Sah ich das Glück mir winken – children or woman voice & men choir
children (or woman) voice solo or tutti, T1T2B1B2
poem: Hermann Hesse
duration circa 3’20
Listening to this piece again, I realize that it is an unconscious homage to the great composers of German choral music that I sang and studied. I find that in the look (we find the blue of the butterfly!) of Hermann Hesse there is this spark of happiness, fleeting like life but very much there, present.
Description
Flügelt ein kleiner blauer Falter vom Wind geweht, Ein perlmutterner Schauer, Glitzert, flimmert, vergeht. So mit Augenblicksblinken, So im Vorüberwehn Sah ich das Glück mir winken, Glitzern, flimmern, vergehn.
A small blue butterfly flies, blown by the wind, a mother-of-pearl shower, glitters, shimmers, vanishes. So with a momentary twinkle, so as it passed by, I saw happiness beckoning to me, glittering, shimmering, vanishing. -p
Un petit papillon bleu volette emporté par le vent, telle une ondée de nacre, il scintille, vacille et disparaît. Ainsi dans l’étincellement de l’instant, dans un souffle de passage, j’ai vu le bonheur me faire signe, scintiller, vaciller et disparaître. trad. J.C. Rosaz
interpretation note: we will be careful to vary the tempi as indicated, thus seeking to create a permanent instability like the fragility of the butterfly in the wind mentioned in the text and which symbolizes our fragility in the face of destiny.