Tag: Symphony

Symphony Nr. III, ‘A Tribute to Komitas’. Version for Symphonic Wind Orchestra, Op. 65

I. Recollections                  attacca:
II. April 1915                        attacca:
III. Grief                                 attacca:
IV. Eternal Peace

Dedicated to the commemoration of the great Armenian bard Komitas

In April 1915, the Turkish government started to carry out a long standing plan to exterminate most of the Armenian people living in Turkey. The execution of this plan has become widely known as the Armenian genocide. One of the many victims of the gruesome atrocities that took place during this genocide is the great Armenian ethnomusicologist, musician and composer Soghomon Soghomonian, better known as Vartabed (Father) Komitas, who lived from 1869 to 1935. Together with several other prominent Armenians, he was arrested on April the 24th, 1915, and transported to Chankiri in Central Anatolia. Some weeks later, he was released and brought back to Constantinople. However, he couldn’t cope emotionally with what he had experienced and witnessed.

Soon, the first signs became apparent of what we would now call a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a disease still unknown at the time and therefore neither diagnosable nor treatable. He got into such a deep state of depression that his friends decided to take action. Against his will he was brought to the Hôpital de la Paix, a Turkish military hospital in Constantinople. Unfortunately, his emotional condition worsened to such a degree, that his friends decided to transfer him to a private clinic in Paris. For financial reasons he was later moved to the cheaper state institute Hôpital Villejuif, where he spent the remaining thirteen years of his life. He died in 1935, 66 years of age, as a result of a bone infection. The destiny of his creative legacy was no less tragic. The majority of his manuscripts was destroyed or got lost.

For a very long time I nurtured the wish to write a large-scale composition that in some way reflects all this, as a tribute to the great Armenian bard. During many years, I collected lots of sheet music and recordings of Armenian folk music, much of which notated by Komitas. Contact with the Dutch Marine Band about a new piece to be written for them provided a fresh impetus for realizing my wish, which eventually led to the Dutch Fund for the Podium Arts NFPK benevolently granting me two commissions for a symphony in four movements: one for the first two movements, and later a subsequent one for the third and fourth movements.

The entire symphony is based on motives from compositions by Komitas and on Armenian folk melodies, as notated by him, complemented with motives from Turkish folk tunes. The events of 1915 play an important part in the whole of the symphony, and are at the heart of its second movement. The division in movements is as follows:

  1. Recollections    attacca:
  2. April 1915           attacca:
  3. III. Grief               attacca:
  4. Eternal Peace

I. Recollections. During composing, I imagined Komitas in the Hôpital Villejuif looking back on his life until April 1915. In the sombre slow introduction there are two principal melodies: Ervum èm (Mourning song) and Lord, have mercy from his Armenian liturgy Patarag. Also, bits from a threatening sounding Central Anatolian tune are announced. And a glimpse from Komitas’ carefree Song of the Partridge ─ people familiar with music for wind orchestra will know it from Alfred Reed’s Armenian Dances ─ is heard, too. In the ensuing Allegretto, Komitas’ song Garun (Spring) and the movements Unabi and Marabi from his cycle of six Armenian dances for piano are the principal themes. In essence, this music has a friendly and delicate atmosphere, but ever again an element of tension and threat emerges. Now a forceful Allegro follows, in which several themes are being treated from a different perspective, reflecting conflicts and violence prior to 1915. Finally, the musical material is recapitulated. This time, the music never succeeds in recapturing the friendly and delicate atmosphere that was sometimes realized earlier on. There is more anguish and grief now, and the movement ends on a sombre note..

II. April 1915. Allegro barbaro. The Anatolian melodies that had already been indicated in the first movement, are at the heart of this movement, complemented with a Turkish tune for the zurna, an instrument that Komitas hated because of its shrill sound. At times, Komitas’ Ervum èm breaks through, and at one point, his Lord, have mercy is predominant.

III. Grief. Here, Komitas’ Lord, have mercy is the central theme, alternated with his famous song Krunk (The Crane), a song of an expatriate, an Armenian in the Diaspora, asking the crane if he has perchance any news from his motherland.

IV. Eternal Peace. Principal theme here is Komitas’ Et-Aratsch from his six Armenian dances for piano. His Song of the Partridge, featuring fleetingly in the first movement, now serves as a secondary theme. To me, Komitas comes across as having a very gentle nature and a refined taste. I imagine that he has found rest and peace in the hereafter. Since this isn’t possible without total forgiveness, I have taken the liberty to let the Anatolian melodies that appear in the first and second movements return at the end of the symphony, now in a peaceful and harmonious atmosphere.

Youtube:

Marine Band of the Royal Netherlands Navy conducted by Jan Cober

Osaka University Wind Orchestra conducted by Yoshinori Kubota

There is also a version for symphony orchestra, Op. 65a.

Symphony no. II ’From the Song of Songs’, Op. 30

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