Music and Texts of GARY BACHLUND
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Wärst du ein Bächlein - (2008)
Wilhelm Busch
for tenor and piano
Wärst du ein Bächlein, ich ein Bach,
So eilt ich dir geschwinde nach.
Und wenn ich dich gefunden hätt'
In deinem Blumenuferbett:
Wie wollt ich mich in dich ergießen
Und ganz mit dir zusammenfließen,
Du vielgeliebtes Mädchen du!
Dann strömten wir bei Nacht und Tage
Vereint in süßem Wellenschlage
Dem Meere zu.
[ 2 pages, circa 1' 00" ]
If you were a brook and I a stream,
We would rush together.
And then we would be together
in the blossoming riverside:
How might I pour myself into you
such that we would flow completely together,
you well-beloved maiden, you!
Then would we beam by night and day,
married in sweetly gentle waves
unto the sea.
The gentle rush of the right and left hands of the piano are blurred by the sostenuto pedal as the voice rides above it in a simple, two-strophe song form. The arpeggiated chords break the two-measure harmonic rhythm into a hemiola within the 3/4 time signature.
The vocal line rises to the tonic on the word, "vereint," the verb meaning to unite or be combined, as it has several complementary meanings.
The score for Wärst du ein Bächlein 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.
