Music and Texts of GARY BACHLUND
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Was? - (2008)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
for medium voice and piano
ich bin
ich war
ich wär
ich bin gewesen
ich war gewesen
ich wär gewesen
o wenn ich wäre
o daß ich wäre
wollte gott ich wäre
ich wurde seyn
ich werde seyn
wenn ich seyn würde
o das ich seyn würde
ich würde gewesen
ich werde gewesen seyn
o wenn ich gewesen wäre
o daß ich gewesen wäre
wollte gott ich wäre gewesen
was? --
ein stockfisch
[ 3 pages, circa 1' 05" ]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Drawn from his various letters, the humorous and sometimes bawdy prose and poetry of Mozart is less known than it should be -- of only to round out a more complete picture of the man. I will leave it to reader to play through the various conjugations of "to be" with the only note about this text being that a "stockfish" was also the vernacular term for a boring individual, which Mozart most assuredly was not.
The setting is relatively simple, Mozartean in texture and the use of the lower neighbor resolutions which were signature of that time and style. The four-measure phrase repeats often throughout with small bridge materials leaning on the dominant to return us to the tonic is this unapologetically G major setting.
The question "what?" repeats several times for rhetorical as well as musical emphasis in the longest lingering on the dominant, before the answer in the tonic and swift completion of the setting.
The score for Was? 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.
