Translation: Esa-Pekka Salonen's Five Images from Sappho

Program notes for the LOOP concert on April 10, 2008, featuring the works of Ryan Francis, Maurice Ravel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Erik Satie (arranged by David Bruce). Texts for songs 1-4 from Sappho – A translation by Mary Barnard (Univ. of California Press, 1958) Copyright © 1958 by the Regenta of University of California, Copyright renewed by Mary Barnard. Used by arrangement with G. Schirmer, Inc. as agent for Chester Music Ltd. Texts for song 5 from The Love Songs of Sappho. Essay copyright © 1998 by Paul Roche. Introduction copyright © 1998 by Page duBois. Published 2001 by special arrangement with Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York, USA. Used by arrangement with G. Schirmer, Inc. as agent for Chester Music Ltd.

1. Tell Everyone

Now, today, I shall sing beautifully for my friends’ pleasure

2. Without Warning

As a whirlwind, swoops an oak Love shakes my heart

3. It’s No Use

Mother dear, I can’t finish my weaving You may blame Aphrodite soft as she is she has almost killed with love for that boy

4. The Evening Star

Is the most beautiful of all stars

5. Wedding

Raise up the rafters high, Hurrah for the wedding! Carpenters: higher and higher, Hurrah for the wedding! The bridegroom is equal to Ares, Hurrah for the wedding! Much taller than any tall man is, Hurrah for the wedding! As tall as the singer of Lesbos, Hurrah for the wedding! Towers over all singers of elsewhere, Hurrah for the wedding! I think I shall be a maiden forever Listen my dear, By the Goddess herself I swear That I (like you) Had only one Virginity to spare Yet did not fear To go over the bridal line When Hera bade me And cast it from me; So I cheer you on and loudly declare: “My own night was none Too bad And you my girl Have nothing to fear Nothing at all.” Raise up the rafters high, Hurrah for the wedding! Carpenters: higher and higher, Hurrah for the wedding! The bridegroom is equal to Ares, Hurrah for the wedding! Much taller than any tall man is, Hurrah for the wedding! As tall as the singer of Lesbos, Hurrah for the wedding! Towers over all singers of elsewhere, Hurrah for the wedding! [Bridesmaid’s carol I] Come, bride Brimming with roses Of love, bride, Gem of the lovely Goddess of Paphos: Go, bride, Go to the bed where sweetly and gently You’ll play with your bridegroom: So, bride, Hesperus lead you Star of the evening Happily onwards Where you shall wonder Where Hera on silver Sits Lady of Marriage. Raise up the rafters high, Hurrah for the wedding! Carpenters: higher and higher, Hurrah for the wedding! The bridegroom is equal to Ares, Hurrah for the wedding! Much taller than any tall man is, Hurrah for the wedding! As tall as the singer of Lesbos, Hurrah for the wedding! Towers over all singers of elsewhere, Hurrah for the wedding! They were exhausted and The black trance of night flooded into their eyes.

Translation: Maurice Ravel's Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé

Program notes for the LOOP concert on April 10, 2008, featuring the works of Ryan Francis, Maurice Ravel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Erik Satie (arranged by David Bruce). Translation by Ned Rorem.

I. Sigh / Soupir

My soul rises toward your brow where, O peaceful sister, Mon âme vers ton front où rêve, ô calme sœur, a dappled autumn dreams, un automne jonché de taches de rousseur, and toward the roving sky of your angelic eye, et vers le ciel errant de ton œil angélique as in a melancholy garden, faithful, monte, comme dans un jardin mélancolique, a white plume of water sights toward heaven’s blue! fidèle, un blanc jet d’eau soupire vers l’azur! Toward the compassionate blue of pale and pure October Vers l’azur attendri d’octobre pâle et pur that onto vast pools mirrors infinite indolence qui mire aux grands bassins sa langueur infinie and, over a swampwhere the dark death of leaves et laisse, sur l’eau morte où la fauve agonie floats in the wind and digs a cold furrow des feuilles erre au vent et creuse un froid sillon, letting the yellow sun draw out a long ray. se traîner le soleil jaune d’un long rayon.

II. Futile petition / Placet futile

Princess! envious of the youthful Hebe Princesse! à jalouser le destin d’une Hébé rising up on this cup at the touch of your lips, qui poind sur cette tasse au baiser de vos lèvres, I spend my ardor, but have only the low rank of abbot j’use mes feux mais n’ai rang discret que d’abbé and shall never appear even naked on the Sèvres. et ne figurerai même nu sur le Sèvres. Since I’m not your whiskered lap-dog, Comme je ne suis pas ton bichon embarbé, nor candy, nor rouge, nor sentimental pose, ni la pastille, ni du rouge, ni jeux mièvres and since I know your glance on me is blind, et que sur moi je sais ton regard clos tombé, O blonde, whose divine hairdessers are goldsmiths! blonde dont les coiffeurs divins sont des orfèvres! Appoint us – you in whose laughter so many berries Nommez-nous… toi de qui tant de ris framboisés join a flock of tame lambs se joignent en troupeaux d’agneaux apprivoisés nibbling every vow and bleating with joy, chez tous broutant les vœux et bêlant aux délires, appoint us – so that Eros winged with a fan will paint me upon it, nommez-nous… pour qu’Amour ailé d’un éventail a flute in my fingers to lull those sheep, m’y peigne flûte aux doigts endormant ce bercail, Princess, appoint us shepherd of your smiles. Princesse, nommez-nous berger de vos sourires.

III. Rise from Haunch and Spurt / Surgi de la croupe et du bond

Risen from haunch and spurt Surgi de la croupe et du bond of ephemeral glassware d'une verrerie éphémère without causing the bitter eve to bloom, sans fleurir la veillée amère the ignored neck is stopped. le col ignoré s’interrompt. I, sylph of this cold ceiling, Je crois bien que deux bouches n’ont do not believe that two mouths – bu, ni son amant ni ma mère, neither my mother’s nor her lover’s – jamais à la même chimère ever drank from the same mad fancy. moi, sylphe de ce froid plafond! The pure vase empty of fluid Le pur vase d’aucun breuvage which tireless widowhood que l’inexhaustible veuvage slowly kills but does not consent to, agonise mais ne consent, innocent but funereal kiss! naïf baiser des plus funèbres! To expire to nought announcing A rien expirer annonçant a rose in the darkness. une rose dans les ténèbres.