Abschied (2020)
(for soprano and orchestra)

Why Else Lasker-Schüler?

Why would a 21st-century Israeli composer choose to set poems and texts by Else Lasker-Schüler, who wrote most of her poetry in the beginning of the 20th-century, belonged to a late-romantic, expressionist style, and wrote in the German language?

Firstly, I wanted to make people aware of her great poetry – of her name, and vast creations.

My music intends to bring out her split personality: her poverty, stubbornness, suffering and longing for love; her special language that made her so isolated when living in Jerusalem; her irony, her heartbroken world.

It is not an attempt to describe the story of her life in music. I tried to connect myself to the meaning of the texts I chose, taking into consideration not only her split personality but the contrasting worlds she lived in. In the music you can find sounds I refer to as ‘Jerusalem sounds’ – a combination of Jewish prayer with church bells and Middle Eastern motifs.

The work is comprised of four parts. The first and last are based on two different poems called Abschied written by Lasker-Schüler. The music starts primarily with combinations of pure fifths which turn dissonant as different instruments collide with each other. From this the soprano voice emanates with longing and sadness.

The second part is based on text from Lasker-Schüler’s play Ich und Ich, written during her last years in Jerusalem. It is a long play, chaotic in structure and full of encounters with insanity. It conveys her troubled soul well. I chose a small part where she looks at herself with irony. The music is circus-like in character – humoristic and ironic.

The third part is very short and based on a text Lasker-Schüler named Konzert. I chose a few sentences from this text, which lead into the last part. This is almost violent in nature, full of rage, and even insanity. This brings out another meaning to this Abschied, separate from the world she so much loved.

This composition is concerned with love, solitude, split personalities, love of life and the separation from life. It was written during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020.

Else Lasker-Schüler said goodbye to her lover but also to the world she loved so much. The contrast between her romantic soul and the present world is huge. Our world has become hostile and alienating. I felt that I could identify with her, as I say farewell to the world I loved which, I fear, will not return to be the same.

Ella Milch-Sheriff, October 2020