Remember
for choir
Date: 1992
Duration: 6:28 minutes
Remember is based on the poem of the same name written by Alfred de Musset (1810-1857). Its melodic writing was informed by medieval techniques such as the shifting color melody of isorhythmic motets, permutations of melodic cells and hockets.
An important technique found in most of the work is the avoidance of two seconds in a row resulting with melodies that sound like they are floating.
Performed by the Astra Choir, Melbourne, in 1996 the work can be performed with its companion piece Unending Love/La courbe des yeux/O Ecclesia.
Remember when the timid dawn
Opens its enchanted place to the sun.
Remember
When pensive nights passes dreaming beneath its silvery veil.
When your breast quivers at the call of pleasure.
When the shadows beckon you to the sweet dreams of evening.
Listen to a murmuring voice
Deep in the woods
Remember.
Remember
When fortunes have parted me from you forever.
When grief, exile and the years have withered this despairing heart.
Think of my melancholy heart.
Think of the supreme farewell.
Absence and time are nothing when we love.
For as long as my heart shall beat
It will always say to you
Remember.
Remember
When beneath the cold earth
My broken heart sleeps forever.
Remember
When the solitary flower on my tomb gently opens.
I shall see you no more
But my immortal soul will return
Close to you like a faithful sister
Listen in the darkness
To a voice which calls
Remember
Remember
Alfred de Musset (1810-1857)