Contemporary
DOVE In Damascus for Tenor and String Quartet
Score and Parts
EP 72822
JONATHAN DOVE
In Damascus for Tenor and String Quartet
POD PETERS on demand ALLE RECHTE VORBEHALTEN
· ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
EDITION PETERS L E I P Z I G · L O N D O N · NEW YORK
Duration: c. 30 minutes
Commissioned for the Sacconi Quartet and Mark Padmore by the Friends of the Sacconi Quartet, the Michael Cuddigan Trust and the Vernon Ellis Foundation First performance at the Sacconi Chamber Music Festival in Folkestone on 20 May 2016
IN DAMASCUS from ‘A Black Cloud in a Leaden White Sky’ (or ‘Death by Stabs of Sorrow’) by Ali Safar (translated by Anne-Marie McManus) as published by Saqi Books in Syria Speaks 1 A little while ago in the Damascus neighbourhood of Zuhur, children were drifting off to sleep, believing there was a truce for the holiday. But they did not return to Earth, and their souls drifted higher and higher, never coming to rest. A curse on anyone who celebrates today… 2 And what if you weep alone at the end of the night… Will the children find their way home in the morning, laughing, abundant as the rain? 3 Two days ago we were standing where the long line of Syrians trying to leave the country waited… Nothing happened, except that we saw a nation where the sun had burned out. Over time, no light remained for its residents except the spark of their eyes, which were fading… Like tears… 4 Here and now in Damascus, in spite of everything, there are white clouds laced with black; a light, cool breeze; the sounds of the call to prayer piercing the noise of construction on a nearby building. Ordinary details: I let them soak into me. The pain in my head remains, waiting for the sound of the next explosion. 5 The many faces of Damascus. A man smiling at me even though his face is tired, on the verge of tears. A child sells me a cheap piece of chocolate, his face dreaming of new days… faces, faces, some of them tinged with pain, others smeared with hope. This Damascus of so many faces can close her eyes for a little while. She’s worn out and haggard – but she’s not yet dead… The faces of Damascus are just like her…
7 Soon, we […] will be free. We will be free of our faces and our souls – or our faces and our souls will be free of us. And the happy world won’t have to listen to our clamour anymore, we who have ruined the peace of this little patch of Earth and angered a sea of joy. Soon, mankind, you will have your quiet once more, and we promise we won’t disturb you again… for a pathway to the sky has opened for us, and look! We’re getting ready. 8 I don’t think any nations in existence will match Syrians in their expressions of sadness, their airing of grief. 9 On all my travels […] I’d take a book […] Usually, I’d leave [it] in the country I visited. […] When my friends took a trip, I’d give them a book […] […] My problem now isn’t the books that we give to the people who leave us, hoping they’ll return, but the books that go with the people who can never return…. Every person who leaves us is a book, a book in himself. And it won’t be long before we return… As we once were, a nation without books. 10 My heart is a black lump of coal. My heart is a full stop on a page. In it, the students of life will write letters of hope. Our days: a black box, never to be opened… 11 My country, please wait a little longer. We were only born a short time ago, and after a short time we will leave… And the women of the fields and the mountains and the cities and the villages are still waiting for us… Mothers and beloved ones…
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Edition Peters 72822
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)* Music © 2016 by Peters Edition Ltd, London Text © Ali Safar. English translation © Anne-Marie McManus. Reproduced by permission. I/16
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Jonathan Dove
Photo © Andrew Palmer
Jonathan Dove (b. 1959) studied composition with Robin Holloway at the University of Cambridge and worked as a freelance repetiteur, animateur and arranger. His breakthrough came with the opera Flight, commissioned by Glyndebourne. Other dramatic works include The Adventures of Pinocchio, Swanhunter, the young people’s opera The Monster in the Maze, Mansfield Park – based on the novel by Jane Austen – and Man on the Moon. Works for orchestra include the trombone concerto Stargazer, Moonlight Revels for trumpet and saxophone, and Gaia Theory, performed at the 2014 BBC Proms. A Song of Joys and Our Revels Now Are Ended were featured at the Last Night of the Proms in 2010 and 2016, respectively. Dove was awarded the Ivor Novello Award for Classical Music in 2008 and created a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2019. Jonathan Dove (*1959) studierte bei Robin Holloway an der Universität Cambridge Komposition und war als Korrepetitor und Arrangeur tätig. Der Durchbruch gelang ihm mit der Oper Flight, einem Auftragswerk der Festspiele in Glyndebourne. Daneben umfasst sein dramatisches Schaffen u.a. die Opern Pinocchios Abenteuer und Swanhunter, die Jugendoper Das Labyrinth, Mansfield Park – nach dem Roman von Jane Austen – und Man on the Moon. Zu seinen Orchesterwerken zählen das Posaunenkonzert Stargazer, Moonlight Revels für Trompete und Saxophon sowie Gaia Theory, das 2014 bei den BBC Proms erklang. A Song of Joys und Our Revels Now Are Ended kamen bei der Last Night of the Proms 2010 bzw. 2016 zur Aufführung. Im Jahr 2008 erhielt Dove den Ivor Novello Award für klassische Musik, 2019 wurde er zum Commander of the British Empire (CBE) ernannt.
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