There are two elements in the Christmas song we listened to last week, Mariä Wiegenlied, that can be understood as symbols of the crucifixion: the rose garden (with its thorns) and the bird. We can find similar details in many paintings that show the Madonna with the Child. The artist reminds us of what is ahead; a future that the mother is aware of in some way.
There is also a mother who fears what could happen to her son in the song of this week: she fears that he is a soldier and will die alone in war. Manuel de Falla composed the Oración de las madres que tienen a sus hijos en brazos [Prayer of mothers with their children in their arms] in 1914 in Madrid, shortly after returning from Paris. The verses are by María de la O Lejárraga, a writer linked to the feminist pacifist movement that aroused at the outbreak of war. Falla, Lejárraga, and her husband Gregorio Martnez Sierra had first met a few months ago and worked together on some projects over the years.
The year is coming to an end, and it concludes, as it has done so many times, with the images of parents who cry for their children killed in the war. We can only hope that the New Year will bring us some hope and optimism. I leave you with this short, restrained and simple song, performed by Anna Tonna and Mac McClure.
¡Dulce Jesús, que estás dormido!
¡Por el santo pecho que te ha amamantado,
Te pido que este hijo mío no sea soldado!
Se lo llevarán, ¡y era carne mía!
Me lo matarán, ¡y era mi alegría!
Cuando esté muriendo, dirá:
"¡Madre mía!"
Y yo no sabré la hora ni el día.
Sweet Jesus, who are sleeping!
By the holy breast that suckled tyou,
I pray that my son don't become a soldier!
They will take him away, and he was of my flesh!
They will kill him, and he was all my joy!
While he's dying, he will say:
"My mother!"
And I won't know neither the time nor the day
Related articles
The eyes of children
My dearest, happy new year! The new brand calendar has many musical ephemerides, and probably the most significant for us, liedlovers, is related to Hugo Wolf: 22 February marks 120 years since his death. I hope that the anniversary will help to spread his magnificent work, which is not yet sufficiently well known; I also hope that here on Liederabend, his presence would be even [...]
Its calm is infinite
Herod waited for the Kings to come back and tell him where the child he feared was, but they had also been warned in a dream and returned home on another path. Then the furious King of Judea ordered to kill all the children of Bethlehem and the surrounding area younger than two years. Today, December 28 (if you read this on the day it's published) commemorates the [...]
Christmas Time
It's Christmas Time. In this year’s calendar, three weeks to go until Three Kings' Day and, as always, my three respective posts will be related to these dates. To begin with, we have one of the most usual Christmas musical images, a lullaby; after all, we celebrate a child's birth. So far we've listened to Brahm's Geistliches Wiegenlied, Britten's That jongë Child and Balulalow and Strauss's Weihnachtslied; today, we add a song by Barber to our list, A Slumber Song of the Madonna.
Comments powered by CComment