Hölderlin for mezzo-soprano and cello is spoken.