TIME- song cycle
Sharon Farber
About this work:
TIME song cycle composed, with Ms. Ayana Haviv and Ms. Tali Tadmor's performances in mind, brings together poems by different poets writing on different continents, often in different centuries, but which are related thematically: all speak of time, loss and love. Musically, the movements are also related, with motifs from each movement making cameo appearances in each of the other movements, blending almost seamlessly into the melodies. Aspects of Israeli folk music as well as the influence of both modern and romantic composers can be discerned throughout the cycle, creating a musical language that is unique, challenging and exceptionally beautiful. The emotional power of the words is at times overwhelming in its intensity, and at other times is balanced by a concentrated restraint; both of these extremes are also reflected in the piano, which "speaks" the poetry with just as much power as the voice.
The first poem, by English poet W.H. Auden (1907-1973), accepts that although there may well be reasons why events occur, life passes away, and our plans go awry, we cannot learn these reasons or predict the future. The passage of time can only show us events as they happen, but never explain them; and the artist, too, cannot help in this endeavor, as Auden writes in one of his gentlest and wisest debunkings of his own authority as a poet: "If I could tell you I would let you know." As the poet repeats this line and another, "Time will say nothing but I told you so," each time with a different emphasis, the musical line changes as well, as if to illustrate how the passage of time continually recycles the same events and yet always conceals their meaning, which slips from our grasp, continuously changing. In the second movement, set to Towards Myself
by Israeli poet Leah Goldberg (1911-1970), the singer moves from the acceptance that time will change us without offering enlightenment, to an embrace of the strength that the passage of time has given her; it is now she who gently mocks the lover of her youth, rather than time who mocks all of us. In Let There Be New Flowering, set to a poem by American poet Lucille Clifton (1936-), the singer seemingly expresses hope that future possibilities could hold positive change; and yet the music holds her back, reminding us of the great difficulties involved in progressing to this next stage. In the final movement, which contains musical elements from all three of the previous movements, we move back - both in time, since this is a setting of a poem by American poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), and in our subject matter. The singer at first expresses the hope that she could control time, somehow package and distribute it according to her wishes; but she quickly realizes that uncertainty in fact governs her fate; time, yet again, has said "I told you so."
Year composed: 2005
Duration: 17:03:80
Ensemble type: Unspecified Instrument(s)
Instrumentation: 1 Piano, 1 Soprano
Instrumentation notes: Song cycle for soprano and piano