Mutter - (2017)    

Ilse Weber

for mezzo soprano and piano

 

Wenn ich durch die Gassen geh,
begegne ich oft alten Frauen.
Sie sind so müde, so allein,
und ihres Daseins tiefste Pein
erfüllt mein Herz mit Angst und Grauen.

So geht wohl meine Mutter auch
durch eines fremden Ghettos Gassen,
gebeugt vom Alter und vom Leid,
die Augen voller Einsamkeit,
von allen, die sie liebt, verlassen.

2 pages, circa 2' 30"

Ilse Weber (1903-1944)

 

The text is from the collection, "In deinen Mauern wohnt das Leid" -- inside these walls sorrow lives.  Writer and songwriter, Weber was confined to the Prague ghetto by the National Socialists, deported to Theresienstadt, and murdered with her youngest son -- for that is the only word for this -- in Auschwitz.

 

As I go along the streets,
I often meet old women.
They are weary and so alone,
and their being's deep pain
fills my heart with fear and terror.

So too does my mother go
through our ghettos' foreign lanes.
She is bent from age and sorrow,
her eyes filled with separation
from all that she loves and lost.

 

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The two strophes are set identically, with the small exception of the minor melodic and harmonic color of the ending.

 

 

 

 

The score for Mutter 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.

 

Mutter