Marietta

 

Marietta - (2011)    

Klabund

for tenor and piano

 

Kabarett zum roten Strich.
Leise flog der bunte Vogel
Über Busch und über Kogel
Unabänderlich.

Du und ich und dies und das
Unter Buchen auf dem Moose –
Eine kleine weiße Rose
Nahmst du aus dem Wasserglas.

Einmal fand ich deinen Schenkel
Kleine Rose milder Gier.
Große Mutter warst du mir,
Und ich war dir wie ein Enkel.

So wie wenn ich sterben müßte,
Dreizehn Jahre alt und jung,
Nebel und Erinnerung
Fiel ich zwischen deine Brüste.

3 pages, circa 3' 00"

Klabund

 

To the cabaret on Brothel Street
Blithely flew a colored bird
Over bush and mountain top
Inevitably.

You and I and this and that
Under beeches and on the moss --
A small white rose
You'd lifted from a water glass.

Once I found in your thighs
The little rose of gentle desire.
A real mother were you to me,
And to you I was like a grandchild.

So when I come to die,
Having been thirteen years old and young,
Mist and memories
Will recall that time between your breasts.

 

paraphrase by the composer

 

 

The dark tale of this kind of life and loss of innocence is told in bittersweet imagery. Yet it is the inevitability which the poet highlights, and which is reprised in the setting's return to the opening strophe as its conclusion. Chromatic dissonance surrounds the tonic minor with minor and augmented triads moving by half steps. The range is not high for tenor, but it is the color of the voice type which is sought in the writing.

 

For other settings to texts by this poet, click here.

 

The score for Marietta 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.

 

Marietta