Je t'adore à l'égal​

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Instrumentation: 

flute, clarinet (B-flat), violin, cello, piano 

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Duration: 

9.5 minutes

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Date:

2016

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Premiere: 

May 9th, 2017 by Emily Armbrecht, Marina Adamany, Megan Weaver, Geng Chen, and Marisa Landsverk - A.F. Siebert Chapel, Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA

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Program:

The juxtaposition of beauty and grotesquerie in the work of Charles Baudelaire is poignantly expressed in his poem, Je t'adore à l'égal, which directly inspired this piece for Pierrot ensemble. The poem deals with the feeling of adoration felt toward someone as a result of her separation. In this piece, the flute signifies the object of adoration, while the cello represents the subject who plaintively longs after her. The first half of the piece corresponds directly with the first stanza of Baudelaire's poem, while the more grotesque second stanza is represented in the latter half of the piece.

 

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Je t'adore à l'égal de la voûte nocturne,

Ô vase de tristesse, ô grande taciturne,

Et t'aime d'autant plus, belle, que tu me fuis,

Et que tu me parais, ornement de mes nuits,

Plus ironiquement accumuler les lieues

Qui séparent mes bras des immensités bleues.

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Je m'avance à l'attaque, et je grimpe aux assauts,

Comme aprés un cadavre un chœur de vermisseaux,

Et je chéris, ô bête implacable et cruelle!

Jusqu'à cette froideur par où tu m'es plus belle!

 

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translation by Wallace Fowlie

 

I worship you as I worship the firmament of night,

O urn of sadness, great silent woman,

And love you, beautiful one, the more you flee from me,

And seem to me, ornament of my nights,

To accumulate ironically the leagues

Which separate my arms from the expanse of blue.

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I advance to the attack, and I climb to the assault,

As a chorus of worms climb over a corpse,

And I cherish, O implacable cruel beast,

Even that coldness by which you are for me more beautiful!

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Awards:

2018 - 2019 Kathleen Mykytyn Distinguished Composition Award - Third Prize

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