My Beloved
Sharon Farber
About this work:
Poet Nathan Yonathan had two children, Ziv and Lior, of whom the eldest, Lior, was killed in the Yom Kippur war. This loss colored his later works and the poem “Ahuv Sheli” expresses his sorrow in a simple and honest way.
As an artist, it was an emotional experience for me to set Nathan Yonathan’s beautiful poetry to music, trying to express through sound what he had so hauntingly articulated in words. Thus, the piece starts in unison, to symbolize the uniting pain felt by those who know the experience of losing their child, but is immediately divided into four parts, as we are all different in the ways we’re dealing with loss.
The singers sometime sing together as one, and yet other times they would blend in a counterpoint of harmony and rhythm; at times the music features a solo soprano, echoed by the cello, and at other times brings the whole ensemble together, in order to reach climatic moments.
One beautiful and heartbreaking phrase that has moved me as an artist is “A sad dream of beauty” (chalom atzuv shel yofi)- like Nathan Yonatha’s way of showing feelings without being melodramatic, I have tried to deal with this phrase in a different way at the end of every verse; in the first two times in a delicate, self-reflected way, but eventually, the author is screaming his pain, and the music screams with him. Yet, he immediately quiets down to the final statement, slowly ending the same way it started, with those simple, yet painful words, “ahuv sheli-my beloved”.
It is my honor to set music to such a stirring and poignant poem, and I hope I was able to express some of the poem’s emotions through my music.
Version: women's choir
Year composed: 2005
Duration: 07:00:80
Ensemble type: Chorus, with or without Solo Voices:Chorus with Chamber Ensemble
Instrumentation: 1 Clarinet, 1 Bassoon, 1 Piano, 1 Violin, 1 Cello, 1 Soprano