The cry of the peacocks
Feverwerd geschreven in opdracht van de 3e Internationale Koorbiënnale Haarlem, voor het Nederlands Kamerkoor, met inanciële steun van het Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst.
Gepubliceerd door Donemus
The cry of the peacocks
is gebaseerd op het gelijknamige gedicht van Wallace Stevens.
De dichter beschrijft zijn angst voor de donkere nacht (in feite zijn angst voor de dood) door gebruik te maken van de huiveringwekkende kreet van pauwen in de schemering. Ik heb deze kreten verwerkt in mijn compositie.
Domination of Black
At night, by the fire,
The colors of the bushes
And of the fallen leaves,
Repeating themselves,
Turned in the room,
Like the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind.
Yes: but the color of the heavy hemlocks
Came striding.
And I remembered the cry of the peacocks.
The colors of their tails
Were like the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind,
In the twilight wind.
They swept over the room,
Just as they flew from the boughs of the hemlocks
Down to the ground.
I heard them cry - the peacocks.
Was it a cry against the twilight
Or against the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind,
Turning as the flames
Turned in the fire,
Turning as the tails of the peacocks
Turned in the loud fire,
Loud as the hemlocks
Full of the cry of the peacocks?
Or was it a cry against the hemlocks?
Out of the window,
I saw how the planets gathered
Like the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind.
I saw how the night came,
Came striding like the color of the heavy hemlocks
I felt afraid.
And I remembered the cry of the peacocks.
From: the collected poems of Wallace Stevens. (publ. Alfred A. Knopf, New York)