New Poems - 1907
(2002-03)— 18’
Winner, Julliard's 2004 Palmer Dixon Prize for Outstanding Composition
Mezzo Soprano, Fl., Cl., Perc., Pno., Vln., Vlc.
Texts: Rainer Maria Rilke
Premiere
November 17, 2003
Paul Hall, The Juilliard School
Mvt. I: Das Kapitäl
Mvt. II: Die Genesende
Mvt. III: Der König
Notes:
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) composed the Neue Gedichte or New Poems in
two volumes while living in Paris during his most prolific period of writing,
the years just after his employment by Auguste Rodin as a secretary. In both
volumes, known as breakthrough poetry and some of his earliest mature work, he
explores the materiality of objects in the world in a more active and deliberate
tone than that of earlier works like The Book of Hours.
The idea for a Rilke Cycle came about when I was in Switzerland in the summer of
2002, when all of Europe was experiencing some chaotic weather (one may remember
headlines of devastating flooding in Italy and Eastern Europe). I chose to end
my long trip by heading to the mountain village of Zermatt for a few days, and
spent them inside while an August blizzard dumped a foot of snow outside my
hostel door. There was a somewhat makeshift little lending library in the lounge
of this particular lodge, most of which was in German. Here I found a
two-language version of the Duineser Elegien (1923), a late work for Rilke. (He
started it in 1910, but difficulties in completing it led to a 12 year hiatus
from writing.) The book was in bad shape, but it was a trusted companion for the
next two days. Upon return to the US, I dug up every book of his that I could
find, and eventually settled on poems from the first part of the Neue Gedichte.
Each of the four poems evokes an instant as well as an object -- the details in a
Notre Dame cathedral column, the interaction of a bird and a tree branch, the
marred innocence of those both old and young. Of the New Poems, I found these to
be the most haunting and intimate, and chose to set them together. I found that
setting the poems in the original German proved to be appropriate for what I
wanted to express. Many thanks go to Dr. Edward Snow of Rice University, author
of the English translations that appear in the program, for all of his help.
New Poems- 1907 was premiered November 17th, 2003, in Paul Hall at the
Juilliard School. The composer conducted, with mezzo-soprano Brenda Patterson
and Juilliard instrumentalists performing
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