Schlummert ein...

Programme note — Judit Varga

In this piece, based on Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantata Ich habe genug, BWV 82, I wrote a kind of requiem in memory of those who died in the First World War. Because subjects such as death, war, peace and the desire for death are timeless, I took both the text and the instrumentation of Bach’s original work. Musically, I remained in the present and kept to my own style, without trying in any way to write in Bach’s style, despite the continuo in the ensemble.

In this short piece, we are powerless witnesses as people fall silently on stage, able only to “scream” without being heard. These words come from another work by Johann Sebastian Bach, the motet Fürchte dich nicht, BWV 228: “I am not afraid!”, followed by “I am afraid!”