Music and Texts of GARY BACHLUND
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Was gibt es doch für Narren! - (2013)
Wilhelm Busch
for baritone
Gottja, was gibt es doch für Narren!
Ein Bauer schneidet sich ,n Knarren
Vom trocknen Brot und kaut und kaut.
Dabei hat er hinaufgeschaut
Nach einer Wurst, die still und heiter
Im Rauche schwebt, dicht bei der Leiter.
Er denkt mit heimlichem Vergnügen:
Wenn ick man woll, ick könn di kriegen!2 pages, circa 1' 30"
Wilhelm Busch
God yes, but what fools there are!
A farmer cuts himself shards
Of dry bread and chews and chews.
While doing this he looks up
At a sausage, hanging motionless
In the smoke, nearby to a ladder.
He thinks with secret pleasure:
If one wished to make the effort, one could get it!
Unrhymed paraphrase of the composer
A four-square thumping motive, unsubtle and coarse, accompanied the setting of the seen. The vision of the sausage is caught by a bright arpeggio, its un-savored glories underscored with triplets against duplets. Busch's pronouncement on the laziness of the farmer comes to a harsh close, the first line of the poem placed last as final judgment. It has been often observed, God helps those who help themselves.
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-vocal score.
