Music and Texts of GARY BACHLUND
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Wollen - (2013)
Franz Drey
for medium or low voice
Ich will vom Leid,
dass weg es geht,
dass dir ein ander
Licht entsteht,
ich will den Kuss
von süßer Glut,
die nicht verdeckt
den schwachen Mut,
ich will das glühend
anders Sein,
ich will dich mir,
doch sei nicht mein!
Ich will mich neu
ein jedes Mal
und will dein Wollen
ohne Zahl.Copyright © 2007 Franz Drey All international rights reserved.
2 pages, circa 3' 40"
Franz Drey
I would from grief,
that as is right,
and as you rise
to distant light,
I would that kiss
of sweet desire,
it not conceal
by frailest fire,
I would that bright
Reality,
And would with you,
But set you free!
I would renew
Each every time
And would you will,
freely, sublime.
rhymed paraphrase by the composer
Copyright © 2013 Gary Bachlund All international rights reserved.
Berliner Franz Drey is a journalist specializing in public funded sciences and services with degrees in law as well as modern Chinese. An associate of my collaborator on several opera libretti, Susanne Paasch, he sent me his poetry collection, Umeinanderfallen. From this collection spanning many years of creativity, I choose the text above to set as an art song.
ranges for medium and low keys
The common tone relationship of the four chords -- a succession, more than progression, by the distinction made by Schoenberg -- binds them together, moving from major to minor. The repetitions of the verb, to will or want, suggested a verse form, the third strophe breaking into a more rhapsodic moment to capture the notion, "ich will dich mir, / doch sei nicht mein!" The last strophe then returns in an AABA form, and yet for the final statement, I opted to repeat the phrase, "Ich will," which is so often repeated throughout, as the tonality shifts affirmatively and ends in the tonal domain hinted at the end of first strophes.
The score for Wollen 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.
