Music and Texts of GARY BACHLUND
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Scherze nach "Bunessan" - (2018)
for piano
Karin Bunk gewidmet
The tune popularly known as "Morning has broken" and often recorded by popular artists in these last decades is historically a traditional Gaelic melody, which is traced back to Lachlan Macbean's Songs and Hymns of the Gael (1888, and used with a number of variant texts. Apparently the melody comes originally from the Isle of Mull in Scotland. The popularized, more modern begins: "Morning has broken, like the first morning. Blackbird has spoken, like the first
bird." What speech did that blackbird give? A song? A sermon? A scold perhaps?
Given that Gaelic is not English, the German title for this little piece for piano links to Karin Bunk's thought that I might write a work for her on some favorite tune was a "jest." As is herein shown, this is not proven to have been a jest. Yet there are jests within the conception of the piece, as the lyric refers to that "blackbird" which "has spoken, like the first bird." Blackbirds can be a noisy bunch, and unlike the musical references to such as nightingales and other singing birds, the blackbird pales. The opening gesture, therefore, begins with a lightly raucous call. Thereafter in a number of variants, the melody is portrayed in various ways.
5 pages, circa 5' 45" - an MP3 demo is here:
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 score.
