Music and Texts of GARY BACHLUND
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Denkst du - (2012)
Wilhelm Busch
for baritone or tenor and piano
Denkst du dieses alte Spiel
Immer wieder aufzuführen?
Willst du denn mein Mitgefühl
Stets durch Tränen ausprobieren?
Oder möchtest du vielleicht
Mir des Tanzes Lust versalzen?
Früher hast du's oft erreicht;
Heute werd ich weiter walzen.4 pages, circa 2' 00"
Wilhelm Busch
Do you think this dreary game
Will go always on and on?
Would you like to see my empathy
As earnest tears, not con?
Or perhaps you'd truly like to see
My dance to joy turned salty?
Previously you'd urged for that;
That proves your thinking's faulty.
rhymed paraphrase by the composer
Copyright 2012 © Gary Bachlund All international rights reserved.
The text is taken from Busch's Kritik des Herzens. For other settings of Busch's texts, click here. The rollicking waltz sets an aggressive tone to capture the editorial point Busch makes. The question from each strophe are separated into simple phrases and repeated: Denkst du? Willst du? One may assume an answer is expected to be returned, "no." How many people in this world think the "old game" can always go "on and on." For this, the cycle of history is replete with examples in which growth is followed by collapse, and collapse is followed by renewal, as man fails to learn the lessons of "this dreary game" which repeats itself in huge, worldwide events as in the small games of individual lives.
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.
