Erato Ensemble - Beat! Beat! Drums! (Kurt Weill/Walt Whitman)

Описание: From the program "I Sing the Body Electric: Walt Whitman & The Beat Generation. August 1, 2014. Presented by The Queer Arts Festival, Vancouver, BC.

Music by Kurt Weill
Poem by Walt Whitman

Peter Alexander, baritone
Michael Park, piano

Part One: Walt Whitman -
After a tender introduction (For the one I love), we begin a love story. Two men meet, filled with lust that blooms into love (3 Calamus Songs). Suddenly, they are divided by war, and one of the lovers falls (Beat! Beat! Drums!). An angel entreats the moon to look over the wounded soldier (Look down fair moon). Eventually they are reunited on the battlefield, just in time for one lover to die in the arms of the other (Vigil strange I kept on the field one night).

KURT WEILL (1900-1950) was born in Germany and first achieved success in collaborations with Bertolt Brecht, with stage works such as “The Threepenny Opera”, which contains his most popular work “Mack the Knife.” Beat! Beat! Drums! is from Weill’s “Four Walt Whitman Songs,” with poems drawn from Whitman’s “Drum Taps” collection. The songs were written after Weill immigrated to America, and are in his later style, which mixes Weill’s own version of Americana with his distinctive Weimar-era cabaret sound.

Beat! Beat! Drums! (from Drum Taps)

Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!
Through the windows—through doors—burst like a ruthless force,
Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation,
Into the school where the scholar is studying,
Leave not the bridegroom quiet—no happiness must he have now with his bride,
Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field or gathering his grain,
So fierce you whirr and pound you drums—so shrill you bugles blow.

Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!
Over the traffic of cities—over the rumble of wheels in the streets;
Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? no sleepers must sleep in those beds,
No bargainers’ bargains by day—no brokers or speculators—would they continue?
Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt to sing?
Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case before the judge?
Then rattle quicker, heavier drums—you bugles wilder blow.

Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!
Make no parley—stop for no expostulation,
Mind not the timid—mind not the weeper or prayer,
Mind not the old man beseeching the young man,
Let not the child’s voice be heard, nor the mother’s entreaties,
Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses,
So strong you thump O terrible drums—so loud you bugles blow.