Kipling's Speech

The piece is based on a poem by Rudyard Kipling entitled If. In 1995, in a vote was organized by the BBC, this poem was chosen as the most liked poem by British people. A historical recording in Kipling’s interpretation is available and easily can be found online. Balogh's piece entitled Kipling's Speech tries to imitate the melody, rhythm and declamation of Kipling’s voice.

Naturally, the piece is not the exact imitation of Kipling's recited text. The interpretation should be extended in every dimension, as notated in the score. The vocal part is notated in a 10-line system, which indicates the full range of the (undefined) singer’s voice, and has to be recited with Schoenberg’s Sprechgesang technique. There are no exact pitches. Every single pitch can be defined only as an element of a musical phrase. Two pitches with the same location in the system are not definitely equal.

A chamber group of a flute, a piano and a cello is there to accompany and articulate the voice-part. During the piece they more and more become syncronized with the recitation.

The piece was commissioned and premiered by the Karl-Amadeus-Hartmann-Gesellschaft, Munich, in 2018.