ADY COHEN: BERCEUSE, REVEILLE, BERCEUSE (2013)
In 4 parts
For soprano, mezzo soprano and string quartet
Texts: Bertolt Brecht, Gabriel Zagni, Ady Cohen
World premiere recording - September 29, 2014, Ashdod, Israel
As part of the Israeli Music Festival 2014

Performed by the Spectrum Ensemble:
Eliraz Carmeli - soprano
Bavat Marom - mezzo soprano
Guy Figer - 1st violin
Yasuko Hirata - 2nd violin
Zvi Carmeli - viola
Chagit Glaser - cello

ABOUT THE PIECE by composer Ady Cohen:

"Berceuse, Reveille, Berceuse" is dedicated to the memory of my mother, world-renowned pianist Ruth Menze, who passed away too early, in 1988, at age 55.

"Berceuse, Reveille, Berceuse" centers around a young man who just became an orphan after his mother died unexpectedly at a young age. The piece is intended to take the audience on a psychological, surealistic, personal, dream-like journey into the psyche of this man, who is left to live after the closest person in his life has left him unexpectedly.

The first part is a prologue, sung in Hebrew, called “El Imi” (“To My Mother”) (00:14). In this prologue the son is burying his dead mother. The text to the song "To my Mother" was written by Bertolt Brecht, and translated to Hebrew by H. Binyamin.

Then comes the second part, “Berceuse: Dormi” (06:29), which is a lullaby. It is a lullaby to the dead mother, a kind of a farewell song after the mother was buried. The text to this song was written especially for this piece by Gabriel Zagni - a wonderful Italian poet, musician, singer, painter, animator and actor, and above all – a very good friend of mine from my childhood. The song he wrote is called “Sleep” (in the imperative).

The 3rd part of the piece is what I call "Reveille: El Sueño" (11:24), a kind of a wake-up call. It's a very energetic piece, in the style of Astor Piazzolla, for cello and piano only, without the voice. After his mother dies, she comes to the son in his dreams almost every day. They talk, the son tells her what's going on in his life. She looks dead in the dream, dirty from the grave and her clothes are more and more torn every time she comes. But she is completely real and “alive”, she and the son speak about everything, they hug and kiss and laugh and they are like they were when she was alive. The explanation to these dreams is that the mother’s death was so sudden to the son that he couldn't simply bury her and that's it. He needed a much longer farewell.

The mother comes to the son in his dreams for 1 year. After 1 year she stops coming. This year of the son’s relationship with his dead mother is reflected in the 3rd part of the piece, the "Reveille".

After that comes the last, 4th part of the piece - which is another lullaby: “Berceuse: Erev” (13:43). This is the final lullaby. "Erev" means “evening” - I wrote the lyrics to it myself, in Hebrew. After the burial, the first lullaby (putting the dead mother to sleep her eternal sleep), and the dreams in which the dead mother comes to communicate again with the son, comes the second, and final, lullaby. Now it is time to really put the dead mother to sleep, to really say good-bye.

And that’s the end of the piece – optimistic, because now the son is more complete, more at peace with himself, because maybe his new wife and children are the flowers, the new day, the happiness that came after the death, the tragedy and the big sorrow. The death is still here, it’s with the son forever. But now he has companions in his voyage. He can face this terrible reality – of living without the beloved mother – and continue to live his life; not forgetting the tragedy that happened – but also NOT halting life, not stopping the continuation of life, of love, of the future – children and music.

Ady Cohen's website: [ Ссылка ]
Bavat Marom's website: [ Ссылка ]

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