Flight and Metamorphosis

(Nelly Sachs)

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Program Notes

Much of my music is composed as a response to world events – and these songs are no different. My perspective about many things, political and otherwise, changed drastically subsequent to October 7, 2023. While I spent the vast majority of my life fortunately free from personally experiencing antisemitism, watching the world’s response in the months and years following the October 7 attack on Israel, I became painfully aware that antisemitism is as prevalent today as it has been for the past two thousand years.

As with most of the awful facts of the world, there’s nothing I can do about any of it, except spin notes to express my feelings about it. This music has been composed in support of Israel. Whatever its flaws may be, it is the only country on this troubled planet where Jews can live without being a tiny minority at the mercy of others.

The five poems in the set are from Flucht und Verwandlung (Flight and Metamorphosis) by Nelly Sachs. I elected to set the poems in their original German rather than use the English translation that are in my bilingual edition.

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