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In Sleep The World Is Yours — three songs for soprano, oboe and piano (priced for three copies)
Classical/Song • 2013 • Lyricist: Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger
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In Sleep The World Is Yours — three songs for soprano, oboe and piano (priced for three copies)
Instrumentation |
Piano, Oboe, Soprano |
Scored for |
Trio |
Type of score |
Full score, Solo part |
Movement(s) |
1 to 3 from 3 |
Publisher |
Enchanted Knickers Music |
Language |
English |
Difficulty |
Advanced |
Duration |
17'30 |
In Sleep The World Is Yours, with poetry by Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger, was commissioned by Mina Miller and Music of Remembrance. I composed the work between July and August 2013.
Selma was born to a Romanian Jewish family in 1924. A talented writer, she began writing poetry at age 15. Her works consist of fifty-two poems and five translations. In 1942 at age 18, Selma died of typhus in a Ukrainian labor camp. Thanks to the dedication and love of her friends, and later her distant relatives, her poetry survived, resulting in the 2008 publication Harvest of Blossoms.
What I found inspiring about Selma’s poetry was that she was able to speak the truth in simple but clear poetic language. Behind the apparent simplicity of her words, however, was a depth of feeling and thought, that for me, as a composer, was very exciting — because when setting a poem to music, I look for words that an audience can grasp aurally — but also for an underlying complexity, which provides me with opportunities for creating dramatic music to illuminate the text. In this respect, Selma’s poems were perfect.
I chose three poems from Selma’s book: Lullaby, Yes and Tragedy, which allowed me to create a cycle with a dramatic musical arc. The combination of soprano, oboe and piano perfectly suited the mood of the poems. I subsequently created versions for clarinet, flute or soprano sax in place of the oboe.
Lullaby spotlights Selma’s imagination, her capacity for love and hope, as well as her sense of foreboding and the realization that dreams might provide the only comfort in the increasingly dark days.
Yes is a good example of simple surface language combined with a complicated subtext. The song progresses from a turbulent opening to a peaceful close, as Selma understands how memory will always keep loved ones close.
Tragedy ends the work, and her heartbreaking words reveal her reality: “to give all of yourself and realize/you’ll fade like smoke and leave no trace.” Yet, Selma kept writing. She knew how important the mind and imagination were when facing the unimaginable.
And how lucky for us that she did leave a trace. While one wonders how she would have grown, her beautiful poetry gives us a glimpse of a supremely intelligent, spirited and gifted young girl.
You can hear the premiere recording on Spotify on Naxos’ American Opera Classics release along with Tom Cipullo’s "After Life".
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