File

  • Category / Instrument
    Chorus and ensemble
    picc.1.1(clB).1 / 2.1.1.1 / 3perc / hp / pno / 1.1.1.1.1
  • Duration
    15'
  • Commissioned by
    Süddeutscher Rundfunk Stuttgart
  • Dedication
    à des amis très chers, Hanz Lenz et Theresa Affolter
  • Published
    01/07/1996
  • Premiere
    04/09/1996
    Lucerne (Switzerland), International Music Festival
    Südfunk-Chor Stuttgart, Ensemble Modern
Order

Contact

Michael Jarrell's works are published by Editions Henry Lemoine :

27, boulevard Beaumarchais
75004 PARIS
France
Tel. : +33 (0)1 56 68 86 74
www.henry-lemoine.com

Works

Mémoires

Note

It was after reading the brief testimony reproduced below, that I had the idea of writing Mémoires. This rather private memory reflects a completely different reality from that found in history books. It is the discrepancy between an individual experience and a collective experience that is the basis for this piece. To try to express this difference, I chose to juxtapose this testimony with certain excerpts from the extremely beautiful Liber ecclesiastes. This text foresees and explains everything. This detachment, this timelessness contrasts with a destiny where an instant can change and imprint a life.
Mémoires is dedicated to my very dear friends, Hanz Lenz and Theresa Affolter.

Michael Jarrell


The testimony of Abraham P.
I leaned toward my little brother, telling him: "Solly, go back to papa and mama" and like a good little man, off he went. If only I had known that I was sending him straight to the crematorium! I... I have the impression of having killed him. I ask myself whether he had been able to reach my parents. I assume so. He must have said to them: "Abraham told me to go with you!" I wonder what my father and mother thought, especially on entering the crematorium together... I cannot get it out of my mind. It is so painful to me, and I do not know what to do.


From Liber ecclesiastes
3.01 omnia tempus habent et suis saptiis transeunt universa sub caelo
3.08 tempus dilectionis et tempus odii tempus belli et tempus pacis
3.10 vidi adflictionem quam dedit Deus filiis hominum ut distendantur in ea
3.11 cuncta fecit bona in tempore suo et mundum tradidit disoutationi eorum
3.15 quod factum est ipsum permanet quae futura sunt iam fuerunt et Deus instaurat quod abiit.

Works index
© Michael Jarrell