EN🇬🇧
We were come to see the dawn
For vocal ensemble and small ensemble
We were no longer in the same relation to people, houses and trees; we were related to the whole world.
We were come to see the dawn is based on fragments from Virginia Woolf’s The Sun and the Fish. This short text is an account — enriched by the imagination of the great writer — of the total solar eclipse of 29 June 1927. Woolf describes the eclipse as a natural phenomenon, yet focuses on how its consequences can transform the collective perception of the world.
She employs an almost apocalyptic vocabulary to portray the event, as though the momentary disappearance of the sun were a premonition of humanity’s fate. Her words evoke a condition strikingly close to our post-pandemic experience: a suspended limbo, a long eclipse in which we still seem to be trapped, waiting for the sun to shine again.
Premiere
WDR Funkhaus Cologne, 16 January 2022
Chorakademie des WDR Rundfunkchores und der Orchesterakademie des WDR Sinfonieorchesters
Joanna Natalia Slusarczyk, conductor
IT 🇮🇹
We were come to see the dawn
Per ensemble vocale e piccolo ensemble
We were no longer in the same relation to people, houses and trees; we were related to the whole world.
We were come to see the dawn è basato su alcuni frammenti tratti dal testo The Sun and the Fish di Virginia Woolf. Questo breve racconto è una testimonianza – arricchita dall’immaginazione della grande scrittrice – dell’eclissi totale di sole del 29 giugno 1927. Woolf descrive l’eclissi come un evento naturale, ma concentra la sua attenzione su come le sue conseguenze possano trasformare la percezione collettiva del mondo.
Utilizza un vocabolario quasi apocalittico per raccontare ciò che osserva, come se la momentanea scomparsa del sole fosse una premonizione del destino dell’umanità. Le sue parole evocano una condizione sorprendentemente vicina alla nostra esperienza post-pandemica: un limbo sospeso, una lunga eclissi dentro la quale sembriamo ancora intrappolati, in attesa che il sole torni finalmente a brillare.
Prima esecuzione
WDR Funkhaus Colonia, 16 gennaio 2022
Chorakademie des WDR Rundfunkchores und der Orchesterakademie des WDR Sinfonieorchesters
Joanna Natalia Slusarczyk, direzione
Organico/Instrumentation: Ob. – Cr. – 2 V. – Va – Vc. – Cb. (2S, 2A, 2T, 2B)
Durata/Duration: 14’.