OPUS 5
Male Voice and Recorder (2017; 2020)
One piece, with a total duration of ca. 22 minutes. Dedicated to UMS ‘n JIP (Ulrike Mayer-Spohn & Javier Hagen)
NOTES — The form of Opus 5 is partially the result of the interplay between two distinct types of melodic materials. The first consists of a dense chromatic conglomerate, while the second, presented in its simplest form at the end of the piece, is derived from the instrumental duets in the third act of Monteverdi’s Orfeo.
The text dates from 1904, preceding Marinetti’s manifesto writings that include some of his more hideous futurist ethos. My intervention and recomposition of the text underlines a gloomy Freudian theater of three protagonists: the voice of the self (ego), the voice of the woman (id), and the voice of the sea (superego). While the virtual voices are only projections of the male protagonist, the resultant dialogue between the three voices shapes the melodic character and defines the major sectional divisions of the work.
Text recomposed by Ermir Bejo & taken from Filippo Marinetti’s “Distruzione: Poema Futurista”
La mia voce:
Trema il mio cuore al vedere i lor teneri volti chiarificati dall’estasi e perduti nei vortici delle loro folte chiome di turchese.
La carezza della mia bocca, non l’avrai più!
La voce della donna:
Disimparò la tua bocca l’ebrietà del mio bacio. Chiudi gli occhi perchè io baci le tue palpebre. Chiudi gli occhi perchè io possa abbeverarli della mia tepida saliva, deliziosamente…Ti sento… ti bacio
La voce del mare:
Com’è lontana dalla tua anima questa bella fronte ideale! Perche t’ostini?
La mia voce:
Aspetto il supremo sussulto di questo corpo snodato che si dissolve in delizia, e voglio la comunione suprema delle nostre agonie, perchè il suo corpo alfine mi ringrazi, ebbro di gioia, della crudele lentezza dei miei pugnali.
La voce del mare.
Il tuo sogno infranse il mondo. Il Sole ti morse le palpebre.
La mia voce:
I miei denti ed i miei artigli adunchi brillano al sole… Soltanto i miei denti vivono ancora sotto le mie labbra morte! La divisione in me regna, come fra i vermi d’un carnaio!
Gli abissi s’immensificano, o mare gonfio d’odio e di rancori eterni.
La voce del mare:
Chiude il sonno le sue ali di velluto sulla tua anima, e sento azzurra ombra sui laghi delle tue vene.
La mia voce:
Nell’abisso senza fondo dei tuoi flutti, vedro la faccia lunare della Morte.
Vedro innumerevoli paesaggi capovolti e divenuti assurdi;
Sere di una stanchezza mortale e di vuoto infinito.
My voice:
My heart trembles seeing their sweet gaze clarified from the ecstasy and lost in the vortexes of their dense turquoise hair.
You will never have the caress of my mouth again!
The woman’s voice:
Has your mouth forgotten my inebriated kiss? Close you eyes so I can kiss your eyelids! Close your eyes so they can drink my tepid saliva, deliciously… I feel you… I kiss you
The voice of the sea:
How distant is this beautiful ideal semblance from your heart! Why do you persist?
My voice:
I await the supreme tremor of this loosened body that is dissolved in pleasure, and I want the supreme communion of our agonies, so that her body finally can thank me, drunk from joy, of the cruel slowness of my stabs.
The voice of the sea:
Your dream shattered the world. The sun bit your eyelids.
My voice:
My teeth and hooked claws shine in the sun… Only my teeth are alive beneath my dead lips! Division reigns in me, like amongst the worms in a charnel-house!
The abysses grow enormous, sea swollen with hate and eternal bitterness.
The voice of the sea:
Sleep closes its velvet wings over your heart, and I sense an azure shadow over the lakes of your veins
My voice:
In the never ending abyss of your waves, I’ll see death’s lunar face.
I’ll see innumerable views turned upside down, and become absurd;
Nights of worldly exhaustion and infinite emptiness!
Approximate translation by composer.
Ums ‘n Jip performing @
- CMCLR studio, Denton USA — Oct 13, 2019
- MEIT, Denton USA — Oct 10, 2019
- ONO, Bern SWITZERLAND — Sep 9, 2019
- Kunstraum Walcheturm, Zürich SWITZERLAND — Sep 8, 2019
- Unternehmen Mitte Safe, Basel SWITZERLAND — Sep 5, 2019
- Zeughaus Kultur, Brig-Glis SWITZERLAND — Sep 4, 2019
- Alter Werkhof, Brig SWITZERLAND — Dec 5 2018
- XXXX. Foro Internacional de Musica Nueva FIMNME 2018, Auditorio Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo MUAC Mexico City MEXICO — Oct 7 2018
- Zeughaus Kultur, Brig-Glis SWITZERLAND — Nov 19 2017
- ONO, Bern SWITZERLAND — Nov 20 2017
- Kunstraum Walcheturm, Zürich SWITZERLAND — Nov 21 2017
- Ackermannshof, Basel SWITZERLAND — Nov 22 2017