JESU, MEINE FREUDE
9’30 2009
for choir
Jesu, Meine Freude
This piece was written from the resources and vocal staff of the Conservatory of Brest. It uses each of the existing structures: mixed choirs, women’s choirs and children’s choirs and can be sung ad libitum to three choirs or all the choirs gathered. In this case, it would be interesting to distribute the singers in the concert hall.
From a pedagogical point of view, this work makes children’s choirs work on scansion and rhythm, through the spoken text, as well as on simple intervals through a nursery rhyme that ends the work.
For adult choirs, the work is mainly focused on the intonation and the successions of small intervals, even the micro-intervals (possibility to work the three quarters of tone frequent in the oriental modes).
One of the members of the children’s choir must be equipped with a bass drum, a dozen or more women must have drumsticks without skin.
Nine movements, nine miniatures. Each movement uses the same text as that used by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1723.
1 – lento around the do #, figure the man who seeks and turns around
2 – Dancing with spoken interventions
3 – “Under your protection” develops the lento of the 1st movement
4 – The law of the spirit. Dislocated dance, scattering
5 – Irruption of the forces of evil, complex agreements that sound like knell. Laughter, astonishment in front of the world plunged into misfortune
6 – “Ihr lebt nicht im Fleisch, sondern im Geist”, Victory of the spirit over the flesh. Split in the grave. Very earthy, very raw. Appears in unison the children’s choir very piano in the treble. Far away. A very beautiful song.
7 – Fi of all the treasures. “Go away”
8 – Denouement, appeasement. Christ is in us
9 – Guth nacht, connected to Schuman.
The end of children’s scenes
TEXT
1. Jesu, meine Freude, / meines Herzens Weide, / Jesu, meine Zier, / ach wie lang, ach lange / ist dem Herzen bange, / und verlangt nach dir! / Gottes Lamm, mein Bräutigam, / außer dir soll mir auf Erden / nichts sonst Liebers werden. Jesus my joy, / delectation of my heart / Jesus, my glory! That he has a long time, ah! Long ago / May my heart be anxious / and aspire to you / Lamb of God, my fiance, / nothing should be on this earth / be dearer to me than you.
2. Es ist nun nichts / Verdammliches an denen, / die in Christo Jesu sind, / die nicht nach dem Fleische wandeln, / sondern nach dem Geist. So there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for those who behave not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. Romans 8, V. 1
3. Unter deinem Schirmen / bin ich vor den Stürmen / go Feinde frei./Laß den Satan wittern, / laß den Feind erbittern, / mir steht Jesus bei./Ob es itzt gleich kracht und blitzt, / ob gleich Sünd und Hölle schrecken : / Jesus will mich decken. Under your protection, / I am safe from storms / unleashed by all my enemies. / Let Satan go into rage, / let the enemy get exasperated, / Jesus assists me! / Let him now start thundering and flashing, / or let sin and hell spread their terror, / Jesus wants to shelter me.
4. Denn das Gesetz of the Geistes, / der da lebendig machet in Christo Jesu, / hat mich frei gemacht von dem Gesetz / der Sünde und des Todes. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8, V. 2)
5. Trotz dem alten Drachen, / Trotz Todes Rachen, / Trotz der Furcht dazu! / Tobe, Welt, und springe / ich steh hier und monkey / in gar sicher Ruh./Gottes Macht hält mich in acht / Erd und Abgrund muß verstummen, / ob sie noch so brummen. In spite of the old dragon, / despite the gaping gulf of death, / despite the added fear, / unleash, world, and shatter, / I stay here and sing / in the most assured tranquility! / The power of God keeps me on guard, / the earth and the abyss are doomed to shut up, / as much as they can scold now.
6. lhr aber seid nicht fleischlich, / sondern geistlich, / so anders Gottes Geist in euch wohnet./Wer aber Christi Geist nicht hat, / der ist nicht sein. As for you, you do not live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, if at least the spirit of God dwells in you. But if someone does not have Christ’s mind, i t does not belong to him. (Romans 8, V. 9)
7. Weg mit allen Schätzen! / Bist mein Ergötzen, / Jesu, meine Lust! / Weg, ihr eitlen Ehren, / ich mag euch nicht hören, / bleibt mir unbewußt! / Elend, Not, Kreuz, Schmach und Tod / soll mich, ob ich viel muß leiden, nicht von Jesu scheiden. Far from me all the treasures, / it is you, Jesus, who is / my delight, my desire. / Far from me, vain honors, / I do not want to know anything about you, / remain stranger to my conscience! / Whatever my suffering, misery, distress, the cross, nor humiliation and death / can not separate me from Jesus.
8. So aber Christus in euch ist, / so is der Leib zwar tot um der Sünde willen / der Geist aber ist das Leben / um der Gerechtigkeit willen. But if Christ is in you, the body, it is true, is dead because of sin, but the spirit is because of justice. (Romans 8, V. 10)
9. Gute Nacht, o Wesen, / das die Welt erlesen, / mir gefällst du nicht! / Gute Nacht, ihr Sünden, / bleibet weit dahinten, / kommt nicht mehr ans Licht! / Gute Nacht, from Stolz und Pracht! / Dir sei ganz, from Lasterleben, / gute Nacht gegeben. Good night to you, to be / who chose the world! / To me you do not like. / Good night to us, sins, / stay behind, / do not appear in the light anymore! Good night to you, pride, and to you, luxury! / Good night to all, / life of depravity!
Text: Extracts in German from Johann Franck (1650) and Saint Paul, the Epistle to the Romans (8, 1-2, 9-11)
Singing language: German
Premiere: July 16, 2009
by Pablo Marquez, guitar
Joël Versavaud, saxophone
the vocal ensemble Temps relatif
direction Luc Denoux
Festival d’Avignon
Commissioned by Conservatoire à rayonnement départemental de Musique, de Danse et d’Art dramatique de Brest Métropole Océane
© ŠamaŠ éditions musicales 2008
