Franke QUESTIONS (IF I WERE RAIN) by ScoresOnDemand

FRANKE

QUESTIONS (If I were rain)

for five voices

BERND FRANKE

QUESTIONS (If I were rain)

for five Voices

based on poems and texts by Khalil Gibran, Emily Dickinson, Rumi, Sumitra and Meenu

(2012)

Commissioned by the ensemble amarcord for their 20th anniversary

Duration: c. 21 min.

First performance: 5 October 2012, Gewandhaus zu Leipzig, festive concert of the ensemble amarcord for their 20th anniversary

CONTENT

If I were rain (I) (Sumitra, India / 12 years)

Children (The Prophet, Khalil Gibran)

Nature (Emily Dickinson)

When the rose is gone (Rumi)

Down Time’s quaint stream (Emily Dickinson)

Time/Death (The Prophet, Khalil Gibran)

If I were rain (II) (Meenu, India / 12 years)

TEXTS

I If I were rain (I) (Sumitra, India / 12 years)

If I were rain, I would go to those who have no water. I would say to them “I am coming”. Everyone on earth would come out and I would pour water into their utensils and fill them...

II Children (The Prophet, Khalil Gibran)

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

III Nature (Emily Dickinson)

“Nature” is what We see –The Hill – the Afternoon –Squirrel – Eclipse – the Bumble bee –Nay – Nature is Heaven –

“Nature” is what We hear –The Bobolink – the Sea –Thunder – the Cricket –

Nay – Nature is Harmony –“Nature” is what We know –But have no Art to say –So impotent Our Wisdom is To Her Sincerity.

IV

When

the rose is gone (Rumi)

When the rose is gone and the garden faded you will no longer hear the nightingale’s song. The Beloved is all; the lover just a veil. The Beloved is living; the lover a dead thing. If love withholds its strengthening care, the lover is left like a bird without care, the lover is left like a bird without wings. How will I be awake and aware if the light of the Beloved is absent?

Love wills that this Word be brought forth.

V Down Time’s quaint stream (Emily Dickinson)

Down Time’s quaint stream

Without an oar

We are enforced to sail

Our Port a secret

Our Perchance a Gale

What Skipper would Incur the Risk

What Buccaneer would ride

Without a surety from the wind

Or Schedule of the Tide

VI Time / Death (The Prophet, Khalil Gibran)

(TIME)

You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable. You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons. Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing. Yet the timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness, And knows that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream.

But if in your thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons, and let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.

(DEATH)

You would know the secret of death. But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?

If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life. For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

Only when you drink form the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

VII If I were rain (II) (Meenu, India / 12 years)

If I were rain, I would pour down on the shrubs and plants that have dried. Birds would sing, flowers bloom, plants and trees grow fresh with new leaves and bear fruit.

(e ca. 60)

(e approx. 60)

Auftragswerk des Ensemble amarcord zum 20-jährigen Jubiläum Commissioned by the ensemble amarcord for the 20th anniversary

QUESTIONS (If I were rain)

for five voices based on poems and texts by Khalil Gibran, Emily Dickinson, Rumi, Sumitra and Meenu

I

If I were rain (I) (Sumitra, India / 12 years)

Vibrato Iwererain,

who havenowater.

wererain,

(mögliche Einsätze) (possible entries / starting points) I

Bernd Franke (2012)

would goto

come out,

(e 120+)

mf G Iwererain, I wererain, Iwouldgo, wouldgo.

If 

 If mf Iwererain, I wererain, Iwouldgo, wouldgo.

If mf Iwererain, I wererain, Iwouldgo, wouldgo.

I wererain, I wererain,

wouldgo, wouldgo.

zur Aufführung: Am Anfang können alle eine unterschiedliche Position im Raum einnehmen, Einsätze sukzessiv bei (  mögliche Einsätze).

Ⓐ - Ⓑ kann mehrfach wiederholt werden, je nach Raumgröße und Abstand zur Bühne. Bei Ⓒ sollte man die Bühne erreicht haben (nicht gleichzeitig!)

Dann Ⓒ - Ⓓ mehrfach wiederholen (bis alle die Bühne erreicht haben) und zu Ⓔ übergehen. Bei Ⓕ Fermate halten, bis alle ihre Fermate erreicht haben, dann und attacca weiter zu Ⓖ - Ⓗ.

Bis Ⓒ möglichst auswendig!

to the performance: At the beginning everyone can have a different position in the room, successive entries, look for (  possible assignments).

Ⓐ - Ⓑ can be repeated several times, depending on the size of the room and distance from the stage. At Ⓒ everybody should have reached the stage (not at the same time!)

Hold at Ⓕ fermata until everyone has reached their fermata, then and attacca continue to Ⓖ - Ⓗ.

If Vorschlag für Einsätze / Reihenfolge: B 2, T 2, B 1, T 1, Bar. Suggested order of entries / starting points:: B 2, T 2, B 1, T 1, bar.

(e ca. 60)

(e approx. 60)

If  Bar / B 1 / B 2 mf A Iwererain,

If I were rain (I) (Sumitra, India

12 years)

wererain,

who havenowater.

com ing,

- Iamcoming.

comeout,

and C (Bar. / B1 8va ossia) Iwould pour

wouldcomeout

II

Children

("The Prophet", Khalil Gibran)

h 66 - 69+-

fließend / flowing

Your, mf your, yourchildren,- children,-children,- children-

Your, mf yourchildren,-your, yourchil dren, yourchil-

arenot

(gibt Einsatz für B 2) (gives the entry for B 2)

-dren,notyour, yourchildren- are, are,are

(e 60, nicht synchron!, Phrase 3 x) (e60, not synchronously!, phrase 3 x) yourchildren-are not,arenotyourchildren,

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