RundfunkchorLounge 26/27 »Clean Water and Dirty Business«

Super flumina Babylonis
illic sedimus et flevimus,
dum recordaremur tui Sion.
Illic interrogaverunt nos,
qui captivos abduxerunt nos,
verba cantionum.
Quomodo cantabimus canticum Domini
in terra aliena?
In salicibus in medio eius suspendimus
organa nostra.

Text from: Psalm 137 (Psalm 136 in the latin vulgata)

La mer est plus belle
Que les cathédrales,
Nourrice fidèle,
Berceuse de râles,
La mer sur qui prie
La Vierge Marie!

Elle a tous les dons
Terribles et doux.
J’entends ses pardons
Gronder ses courroux.
Cette immensité
N’a rien d’entêté.

Oh! si patiente,
Même quand méchante!
Un souffle ami hante
La vague, et nous chante:
«Vous, sans espérance,
Mourez sans souffrance!»

Et puis, sous les cieux
Qui s’y rient plus clairs,
Elle a des airs bleus,
Roses, gris et verts …
Plus belle que tous,
Meilleure que nous!

Text: Paul Verlaine (1833–1896)

1. Hear Me!

I had a bad dream
I stood by the sea
Suddenly the sky went black
and the sun burned up
Birds screeching in the sky
The beating of their wings warning us of
evil times to come.

2. Hush – Hear Me

[wordless]

Text: Rosa Taikon (1926–2017), transpated from Swedish by Linda Schenck

La noche de ojos de caballo que tiemblan en la noche,
la noche de ojos de agua en el campo dormido,
está en tus ojos de caballo que tiembla,
está en tus ojos de agua secreta.

Ojos de agua de sombra,
ojos de agua de pozo,
ojos de agua de sueño.

El silencio y la soledad,
como dos pequeños animales a quienes guía la luna,
beben en esos ojos,
beben en esas agua.

Si abres los ojos,
se abre la noche de puertas de musgo,
se abre el reino secreto del agua
que mana del centro de la noche.

Y si los cierras,
el río,
te inunda por dentro, avanza, te hace oscura:
la noche moja riberas en tu alma.

Text: Octavio Paz (1914–1998)

[Es beginnt zu regnen.]
P
mh
Plö – Plötzlicher
Ha

[Starker Regen fällt.]
(Z)a
Abendschauer
Schauer am Sommerabend

[Die großen Regentropfen, die auf dem Boden abprallen, scheinen zu tanzen]
Schauer, oh Sommerabend
Plötzlich Schauer
(Z)a

[Plötzlicher Schauer löst langsam sich auf ein Nieselregen.]
Za – Shito

[Ripples von Regentropfen auf dem Boden.]
Löst langsam sich auf
Nieselregen

[Der Regen hört auf und die Nacht bricht herein.]
Oh strahlender Herbstmond oh

[Der Mond schwebt am Himmel]
Oh strahlender Herbstmond oh

[Ein Kind greift nach dem Mond.]
Hol ihn mir herunter
Mond – oh

[Das Kind will den Mond, aber seine Hände können ihn nicht erreichen.]
Mond – Schau
Hol ihn mir herunter

[Die Hände des Kindes scheinen den Mond zu erreichen.]
Hol ihn mir herunter

[Der Mond steht sehr hoch oben.]
Schau

[Das Kind weint.]
Hol ihn mir, strahlender Herbstmond
weint das Kind.
shi.

About »Petrichor«

Two Japanese haiku by Kobayashi Issa were used as the text for this piece. A haiku is a traditional Japanese short poem that incorporates almost all the elements of the seasons. Aoi Hasegawa chose the haiku about the summer rain and the autumn moon and sought to link the two scenes together. The heavy rain of summer evenings turns to drizzle. In autumn, a large full moon appears in the clear night sky. A child asks his father to fetch the moon down for him. ‘Petrichor’ is the scent of the air after the rain, which links the two scenes: the evening rain shower and the night sky.

Summer Rain

In the Japanese language, there are a variety of onomatopoeic expressions used to describe rain. For example, heavy rain is sometimes described as »sah-sah« and light rain as »shito-shito«. Here, Aoi Hasegawa has attempted to describe the sound of rain directly by using both Japanese onomatopoeia and various consonants in the German text.

Autum Moon

Children long for the autumn moon and reach out for it. We, too, feel as though we could actually reach the moon if we looked up at the sky and reached out for it. In reality, however, the moon and we are very far apart. Aoi Hasegawa has sought to depict the physical distance between the moon and the child – a distance that is almost, but not quite, within reach – and the tranquil atmosphere, as if the air were still.

Ice!
So, you dislike ice!!!
But glaciers, dear friend – ice is only another form of terrestrial love. I am astonished to hear you speak so unbelievingly of God’s glorious crystal glaciers. »They are only pests,« you say, and you think them »wrong in temperature,« and they lived in »horrible times,« and you don’t care to hear about them.

You confuse me. You have taught me here and encouraged me to read the mountains. Now you
will not listen. Next summer you will be converted – you will be iced then.

I have been up Nevada to the top of Lyell and found a living glacier; (but you don’t want that) and I have been in the canyon above, and I was going to tell you the beauty there; (but it is all ice-born beauty, and too cold for you) and I was going to tell about the making of the South Dome; (but ice did that too) and about the hundred lakes that I found; (but the ice made them, every one) and I had some groves to speak about – groves of surpassing loveliness in new pathless Yosemite; (but they all grew upon glacial drift – and I have nothing to send but what is frozen or freezable).

Glaciers came down from heaven, they were angels with folded wings, white wings of snowy bloom. Locked hand in hand, the little spirits did nobly; they were willing messengers to whom God spoke »well done« from heaven, calling them back to their homes in the sky.

Next summer you will be converted – you will be iced then!

Text: Letter from the naturalist and philosopher John Muir (1838–1914) to his mentor Jeanne C. Smith Carr (1825–1903), dated 11 December 1871 (from Yosemite)

What power art thou, who from below
Hast made me rise unwillingly and slow
From beds of everlasting snow?
See’st thou not how stiff and wond’rous old
Far unfit to bear the bitter cold.
I can scarcely move or draw my breath.
Let me, let me freeze again to death.

Text: John Dryden (1631–1700)

[Soprano]
»O, ihr Wolken, gebet Wasser
Dass ich weinen, weinen kann!
Meine Äuglein, die sind nasser
Nasser als der Donaufluss!

Ach, in Trauern muss ich leben,
Ach, wie hab’ ich’s denn verschuldet?
Weil mir’s hat mein Schatz aufgeben,
Muss ich’s leiden mit Geduld.

Wenn ich zwei Taubenflügel hätt’,
Wollt’ fliegen über die ganze Welt,
Wollt’ fliegen über Berg und Tal,
Hin wo mein Herzallerliebster wär’!«

[Chorus]
Ach, Scheiden, ach, Scheiden!
Wer hat doch das Scheiden erdacht?
Der hat ihr jung frisch Herze
So frühzeitig traurig gemacht!

Text: Folk song

Es rinnen die Wasser Tag und Nacht,
Deine Sehnsucht wacht, deine Sehnsucht wacht.
Du gedenkest der vergangenen Zeit,
Die liegt so weit, die liegt so weit,
Du siehst hinaus in den Morgenschein
Und bist allein, und bist allein.
Es rinnen die Wasser Tag und Nacht,
Deine Sehnsucht wacht, deine Sehnsucht wacht.

Text: Franz Kugler (1808–1858)

I’ll be your bridge over troubled water,
When you’re down,
I will carry you.
Like a bridge over troubled water,
I will lay me down.

When you’re weary, feeling small,
When tears are in your eyes
I will dry them all;
I’m on your side.
When times get rough
And friends just can’t be found,
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.

When you’re down and out
When you’re on the street, my Lord,
When evening falls so hard
I will comfort you.
I’ll take your part
When darkness comes
And pain is all around,
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.

I’ll be your bridge over troubled water,
When you’re down,
I will carry you
Like a bridge over troubled water,
I will lay me down.

Sail on, silvergirl,
Sail on by.
Your time has come to shine.
All your dreams are on their way.
See how they shine.
If you need a friend,
Look around, I’m sailing right behind.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind.

I’ll be your bridge over troubled water,
When you’re down,
I will carry you
Like a bridge over troubled water,
I will lay me down.

Text: Paul Simon (*1941)

Alone in the night
On a dark hill
With pines around me
Spicy and still,
And a heaven full of stars
Over my head,
White and topaz
And misty red;

Myriads with beating
Hearts of fire
The aeons
Cannot vex or tire;

The dome of heaven
Like a great hill …

I know I
Am honored to be
Witness
Of so much majesty.

Text: Sara Teasdale (1884–1933)