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- Rolf Wallin
Drei Gedichte von Rainer Maria Rilke (1994)
- Chester Music Ltd (World)
Commissioned by the Norwegian Broadcasting Company
Version also available for medium voice and piano
- high voice/pf
- 11 min
- Rilke
- German
Programme Note
These three poems were written between 1900 and 1908, and they are very different in terms of form, subject matter, and atmosphere. Liebes-Lied is about a strong but painful love, Buddha in der Glorie, a description of religious ecstasy, quite unusual in the works of Rilke, and Sluss-stück, about death, which exists in the midst of us, in the middle of life.
The work with the songs was a part of a process that occupied me a lot for a period. Is it possible to approach the melodic element in a new way, after many years of letting it live in the shadows of other musical elements, such as rhythm, timbre and form? This is a possible solution.
The work with the songs was a part of a process that occupied me a lot for a period. Is it possible to approach the melodic element in a new way, after many years of letting it live in the shadows of other musical elements, such as rhythm, timbre and form? This is a possible solution.