Seid gut zueinander - (2017)    

Ilse Weber

for mezzo soprano and piano

 

Seid gut zueinander! Ist's denn so schwer,
dem andren ein liebes Wort zu sagen,
ein wenig seine Bürde mitzutragen -
ist in euren Herzen es schon so leer?

Wir sind in unsrem Elend alle gleich,
wenn wir erst einmal dieses Tal durchwandern,
und der allein ist glücklich noch und reich,
dem Güte blüht und Liebe für den andern,

der gern von seinem Brot ein Stückchen bricht,
wenn seines Nachbarn Augen darum flehen,
und der die Stütze ihm verweigert nicht,
wenn er zu müde ist, allein zu gehen.

Seid zueinander gut in Wort und Tat!
Sonst schlägt uns diese Zeit zu tiefe Wunden.
Und jeder sei euch Freund und Kamerad,
durch gleiches Schicksal uns verbunden.

4 pages, circa 2' 30"

 

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.

 

Be good to one another! Is it so hard,
to offer another a kindly word,
something of another's burden perhaps to ease --
what in your hearts has withered?
 

We are all born alike in our distress,
as first we wander through life's vale,
and one is indeed blessed and rich who
brings love and good to those who ail,
 
who will share a morsel from his bread,
seeing distress in a neighbor's eyes,
and will not refuse to lend a hand
when another is weary and is alone.
 

Be good to one another, in word and deed!
Or these times' wounds will strike us down.
And each must to another be friend and ally,
for being bound together in one fate. 

 

gb

 

 

The four strophes are set into an ABBA form, the A strophes in A minor and the B strophes in the subdominant minor.

 

 

 

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.

 

Seid gut zueinander