Memento
Wien, Staatsoper
(right lower corner: mirroring myself)
Words: Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886)
Music: Michael Michaelis
The Bustle in a House
The bustle in a house
The morning after death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted upon earth.
The sweeping up the heart
And putting love away
We shall not want to use again
Until eternity.
To the memory of Hedwig Getraude Michaelis (*19. March 1926; †28. February 2017), my father's older sister, my »Tante Traudchen«.
Michael: Vocals, Guitars, Violin & Viola, Bass, Cymbals & HiHat, Wave Drum (Snare, Bass Drum, Toms), Percussion (Shaker, Caxixi, Tambourine).
Recorded, edited, and mixed proudly using Cubase.
[All Rights reserved. © Michael Michaelis, 2019]
Memento - Cantata
I was almost done working on my latest piece of music (Memento), when I noticed – quite surprisingly, actually – that it might be a Cantata. At least it has a lot of it's elements: recitatives, arias, a pretty wild mixture of different styles, and last but not least a choir at the end. I'm far from comparing myself with Bach – but he is not just famous for his polyphonic masterpieces, but also started a revolution by ignoring the boundaries between sacred and secular music. That gives me quite an excuse to clash elements of “classical” music with those of Jazz, Blues, and Rock, even in a piece dealing with grief and mourning.
The Bustle in the House
The morning after death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted upon earth.
The sweeping up the heart
And putting love away
We shall not want to use again
Until eternity.
(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:
When You Are Old
William Butler Yeats
Words: William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)
Music: Michael Michaelis
When You Are Old
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.
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]
When I Have Fears
John Keats
Words: John Keats (1795 – 1821)
Music: Michael Michaelis
When I have Fears
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;
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;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love - then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.
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]
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.