Biografiye

(2009)
Duration: 12 minutes

Sung in Yiddish
Commissioned by IDTV for the documentary
"Terpe Kind Mains, Terpe" by Deborah van Dam

Scoring:
Mezzo-soprano
Clarinet
Violin
Viola
Cello


Text by Yakov Glatstein:

S'troyen oyf in mir zingendike erter,
zey shteln zikh oys un vern verter
fun farsteykhnte memuarn.
Shvarts oyf vays farshribn,
mit a zikorun a likht-getunktn.
Kh'ken zikh gornit narn.

A lebn tsuzamengeshtelt fun shtiker geografiye.
Gasn un shtiber,
lompn un betn,
penemer un siluetn
zaynen di komes un punktn
fun mayn biografiye.


Biography

Singing places surge in me, sorrow-stirred;
they arrange themselves and become the words
of recorded memory,
written in black on white
by a memory dipped in light.
I can't even fool myself.

A life pieced together from scraps of geography.
Streets and houses,
lamps and beds,
faces and silhouettes
are the commas and periods
of my biography.

Performed in the film by:

Shura Lipovsky – mezzo-soprano
Ivar Berix – clarinet
Elisabeth Perry – violin
Esra Pehlivani – viola
Timora Rosler – cello

First live performance June 12, 2009 at Cinema Pathé Buitenhof, the Hague
Festival Classique