Songs of Love and War

(1990)

for 24 voices, 2 harps, 2 percussions

Duration: 12'

Dedication: for Mauricio Kagel

Choir: SATB

Instrumentation details:

Stimmen(24)

harp(2)

percussion(2)

Sawer - Songs of Love and War for 24 voices, 2 harps, 2 percussions

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David Sawer

Sawer: Songs of Love and War

UE19443

Orchestration: für 24 Stimmen, 2 Harfen und 2 Schlagzeuge

Type: Partitur

Language: Englisch (Großbritannien)

€130.68

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Work introduction

I wanted to reverse the idea of Monteverdi’s ‘Madrigali guerrieri ed amorosi’ (which depicts the emotions of love through the terminology of war) by expressing the changing emotional conditions of war (loneliness, uncertainty, anxiety and so on) through the terminology of love: I assembled a text using lines from twelve Second World War songs, making an imaginary narrative:

‘Goodbye Sally’, ‘We’ll Meet Again’, ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’, ‘I’ll Never Smile again’, ‘Yours’, ‘Who’s Taking You Home Tonight’, ‘You’ll Never Know’, ‘A Little On The Lonely Side’, ‘Till You Come Home’, ‘I Don’t Want To Walk Without You’, ‘I’ll Walk Alone’, ‘Goodnight Wherever You Are’.

The percussion provide ‘noise’ interference, playing instruments which allude to the sound-effect repertoire: sandpaper blocks, train whistles, jazz kit and so on.

Songs of Love and War is dedicated to Mauricio Kagel on his sixtieth birthday.

David Sawer