On Friday 8th March 2019 "Non Omnis Moriar" for Upper Voices was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 as part of the Afternoon Concert program for International Women's Day. You can listen at 1:26 here. The piece was recorded by the BBC Singers as part of a wonderful concert in association with BASCA reflecting on the Refugee experience in September last year. There is more information about the poet and the music at the end of this blog but I would like to let the poem speak for itself. it is quite simply one of the most powerful poems I have ever read and I can only hope my music does it justice. If you would like to listen the broadcast can be found here NON OMNIS MORIAR (Not all of me will die.) Text from the poem by Zuzanna Ginczanka (1917-1945) Not all of me will die – not my proud estate, Meadow tablecloths, wardrobe castles strong, acres of fine bedsheets, linen treasures great, And dresses, light dresses – these are my swansong. Because I leave not a single heir. Let your curious hands through my Jew things browse, if conscience allows. Meadow tablecloths, wardrobe castles strong, acres of fine bedsheets, linen treasures great, And dresses, light dresses, if conscience allows. You and your loved ones, recall my name and face, As you remembered me when showing them my hiding place. Drink to me! Drink to me! Drink to my grave and supposed wealth, my remains your prize. Drink all night, drink! And when the sun does shine, Start hunting for gem-stones, digging for gold, Through mattresses, fine drapes, candlesticks and dresses, light dresses. Feathers ripped from cushions, clouds of gutted quilts, Will snow upon your hands, turn your arms to wings, Pure white down will bind with my blood congealed, Letting you take flight, My angels, my kings. Non omnis moriar. The text used is based on a translation by Marek Kazmierski with permission
Zuzanna Ginczanka’s Jewish parents fled the Russian Civil War, settling in 1922 in pre-War Poland. Although, as a poet, she published only a single collection of poetry in her lifetime, the book O centaurach ("About the Centaurs"), it created a sensation. Ginczanka left Warsaw in June 1939 to spend her summer vacations with her grandmother. Following the outbreak of the Second World War her grandmother’s business was immediately expropriated and their living quarters requisitioned for Soviet officials. This forced Ginczanka to move to the larger and more anonymous Polish city of Lvov. Before they left, her grandmother packed all the family heirlooms and valuables like table silver into her luggage, both as a means of keeping it safe and to provide for Ginczanka's future dowry. Once she arrived in Lvov Ginczanka narrowly managed to avoid arrest by Ukrainian forces targeting Jewish population. Nazi Germany invaded Poland on 22 June 1941. The female concierge in the building where Ginczanka rented a flat saw her opportunity to rid herself of the unwelcome tenant and at the same time enrich herself. In the summer of 1942 she denounced Ginczanka to the Nazi authorities as a Jew hiding in her building on false papers. The Nazi police immediately attempted to arrest Ginczanka, but other residents of the building helped her escape. They finally succeeded in capturing her but this arrest did not result in Ginczanka's execution as on this occasion she escaped from captivity. The incident led Ginczanka to write her best known poem "Non omnis moriar". Zuzanna Ginczanka frequently changed hiding places, but was eventually detained in the notorious Nazi prison, Montelupich but she never admitted to being Jewish. There is no certainty as to the exact place of Ginczanka's death but there is a broad consensus on her having been executed by firearm, either by single firearm or by firing squad. Ginczanka was 27 years old. Musically the piece is based on elements of Jewish prayer modes that give rise to the dark cluster chords supporting the solo soprano lines. The poem contains lists of items that make up Ginczanka’s “proud estate”, her “Jew things”, reminding us of her grandmother packing the valuables before their flight to Lviv. These are set aleatorically, with every individual voice listing them with rising hysteria at different points throughout the piece. The phrase “Non omnis moriar” is also repeated at various points, binding the piece together and reminding the listener that they are listening to the words of a young woman writing what would become her lasting message to the world. In a bitter footnote, Zuzanna Ginczanka's betrayers were arrested and tried for collaborationism. "Non omnis moriar" formed part of the evidence against them. (This is considered by many scholars to be the only instance in the annals of history of a poem being entered in evidence in a criminal trial.)
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On Thursday evening (7th March) The Gesualdo Six will give the world premiere at Cadogan Hall of The Wind's Warning, my setting of the poem The Wind by Ivor Gurney. Gurney is still relatively unknown so I thought I would say a little about him. Ivor Bertie Gurney (28 August 1890 – 26 December 1937) was an English poet and composer, particularly of songs. Born in Gloucester he sang as a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral from 1900 to 1906 then won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music to study with Stanford who allegedly said he was "unteachable". Gurney suffered his first breakdown in 1913. Enlisted as a private soldier in the Gloucestershire Regiment, he began writing poetry. He was wounded in the shoulder in April 1917 then gassed in September the same year. In March 1918, Gurney suffered a serious breakdown, writing several songs whilst hospitalised despite the piano sounding, he said, like "a boiler factory in full swing because of the stone walls". He subsequently received an unconventional diagnosis of nervous breakdown from "deferred" shell shock. Gurney was regarded as one of the most promising men of his generation, publishing his second volume of poetry, War's Embers, in May 1919 to mixed reviews. He wrote many songs, instrumental pieces, chamber music and two works for orchestra, War Elegy (1920) and A Gloucestershire Rhapsody (1919–21). Sadly in 1922, his mental health caused him to be declared insane and Gurney spent the last 15 years of his life in psychiatric hospitals where he wrote both literary works and music. Much of his musical output remains unpublished and unrecorded. The Wind's Warning is a setting of what is believed to be his last poem. According to the editor of the collection in which the poem appears, it was written on the back of an Oxford University Press letterhead dated 6 March 1929 and signed 'Valentine Fane' by Gurney. (He frequently used different names on his later manuscripts.) The poem is a bleak reflection on the passing of time and lost opportunities. Musically the piece uses vocalisations to create the sound of the wind against which are set gently dissonant clusters. Melodic motifs drift in and out until the middle section, "At dawn a thin rain wept" which becomes more lyrical and tonal. The piece finishes with a return to the opening soundscape. I am delighted that The Gesualdo Six are performing this piece and very much look forward to hearing it! Tickets available https://cadoganhall.com/whats-on/choral-2018-19the-gesualdo-six/ Score coming soon at https://composersedition.com/composers/alisonwillis |
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AuthorAlison Willis is a composer and musician based in the East of England. Archives
September 2023
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