Uriel - Symphonic Poem for Large Orchestra and Organ ad lib., Op. 155 (1945)
(Tondichtung für grosses Orchester und orgel ad libitum)

In the first months of 1944, Leopold van der Pals composed the symphonic poem Uriel. At the same time, the world was engulfed in the Second World War, the most devastating conflict humanity had ever experienced. The work was completed on 1 May 1944, at a moment when Germany was suffering significant setbacks and the Wehrmacht had entered a permanent defensive position, with no realistic chance of victory, even though the war would continue into 1945. Meanwhile, reports circulated of mass executions, deportations and systematic death camps. Deeply shaken by the horrors of war and its crimes against humanity, van der Pals turned to the archangel Uriel, the bearer of light and wisdom, and created a work inspired by his message.

The composer’s working title was Uriel Mysterium, though he later removed the word ‘Mysterium’. By shortening the title to Uriel, van der Pals placed emphasis on the musical personification of this force rather than on theoretical explanation.

Uriel, meaning ‘the light of God’ or ‘God’s illumination’, is traditionally regarded as the angel who guides humanity through conscience, morality and truth. His gaze is searching rather than judgemental; it illuminates and compels us to confront the consequences of our actions. In this sense, Uriel reflects humanity back upon itself, revealing our flaws in the light of a higher order.

One year after the completion of the composition, on 8 May 1945, the war ended with Nazi Germany’s capitulation. The full extent of the atrocities became widely known, and the world faced both a humanitarian catastrophe and a profound moral awakening. Three days later, on 11 May 1945, van der Pals completed the orchestration of Uriel. This chronology reflects the scale of the work and the composer’s inner response to the war.

Uriel is therefore more than a musical composition; it stands as a spiritual testimony and an invitation to reflection, an artistic response to a time that demanded both moral clarity and great human strength.

The work was first performed on 1 September 1950 by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm, conducted by the composer’s brother, Nikolaj van der Pals. The following year, in March 1951, Nikolaj conducted the piece again with the Finnish Radio Orchestra in Helsinki. Both performances were broadcast live. Leopold awaited them anxiously by the radio, but on each occasion technical difficulties prevented him from hearing the broadcasts.

From the composer’s diary:
Sestri Levante, 1 September 1950

‘Letter from Kokka [Nikolaj]. He conducted my Uriel in a radio concert in Stockholm this evening. I am deeply disappointed not to have heard it. The hotel here did not have that channel, and no one could tell me the shortwave frequency. It would also have been nice if Walburga and Lea had been able to hear it.’

Dornach, 9 March 1951

‘Today Kokka conducted my Uriel in Helsinki, but I was again unable to hear it on the radio. I have therefore not yet heard the work for a second time.’

The work’s motivic material is built upon a tense interval, the seventh. This interval appears both as an underlying accompanimental structure, for example in the first violins (bars 1–17), and as a principal motif, notably in the cellos and brass (bars 53–60). Formally, Uriel unfolds in three sections (Langsam – Etwas lebhafter – Tempo I), each reaching its own climax, with each successive climax surpassing the previous one. At the final culmination (bar 183), the organ enters, carrying the work to its conclusion in an expansive, Brucknerian fortissimo. Here, the motivic development finally expands to an octave (bars 191–192), marking the apex of the metamorphic process characteristic of van der Pals’s later works. When the seventh ultimately resolves into an octave, the music attains release and its ultimate climax.

Uriel was only recently rediscovered among the composer’s handwritten manuscripts.

Tobias van der Pals, Copenhagen, 2026