PROGRAM NOTE
O The Chimneys is a setting of five poems by Nelly Sachs, the great German-Jewish 1966 Nobel Prize co-winner in literature, whose writing concerned itself almost entirely with the subject of the holocaust. Composed in 1969, the work was my personal way of saying, through my own art, ‘do not forget’.
I selected the five poems from Sachs’ O The Chimneys collection, retaining that grimly evocative title even though I did not include the actual poem by that name. In scoring the work for female voice, flute, clarinet/bass clarinet, cello, piano and percussion, I aimed to give myself the broadest possible palette of instrumental colors while using the smallest number of participants. Yet as I was planning the final moments of my cycle, I felt that instrumental sound alone would not suffice to express the horror. An electronic tape segment was, thus, added to the work’s final climax.
The first two poems (“A Dead Child Speaks” and “Already Embraced by the Arms of Heavenly Solace”), both depicting the tearing of a child away from his mother, are treated essentially as one unit, with the first acting as an introduction to the second. These two, and the cycle’s apocalyptic fifth poem (“Hell is Naked” from Glowing Enigmas II), act as the two weighty pillar points, so to speak, surrounding the more introspective two middle poems (“Fleeing” and “Someone Comes”). To maximize dramatic differentiation within the constraints of a relentlessly tragic subject matter, I used range as a means to delineate contrast, by dividing the sounds available to me into low and dark (No. 3) vs. high and, at times, eerily bright (No. 4) colors. Thus the two middle poems are intended to balance the frenzied madness of which the work’s outer parts are made.
The work received its first performance in New York at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Grace Rainey Auditorium on January 19, 1970, with singer Susan Reid-Parsons. It was recorded in 1972 by Turnabout-VOX with Gloria Davy, soprano and later on ERATO with singer Lucy Shelton.
—Shulamit Ran
Further Resources
EXPANDED PROGRAM NOTE WITH FURTHER REFLECTIONS
This updated program note is based on the expanded liner note that I prepared for the ERATO release in 1996 of the work’s second recording
O The Chimneys is a setting of five poems by Nelly Sachs, the great German-Jewish 1966 Nobel Prize co-winner in literature, whose writing concerned itself almost entirely with the holocaust. Composed in 1969, it was my personal way of saying, through my own art, do not forget. Shockingly, these words have as much relevance today as they did when the work was written. Today we find ourselves having to say do not forget, do not distort, dare not deny it ever happened.
I selected the five poems from Sachs’ O The Chimneys collection, the first poem of which reads:
O the Chimneys
On the ingeniously devised habitations of death
When Israel’s body drifted as smoke
Through the air…
Even though this poem was not included, I chose to retain its grimly evocative title.
In scoring the work for female voice, flute, clarinet/bass clarinet, cello, piano and percussion, I aimed to give myself the broadest possible palette of instrumental colors while using the smallest number of participants. Yet as I was planning the final moments of my cycle, I felt that instrumental sound alone would not suffice to depict the horror. An electronic tape segment was, thus, added to the work’s final climax.
The first two poems (A Dead Child Speaks and Already Embraced by the Arms of Heavenly Solace), both depicting the tearing of a child away from his mother, are treated essentially as one unit, with the first acting as an introduction to the second. These two, and the cycles apocalyptic fifth poem (Hell is Naked from Glowing Enigmas II), act as the two weighty pillar points, so to speak, surrounding the more introspective two middle poems (Fleeing and Someone Comes). To maximize dramatic differentiation within the constraints of a relentlessly tragic subject matter, I used range as a means to delineate contrast, by dividing the sounds available to me into low and dark (movement III) vs. high and, at times, eerily bright (movement IV) colors. Thus the two middle poems are intended to balance the frenzied madness of which the work’s outer parts are made.
The work received its first performance in New York at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Grace Rainey Auditorium on January 19, 1970.
—Shulamit Ran
INFORMATION
Premiere: January 19, 1970
Grace Rainey Auditorium
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
Susan Reid-Parsons, mezzo soprano
Members of the Aeolian Chamber Players
Shulamit Ran, piano
RECORDINGS
Gloria Davy, soprano, New York Philomusica Chamber Ensemble, Robert Johnson, conductor, original LP release on Turnabout-VOX TV-S 34492, later re-released by VoxBox CDX 5145
Lucy Shelton, Soprano, instrumental ensemble conducted by Cliff Colnot, on Shulamit Ran MIRAGE, Chamber Music with Flute, ERATO 0630-12787-2
sheet music
Available from your favorite sheet music seller, or directly from Theodore Presser.