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Lieder vom Wasser (1989-90) |
Lieder vom Wasser was commissioned by the Musica 90 festival of Strasbourg, where the first performance was given by Ensemble Accroche Note on 26 September 1990. It is the ninth of eleven works in a series entitled FICTIONS. The text is a series of six short German poems by the Alsatian poet Elisabeth Borchers (the fourth and fifth of which are set simultaneously, with percussionist as second voice), with the subtitles mõdchen, wind, fisch, ³ber dem wasser, unter dem wasser and meer, whose almost nursery-rhyme-like simplicity of surface, however oblique the language (a painful reclamation of German lyricism after its appropriation and perversion under the Third Reich), barely conceals threatening undercurrents, images of abduction, death and decay, as well as a nightmarish rapture and sensuality, words placed in the imaginary mouths of children, fish, the wind, and the sea itself.
The composition might be seen as a 'cycle' of five compressed 'songs' embedded in a ten-minute structure of sharp formal outlines. The oppositions between surface and depth in the text are reflected in fragile relationships between vocal and instrumental behaviour. lieder vom wasser is dedicated to the memory of Luigi Nono (1924-90), a composer whose example of commitment and integrity, musically and otherwise, one can only hope to emulate.
© Richard Barrett December 1992