based on texts from The Temple by Georg Herbert
soprano, piano + keyboard and electronics
ca 20 min.
composition: 2024

Commissioned by Fondation Royaumont
with the support of Fondation Francis et Mica Salabert and Christine Jolivet Erlih

George Herbert (1593-1633), philosopher, priest, and one of the greatest devotional poets in English literature, wrote the poems that make up The Temple as a prayer, a meditation, a confession dedicated to God. Herbert wrote about weakness, sacrifice and the glory of God, describing the spiritual conflicts that tormented his soul with particularly clear and deeply moving allegories.

The flowers withered’ in my hand is inspired by the feelings and images expressed by Herbert. The selected excerpts, straddling the line between romantic and religious texts, are characterised by their poetic power, their belief and their devotion—at once truly intimate and akin to cries. The idea behind the work is to extend the contemplation of the text and the lied—the genre of intimacy par excellence—to the interiority of listening, merging the voice, the resonances of the piano and electronics into a single instrument, like an experience of sonic communion.

This was the better skie,
the brighter place.

✽ ✽ ✽

But time did becken to the flowers, and they
by noon (…) wither’d in my hand.

✽ ✽ ✽

Where shall I get me eyes enough to weep,
as many eyes as starres?

✽ ✽ ✽

No stormie night
can so afflict or so affright,
as thy eclipsed light. (…)

And when thou dost but shine lesse cleare,
say that thou art not here.

Do not withdraw! (…)

And then what life I have?
Thou and alone thou know’st.

✽ ✽ ✽

Th’earth did like a heav’n appeare;
the starres were coming down. (…)

The sunne, which once did shine alone,
hung down his head, and wisht for night.

✽ ✽ ✽

Can there be any day but this,
though many sunnes to shine endeavour?

✽ ✽ ✽

My God, what is a heart?
Silver, or gold, or precious stone,
or starre, or rainbow, or a part
of all these things, or all of them in one?

✽ ✽ ✽

Thou Echo, thou art mortall. All men know.

excerpts from The Temple
each is extracted form a section of The Temple, differentiated by ✽

Lab51 Johanna Vargas & Magdalena Cerezo Falces, Rémi Le Taillandier (sound engineer)
Festival de Royaumont (FR), 28 Sept. 2024 — world premiere

image: Jan Brueghel the Elder, Flowers in a vase (ca 1620)