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Bumerang - (2009)
Joachim Ringelnatz
for medium voice and piano
War einmal ein Bumerang;
War ein weniges zu lang.
Bumerang flog ein Stück,
Aber kam nicht mehr zurück.
Publikum - noch stundenlang -
Wartete auf Bumerang.[ 1 page, circa 50" ]
Joachim Ringelnatz
There was once a boomerang
That was a little too long.
The boomerang flew off
But it didn't come back.
The public, for hours,
Waited for that boomerang.
GB
This seemingly silly little poem seems less about a boomerang than about a public which can be enormously gullible and patient beyond any reason to be patient. While civility is discussed as somehow absent from much of modern life, it seems to me that "convention as civility" is very much alive and that a public tolerates much. Were this not so, the many various snake-oil salesmen of the world would not survive, much less thrive.
The short setting features an inexact palindrome gesture, which sometimes is not completed by "coming back." The underlying tonality is F Lydian, less proven by the vocal line as by the accompaniment. The ending reduces down to a final minor second, F and E, as a whole note in the cut time setting. But wait....
The score is available as a free PDF download, though any major commercial performance or recording of the work is prohibited without prior arrangement with the composer. Click on the graphic below for this piano-vocal score.
