So Many Corners

Seven songs of longing, loss and love

Poet/Lyricist:

Rose Ausländer

Seven songs of longing, loss and love. The stark and compelling words of Rose Ausländer, who spent the Second World War in the Czernowitz ghetto, are set to music with delicacy, ferocity and compassion.

The three central movements are scored for soprano, percussion, piano/celeste, harp and strings. They may be purchased and performed as the three songs set, Even the Stars Will Wonder.

Vocal Range: a-b"

Movements:
1. So Many Corners
2. An Ark of Stars
3. Even the Stars Will Wonder
4. So Many Corners
5. Our Unforgettable Earth
6. Almost White
7. So Many Corners

So Many Corners

Poems by Rose Ausländer
English translation by Ingeborg Wald

I. So Many Corners

It is said
the ocean is round
the earth is round
the sky is round
Can
so much roundness
have so many corners

II. The Ark

In the ocean
waits
an ark
of stars
for the
surviving
ashes
after the fireflood

III. Love

We will find each other again
in the lake
you as water
I as lotus blossom
You will carry me
I will drink you
We will belong to each other
in everyone's eyes
Even the stars
will wonder:
here two people
have changed back
into their dream
that has chosen them

IV. So Many Corners

It is said
the ocean is round
the earth is round
the sky is round
Can
so much roundness
have so many corners

V. Bereft

Bereft of our land
our familiar things
Not another word about it
Our dead
intact
live with us
We share with them
our unforgettable
earth

VI. Mist

In the time of mist
born of mist
mist-clouded
words
In the mist
flags lose
their colors
seem
almost
white

VII. So Many Corners

It is said
the ocean is round
the earth is round
the sky is round
Can
so much roundness
have so many corners

Performers:

So Many Corners, for soprano and piano:
* Premiere Susan Craft and Genevieve Jones ~ University of Wisconsin-Madison
Carol Haywood and Milton Peckarsky ~ Broadway Theater (Milwaukee, WI)
Carol Haywood and Milton Peckarsky ~ University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

So Many Corners, for soprano and orchestra:
Reading ~ Andrea Cawelti, Mark Stringer ~ National Orchestral Association (New York, NY)
Even the Stars Will Wonder:
Festival Chamber Orchestra - Janet Youngdah, Elizabeth Alexander ~ Cornell University * Premiere
Charleston Symphony Orchestra - Deanna McBroom, David Stahl ~ Piccolo Spoleto Festival (Charleston, SC)
An Ark of Stars (movement):
Reading, University of Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra, Morrie Brand, cond. ~ University of Wisconsin-Madison