I could do with a drink!

 

I could do with a drink! - (2011)    

Bertram Kottmann

for medium voice and piano

 

I could do with a drink!
What is writ in the stars -cannot be altered,
yet we forget it when the glasses twinkle!

Translation from German to English copyright © 2009 by Bertram Kottmann,

BKottmannt-online.de, reproduced here with kind permission.

Please contact the copyright-holder when requesting permission to reprint.

2 pages, circa 50"

 

The text is a translation of a short poem of Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866), as found in the The Lied, Art Song, and Choral Texts Archive, click here.

 

Gebt mir zu trinken!
Was in den Sternen steht, kann man nicht ändern,
Doch man vergisst es bei der Gläser Blinken!

 

 

The setting repeats the bid for a drink insistently in C major, with a contrasting section slipping a half tone higher to carry the remainder of the text, before returning even more insistently to the opening reprised in D flat. I could do with a drink...

 

 

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.

 

I could do with a drink!