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Zum Jahresanfang - (2011)
Bertram Kottmann
for medium voice and piano
Ein kleines Stück der Ewigkeit
gibst Du aus Deinen Händen
und stellst es mir bereit.
Gib, dass ich es bedacht verwende
und täglich, bis zum Jahresende
es schätze -- als geschenkte Zeit.Copyright © Bertram Kottmann, BKottmann
t-online.de, reproduced on this website with kind permission.
Please contact the copyright-holder when requesting permission to reprint.
1 page, circa 1' 40"
A tiny piece of eternity
is given from your hands
and readies me.
Grant that I use it
daily, until year's end
treasuring it -- as a gift of time.
gb
A polytonal palette dressed in hushed dynamics and through the blurring of sostenuto suggests the mystery of time, as a piece of it passes and the triads ring together, one into another. The text is set as a modified two verse form, each extended sentence interpreted into one long arch and ending phrase. This was sent me in a end of year message by the poet, in which he wrote, "Many years ago I wrote a New Year poem for my wife." And so it becomes something now given to many more as greeting and meditation over the passing of the old year and beginning of the next.
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.
