Text: from the Biblical Song of Songs
PART ONE:
I. Let him kiss me –
II. On my bed at night
PART TWO:
III. Who is she –
IV. I slept, but my heart was awake
Commissioned by the Dutch broadcasting company NCRV, with additional financial support from the ‘Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst’
‘To Maaike’
There are varying interpretations of the biblical Song of Songs, also known as the Song of Solomon. For most of Jewish and Christian history, it was interpreted as an allegory representing divine love, despite its literal content being erotic poetry between a man and a woman. Rabbinic tradition viewed the text as an allegory of the covenantal love between God and the nation of Israel. This interpretation allowed the text to be included in the Tanakh. Early Christian theologians, starting with Origen, adapted the allegory to depict the relationship between Christ and his bride, the Church. This view dominated Western exegesis through the medieval period, emphasizing the spiritual union and the “happy exchange” of grace. In contrast, contemporary academic consensus largely rejects the allegorical approach, viewing the book instead as ancient Near Eastern love poetry. Scholars note that the text contains no explicit mention of God and parallels other secular love poems from the same period.
In 1991, my mother-in-law Mimi Deckers-Dijs (1936–2013) wrote a book about the Songs of Songs, entitled Begeerte in Bijbelse Liefdespoëzie. Een Semiotische analyse van het Hooglied (Desire in Biblical Love Poetry. A Semiotic Analysis of the Song of Songs), in which she interprets the biblical text as a self-contained, passionate universe, and in which love in all its forms, including physical desire, is celebrated. Furthermore, Mimi Deckers-Dijs views the text as a process of inner growth and ‘becoming human’ for two lovers.
In accordance with her perspective, I made a selection from the Song’s verses, based on my choice to write a symphony for soprano, tenor, choir and orchestra. This led to a division of the composition into two parts, whereby at the beginning of the second part the choir enters the stage while singing.
PART ONE, First Movement: Let him kiss me
Two lovers express their being in love with each other and their longing for one another in glowing terms.
PART ONE, Second Movement: On my bed at night
Here, the woman expresses her anxiety and fear of abandonment.
PART TWO, First Movement: Who is she?
This movement is basically a heroic and passionate appraisal of the woman by the man, with the choir joining in. Towards the end of the movement, the woman responds, inviting her lover to come and enjoy the fruits of their love He happily accepts, and the movement ends with the choir encouraging the lovers to consummate their love.
PART TWO, Second Movement: I slept, but my heart was awake
One night, when the woman is asleep, the man asks her to open to him. Understandably, the woman needs some time to overcome her sleepiness. However, by the time her desire has awakened as well, she finds that her lover has gone away. Panicking, she goes out into the city to look for him. The watchers of the city, finding her alone in the middle of the night, suspect her of being a prostitute. They beat her and remove her veil, causing her to lose her modesty and identity. When she then turns to the daughters of Jerusalem in her agony, they first mock her, but then offer their help to look for her lover. The woman admits her suspicion that her
lover has gone to his garden,
to the beds of spices,
to feed in the gardens
and to gather lilies.
The man then returns, with a guilty feeling. His appraisal of his lover now also contains the following verses:
You are (…) terrifying as standard bearers.
Turn your eyes from me,
they make me tremble.
The choir again joins in, after which the man confesses that indeed he
went down to the garden of nut-trees,
to look at the young green shoots of the date-palm,
to see if the vine had sprouted
and if the pomegranates were in bloom.
To which the woman answers, much to the man’s relief:
I cannot imagine it,
but I cannot help being as I am,
and that is why our noble race is kept strong.
The lovers reconcile and reunite, both having undergone a process of inner growth. The symphony ends with a description of love, by the soloists and the choir, as being
strong as death
and passion [is] cruel as Sheol.
It burns like blazing fire,
like the flame, the very flame of Jah!
The music alternates between, on the one hand, passionate passages—partly sensual, partly heroic—that give voice to feelings of love and passion, and, on the other hand, partly dreamlike, partly very intense passages that are at times alienating. The latter are partly atonal, particularly in the fourth movement, which features a dramatic conflict. For me personally, music that expresses love cannot be anything other than tonal. The bright, radiant key of E major therefore takes center stage in this symphony.
YouTube, parts of this playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ1xHHF9VOQ&list=PLUAAcElT-54I&index=2 ff