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Julian Marshall OUT OF THE DARKNESS

for solo mezzo-soprano, SATB choir and two violoncellos (2009)

Full score

NOVELLO

Out of the Darkness was premiered in Winchester Cathedral in November 2009 and was followed by seven more performances in the UK and Germany over the next several months. The first performances were given by Melanie Pappenhem (mezzo-soprano), Sophie Harris (cello), Lucy Railton (cello) and the Schoolhouse 6 Ensemble, conducted by Howard Moody. A recording is available on the MMC label (MMC101).

Duration: 40 minutes

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For further information on any aspect of the Kolmar cantatas, please contact the composer: (www.julianmarshall.co.uk)

Full Score: NOV166254

Set of Parts: NOV166254-01

Composer’s Note

The writing of Out of the Darkness began a new chapter for me as a composer.

In November 2007 I stumbled across the poetry and letters of Gertrud Kolmar and was at once struck by what a remarkable woman and poet she was. During World War II she lived in Berlin, taking care of her ageing father until in 1943, following his deportation to a concentration camp, she herself was deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered. Yet, as her writings suggest, even in the darkest of circumstances she seems to have been able to meet her fate with a sort of stoic equanimity.

Her poetry is strikingly full of life, colour and vibrancy – revealing a life of vivid, awakened experience – and her poem, Aus dem Dunkel (‘Out of the Darkness’, from her Welten cycle), is surely one of the most stirring. Written in 1937, the poem evokes powerful, dream-like images of crumbling and decay – serving as an eerie foretelling of the imminent tidal wave of horror about to hit the world. Deeply moved by this poem, I felt compelled to write a piece in service to what occurred to me as her extraordinary capacity to stand powerfully in her experience of life, whilst, at the same time, expressing this with exquisite powers of perception.

I decided to set Out of the Darkness as a cantata for chamber choir, mezzo-soprano soloist and two cellos. To begin with, I imagined that I’d settle on a musical language that might somehow meet the darkness in the poem. But as I began to compose, quite different stylistic voices seemed to suggest themselves. Influences of Tango and Bossa Nova, as well as more abstract ideas, all seemed ironically appropriate. The result is a cantata of a little under 40 minutes.

Out of the Darkness is divided into seven sections, including an off-stage Prologue. The sixth song, The River, features the line ‘Far off, the river speaks with its banks’, but this song is also the only section of the piece that uses text other than from Kolmar’s poem. The text is taken from two Sephardic ballads, La Serena and A La Nana. I have allowed myself this poetic licence as The River allows a brief time for reflection away from the journey of the main text. And why Spanish? Well, Kolmar was a linguist, the Jewish culture is multinational, and the words are not only incredibly beautiful, but also, in the case of A La Nana, painfully ironic.

Out of the Darkness is dedicated to my wife, Arabella. Were it not for her deeply loving and often rigorous support, Out of the Darkness would likely never have happened.

Julian Marshall

Getrud Kolmar

Gertrud Chodziesner was born on 10 December 1894 into a Jewish family in Berlin. After training as a teacher, she worked with orphaned and disadvantaged children until an ill-fated love affair with a non-Jewish army officer resulted in an abortion and subsequent suicide attempt. After the Armistice in 1918, she found work as a private tutor and governess until the autumn of 1927 when she attended a vacation course at Dijon University. But her time in France was curtailed when she was obliged to return home to nurse her mother. Following her mother’s death in March 1930, Gertrud assumed full-time responsibilities for the family household in Finkenkrug, an idyllic rural suburb of Berlin.

While living in Finkenkrug, Gertrud (under the pen-name Kolmar) composed nearly all her important works: not only the novel Die Jüdische Mutter (The Jewish Mother, 1930), the drama Cécile Renault (1935), the historical study on Robespierre (Das Bildnis Robespierres, 1934) and the dramatic legend Nacht (Night, 1938), but also her eight cycles of poetry: – the nineteen sonnet (plus one) Bild der Rose (Image of the Rose, c.1932), the nineteen poem cycle Napoleon und Marie, the forty-five poem cycle Robespierre, the fifty-three poem cycle Alte Stadwappen, (Old Municipal Coats of Arms), the seventy-five poem cycle Weibliches Bildnis (Female Portraits), the twenty-nine poem cycle Mutter und Kind (Mother and Child), the forty-

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eight poem cycle Tiertraüme (Animal Dreams) and finally Welten (Worlds), the seventeen poem cycle which she wrote between 17 August and 30 December 1937. Although she would subsequently write the extraordinary novella Susanna (1940), Welten was to be her last collection of poetry.

In July 1941, Gertrud was conscripted to a munitions’ factory. Just over a year later, her father was deported to Theresienstadt and finally, in late February 1943, Gertrud herself was arrested and deported to Auschwitz where, had she managed to survive the nightmare journey east, she would have been selected, on arrival, for immediate extermination.

Philip Kuhn

(This short note is extracted from Sein Antlitz ist Lei/His Countenance is Sorrow, Philip Kuhn’s full-length essay on the life and work of Gertrud Kolmar, originally published in a limited edition by itinerant press to mark the world premiere of Julian Marshall’s Out of the Darkness.)

Texts

Out of the Darkness

Out of the darkness I come, a woman, I carry a child, but no longer know whose; Once I knew it.

But now no man is for me anymore… They all have trickled away like rivulets, Gulped up by the earth.

I continue on my way.

For I want to reach the mountains before daybreak, and the stars are beginning to fade.

Out of the darkness I come. Through dusky alleys I wandered alone, When, suddenly, a charging light’s talons tore the soft blackness, The wild cat, the hind, And doors flung open wide, disgorged ugly screams, wild howls, beastly roar.

Drunkards wallowed… I shook all this from the hem of my dress along the way.

I traversed the deserted marketplace. Leaves floated in puddles, reflecting the moon. Haggard, hungry dogs sniffed the refuse on the cobblestones. Trampled fruit rotted away, An old man in rags tormented wretched strings with his play And sang with a thin, discordant, plaintive voice Unheard.

Once, these fruits ripened in sun and dew, Dreaming still of the fragrance and bliss of the loving bloom, But the wailing beggar

Had long forgotten and knew nothing but hunger and thirst.

Before the castle of the mighty I halted, And as I set foot upon the lowest step, The flesh-red porphyry burst cracking under my sole –I turned And looked up at the plain window, the late candle of the thinker, He pondered and pondered, never finding his query’s resolve, And to the shaded little lamp of the infirm, who still did not learn, How he should die.

Under the arch of the bridge

Two ghastly skeletons fought over gold. I lifted up my poverty as a grey shield before my face And passed unimperiled.

Far off, the river speaks with its banks.

And now, I struggle along a rocky, cumbersome path. Fallen rocks, thorny bushes wound my blind, searching hands:

A cave awaits, Its deepest chasm a shelter for the metal-green raven who has no name.

There I shall enter, Under the aegis of those huge, shadowing wings, I shall crouch down and rest.

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Somnolent, I shall listen to my child’s mute, growing word, And sleep, my face turned toward the East, until sunrise.

‘Out of the Darkness’ from My Gaze is Turned Inward: Letters, 1934-1943, by Gertud Kolmar, translated by Brigitte M. Goldstein. English translation copyright © 2004 by Northwestern University Press. Preface copyright © 2004 by Brigitte M. Goldstein. Published by Northwestern University Press. Originally published in German in 1970 by Kösel Verlag München. Afterword and commentary copyright © 1997 by Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen. Gertrud Kolmar’s letters copyright © Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt am Main. All rights reserved.

La Serena

Si la mar era de leche Y los barquitos de canela Yo me mancharia entera Por salvar la mi bandera.

Si la mar era de leche Yo me haria peshcador Peshcaria las mis dolores Con palavricas d'amor.

Dame la mano tu palomba Para suvir al tu nido Maldicha que duermes sola Vengo a durmir contigo.

A La Nana

A la nana y a la buba

Se durma la criatura

El Dio grande que los guarde A los niños de los males.

The Mermaid

If the sea was made of milk, In the little cinnamon boats, I'd drench myself entirely, To save my flag.

If the sea was made of milk, I'd become a fisherman, I'd fish for my pain, With little words of love.

This mermaid was mad, She wanted me to love her, To love her, and her husband He has an obligation (to her).

The Lullaby

The lullaby and the grandmother The child now sleeps Oh great God, protect them All the children from evil.

OutoftheDarkness

GertrudJulianMarshall Kolmar

Mezzosoprano solo SOPRANO

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Violoncello1

Violoncello2 q = 60

play... p

An p oldmaninragstormen-ted-wretched-stringswithhisplay... (p)

play... p

AusdemDunkel.q = 60

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M-S. solo

S. A.

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doorsflungopen-wide,disgorged-ugly-screams,wildhowls,beast-lyroar,

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(Novib.,quiet,resignedandalittledrunken-thoughnothumorous. Asthoughwatchingthroughacrackinadoorway)

Drun

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q = 135 53 wallowed.wallowed.wallowed.wallowed. -

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S. A. T.

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Sung

ge - vom Saummeines - kleides,-I

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Spoken (loud whisper)

Ichschüttel - te - dasamWege - vomSaummeines - kleides, -

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gliss. gliss.

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-versedthedeser-ted-market-place.-Leavesfloated-in

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M-S. solo

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Acaveawaits

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en mf ter, -Under-theaegis-ofthosehuge,shadow-ingq = 60

en mf -ter,aegis-ofthosehuge,shadow-ing -

en mf -ter,aegis-ofthosehuge,shadow-ingmf q = 60

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rest.Som mp no -lent,poco rall. q = 46 (rall.)

rest.Som p no -lent, -

rest.Som p no -lent,p

somno-lent,-somno-lent,-Ishall q = 42 q = 40

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