[sempre de acordo com a antiga ortografia]

segunda-feira, 23 de novembro de 2015



22 de Novembro de 1913
Nascimento de Benjamin Britten (m. 1976)

[publicado no facebook em 22.11.2015]

Em 2013, por altura do centenário do compositor, escrevi vários artigos que, à guisa de colectânea, por se tratar de várias dezenas de páginas, concentrei no meu blogue sintradoavesso, em cujo arquivo os poderão encontrar, na maior parte dos casos, em articulação com composições que me interessou divulgar no ano jubilar.
 
Hoje, neste que também é dia de Santa Cecília, patrona dos músicos, deixaria a sugestão de acederem ao "Hymn to St Cecília", obra coral composta por um Britten extremamente orgulhoso de ter nascido nesta data tão auspiciosa, peça que, pois claro, se ouviu pela primeira vez também num dia 22 de Novembro, em 1942.

Como poderão verificar, o texto de Wystan Hugh Auden - universalmente conhecido como W. H. Auden (1907 - 1973), poeta anglo-americano considerado como um dos grandes autores do século XX - é belíssimo e excelente a interpretação confiada ao conjunto vocal britânico "Tenebrae" e Nigel Short.

I Parte:

In a garden shady this holy lady
With reverent cadence and subtle psalm,
Like a black swan as death came on
Poured forth her song in perfect calm:
And by ocean's margin this innocent virgin
Constructed an organ to enlarge her prayer,
And notes tremendous from her great engine
Thundered out on the Roman air.

Blonde Aphrodite rose up excited,
Moved to delight by the melody,
White as an orchid she rode quite naked
In an oyster shell on top of the sea;
At sounds so entrancing the angels dancing
Came out of their trance into time again,
And around the wicked in Hell's abysses
The huge flame flickered and eased their pain.

Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions
To all musicians, appear and inspire:
Translated Daughter, come down and startle
Composing mortals with immortal fire.


II Parte:

I cannot grow;
I have no shadow
To run away from,
I only play.

I cannot err;
There is no creature
Whom I belong to,
Whom I could wrong.

I am defeat
When it knows it
Can now do nothing
By suffering.

All you lived through,
Dancing because you
No longer need it
For any deed.

I shall never be
Different. Love me.

Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions
To all musicians, appear and inspire:
Translated Daughter, come down and startle
Composing mortals with immortal fire.


III Parte:

O ear whose creatures cannot wish to fall,
O calm of spaces unafraid of weight,
Where Sorrow is herself, forgetting all
The gaucheness of her adolescent state,
Where Hope within the altogether strange
From every outworn image is released,
And Dread born whole and normal like a beast
Into a world of truths that never change:
Restore our fallen day; O re-arrange.

O dear white children casual as birds,
Playing among the ruined languages,
So small beside their large confusing words,
So gay against the greater silences
Of dreadful things you did: O hang the head,
Impetuous child with the tremendous brain,
O weep, child, weep, O weep away the stain,
Lost innocence who wished your lover dead,
Weep for the lives your wishes never led.

O cry created as the bow of sin
Is drawn across our trembling violin.

O weep, child, weep, O weep away the stain.
O law drummed out by hearts against the still
Long winter of our intellectual will
.
That what has been may never be again.

O flute that throbs with the thanksgiving breath
Of convalescents on the shores of death.

O bless the freedom that you never chose.
O trumpets that unguarded children blow
About the fortress of their inner foe.

O wear your tribulation like a rose.
Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions
To all musicians, appear and inspire:
Translated Daughter, come down and startle
Composing mortals with immortal fire.


Boa audição!
 
 
A little treat for St. Cecilia's day :-) B. Britten's wonderful "Hymn to St. Cecilia" performed by british vocal ensemble "Tenebrae" and Nigel Short.
youtube.com
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