The Bustle in the House

(Emily Dickinson)

When You Are Old (William Butler Yeats)

Den Text von William Butler Yeats hatte ich schon eine ganze Weile vor mir, mich aber schwer damit getan, ein Konzept für die Vertonung zu finden. Das Resultat ist ganz knapp (keine vier Minuten lang), harmonisch und formal sehr einfach, in einer eher kleinen „Besetzung”, aber – so hoffe ich zumindest – frei von Klischees. Ich habe nicht versucht, die Aussage des Textes zu verdeutlichen; das Gedicht ist derart stark, daß das nicht nötig ist, oder vielleicht sogar ein Fehler wäre.

Ich will jetzt nicht mit einer ausführlichen Analyse des Textes daherkommen; zwei Anmerkungen kann ich mir aber doch nicht verkneifen:

Es heißt: „How many loved .. your beauty“; und: „But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you“. Ich hatte anfangs den Verdacht, daß sich hier Ironie oder sogar Sarkasmus versteckt. Dafür finden sich im Text aber keinerlei Hinweise; das ist mE. wörtlich zu nehmen.

In dem kurzen Text kommt „Love“ bzw. „loved“ sechsmal(!) vor – das ist natürlich kein Fehler eines schlechten Dichters, sondern präzises Kalkül. Das Wort wird leer und bekommt einen hohlen Klang. Yeats braucht keine Metaphern, um sein Thema zu erklären. Er legt seine Aussage in die Substanz seiner Sprache.

When You Are Old

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Words: William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)
Music: Michael Michaelis

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When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

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Michael: Vocals, Guitars, Violin & Viola, Seaboard, Bass, Cymbals & HiHat, Wave Drum (Snare, Toms, Bass Drum).

Recorded, edited, and mixed proudly using Cubase.

[All Rights reserved. © Michael Michaelis, 2019]

(*) Some remarks (German)

When I Have Fears

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Words: John Keats (1795 – 1821)
Music: Michael Michaelis

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1

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,

Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;

2

When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,

And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;

3

And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,

4

Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love; -

5

      then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

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Michael: Vocals, Guitars, Violin & Viola, Piano, Bass, Cymbals & HiHat, Wave Drum (Percussion), additional sequencer programming (Marimba, Clarinets, Timpani).

Recorded, edited, and mixed proudly using Cubase.

(Last Update: 3.11.2018)

[All Rights reserved. © Michael Michaelis, 2018]

Fotonotiz - Hamburg, Außenalster

Gravity (Remix)

For some reason, I didn't wrote any new music for the last couple of month. Instead, I spent my time exploring guitar sounds, and practicing violin. As a „playing ground” for my experiments I used a song I wrote about two years ago, Gravity. Almost all tracks are new recordings – not with the results I dreamed about, but much closer to what I want to hear.

„Gravity” was the first song I unpacked my violin again, after I stopped playing pretty much exactly forty years ago. That was the main reason for me to go back to that specific song: convincing myself that constant practice (for almost two years, now) really makes a difference.

Telling Fairy Tales (Children's Song)

When I watch a child lost for the world in it's game,
I wish so much I could do the same,
becoming myself without being alone,
becoming the center of a world that is my own.

Wish I could close my eyes and bad things go away,
wish I could yawn about what important people say,
wish I could be innocent and honest about anything and everyone,
wish I'd be certain again that after the rain comes the sun.

There is a holy place where children play,
I was there, I learned a lot, I even knew my way,
but I had to leave, I'm so sorry, I couldn't stay.

Once I was steering a ship thru time and space,
but wherever I went I always could see my mother's face,
I still know how these wrinkles feel,
smiling at her, and the doubts her smiling could heal.

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Words & Music: Michael Michaelis

Michael: Vocals, Guitars, Violin, Bass, Cymbals & HiHat, Wave Drum (Bass Drum, Snare, Percussion), Keyboards (Marimba).

Recorded, edited, and mixed proudly using Cubase.

[All Rights reserved. © Michael Michaelis, 2018]

Children's Song - Interlude+Solo

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Music: Michael Michaelis

Michael: Guitars, Bass, Viola, Cymbals & HiHat, Wave Drum (Bass Drum, Percussion).

Recorded, edited, and mixed proudly using Cubase.