Stille Sprache for soprano, violin and piano, opus 81 (2009)
- 1. Da stieg ein Baum
- 2. Nur wer die Leier
- 3. Ein Gott vermags
Stille Sprache (Language of Silence) is a setting of three poems from the first part of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Die Sonette an Orpheus (The Sonnets of Orpheus) for soprano, violin and piano. The work was composed in Sydney in mid-2009 for Felicitas Fuchs (soprano), Aki Saulière (violin) and Bernard Lanskey (piano) who perform under the name of Ensemble Soirée. The work was composed with the assistance of an Australia Council Composer Fellowship.
The three movements of the work are settings of the poems “Da stieg in Baum” (poem 1 from part 1), “Nur wer die Leier” (poem 9 from part 1) and “Ein Gott vermags” (poem 3 from part 1). Rilke’s rich language and immense sensitivity to music and sound makes his poetry highly apt for setting and musical expansion. In the case of these poems the presence of Orpheus’ lyre – by turns enchanting and wild – suggested the inclusion of the violin as an integral part of the settings. In that sense, the work is as much like a three movement sonata as it is a group of songs.
The title of Stille Sprache, reflects my concern with the manifold ways in which silence functions in music and in everyday communication between people. John Cage’s musings on silence may have distracted attention from this as silence is loaded with specific meaning and constitutes a kind of language. In verbal communication, as in music, it is rarely random in its intent. To give but three examples of different types of musical silence: the exclamatory silence of surprise and interruption; the silence that lies at the borderland of sounds; and the structural silence where a musical idea is shaped and directed by silence as a kind of bridge between ideas or their components. The incorporation of silence into my music has been something of an interest for a while so it is hardly a surprise that I would choose to make that clear in a title of a work based on poetry where silence and sound are pivotal to understanding.
© Andrew Schultz, 2009.
Texts
Rainer Maria Rilke – Die Sonette an Orpheus, 1:1, 1:9, 1:3.
1. Da stieg ein Baum
Da stieg ein Baum. O reine Übersteigung!
O Orpheus singt! O hoher Baum in Ohr!
Und alles schwieg. Doch selbst in der Verschweigung
ging neuer Anfang, Wink und Wandlung vor.
Tiere aus Stille drangen aus dem klaren
gelösten Wald von Lager und Genist;
und da ergab sich, daß sie nicht aus List
und nicht aus Angst in sich so leise waren,
sondern aus Hören. Brüllen, Schrei, Geröhr
schien klein in ihren Herzen. Und wo eben
kaum ein Hütte war, dies zu empfangen,
ein Unterschlupf aus dunkelstem Verlangen
mit einem Zugang, dessen Pfosten beben, –
da schufst du ihnen Tempel im Gehör.
2. Nur wer die Leier
Nur wer die Leier schon hob
auch unter Schatten,
darf das unendliche Lob
ahnend erstatten.
Nur wer mit Toten von Mohn
aß, von dem ihren,
wird nicht den leisesten Ton
wieder verlieren.
Mag auch die Spieglung im Teich
oft uns verschwimmen:
Wisse das Bild.
Erst in dem Doppelbereich
werden die Stimmen
ewig und mild.
3. Ein Gott vermags
Ein Gott vermags. Wie aber, sag mir, soll
ein Mann ihm folgen durch die schmale Leier?
Sein Sinn ist Zwiespalt. An der Kreuzung zweier
Herzwege steht kein Tempel für Apoll.
Gesang, wie du ihn lehrst, ist nicht Begehr,
nicht Werbung um ein endlich noch Erreichtes;
Gesang ist Dasein. Für den Gott ein Leichtes.
Wann aber sind wir? Und wann wendet er
an unser Sein die Erde und die Sterne?
Dies ists nicht, Jüngling, daß du liebst, wenn auch
die Stimme dann den Mund dir aufstößt, – lerne
vergessen, daß du aufsangst. Das verrinnt.
In Wahrheit singen, ist ein andrer Hauch.
Ein Hauch um nichts. Ein Wehn im Gott. Ein Wind.
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