“He was full of tenderness;
She was very hard.
And as much as she tried to stay thus,
Simply, and with no good reason,
He took her into himself,
And set her down
In the softest, softest place.”
In the sentimental, lovey-dovey spirit of Valentine’s Day, our hearts are melting from the inspiration behind American composer Eric Whitacre’s Five Hebrew Love Songs. The text from the song cycle is written by Whitacre’s now-wife, Hila Plitmann as a series of poems in her native Hebrew, each capturing a moment the couple spent together. What a sweet reminder of music’s ability to express the intangible: articulating our emotions, narrating the stories of our lives, and connecting us through our shared humanity. Sacred and Profane is excited to bring these charming songs for chorus and string quartet to life this March 13 and 14 with Luminous Resonance: Music for Chorus & Strings featuring the exquisite playing of Circadian String Quartet.
Whitacre writes:
In the spring of 1996, my great friend and brilliant violinist Friedemann Eichhorn invited me and my girlfriend-at-the-time Hila Plitmann (a soprano) to give a concert with him in his home city of Speyer, Germany. We had all met that year as students at the Juilliard School, and were inseparable.
Because we were appearing as a band of traveling musicians, ‘Friedy’ asked me to write a set of troubadour songs for piano, violin and soprano. I asked Hila (who was born and raised in Jerusalem) to write me a few ‘postcards’ in her native tongue, and a few days later she presented me with these exquisite and delicate Hebrew poems. I set them while we vacationed in a small skiing village in the Swiss Alps, and we performed them for the first time a week later in Speyer.
In 2001, the University of Miami commissioned me to adapt the songs for SATB chorus and string quartet…
Each of the songs captures a moment that Hila and I shared together. Kalá Kallá (which means ‘light bride’) was a pun I came up with while she was first teaching me Hebrew. The bells at the beginning of Éyze Shéleg! are the exact pitches that awakened us each morning in Germany as they rang from a nearby cathedral.
Keep reading for the full text, and be sure to share this heartwarming story with your sweetie. Concert tickets make a thoughtful Valentine’s gift for a music lover (wink wink)! We hope you’ll join us this March’s Luminous Resonance for this music and so much more.
SATURDAY, MARCH 14TH, 8PM
St Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisc
FRIDAY, MARCH 13TH, 8PM
St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Berkeley
Eric Whitacre and Hila Plitmann
Text: Five Hebrew Love Songs
Hila Plitmann (b.1973)
I. TEMUNÁ (A PICTURE)
Temuná belibí charuntá;
Nodédet beyn ór uveyn ófel:
Min dmamá shekazó et guféch kach otá,
Usaréch al pańa’ich kach nófel.
A picture is engraved in my heart;
Moving between light and darkness:
A sort of silence envelopes your body,
And your hair falls upon your face just so.
II. KALÁ KALLÁ (LIGHT BRIDE)
Kalá kallá
Kulá shelí,
U’ve kalút
Tishákhílí!
Light bride
She is all mine,
And lightly
She will kiss me!
III. LARÓV (MOSTLY)
“Laróv,” amár gag la’shama’im,
“Hamerchák shebeynéynu hu ad;
Ach lifnéy zman alu lechán shna’im,
Uveynéynu nishár sentiméter echad”
“Mostly,” said the roof to the sky,
“the distance between you and I is endlessness;
But a while ago two came up here,
And only one centimeter was left between us.”
IV. ÉYZE SHÉLEG! (WHAT SNOW!)
Ézye shéleg!
Kmo chalomót ktaníim
Noflím mehashamá im.
What snow!
Like little dreams
Falling from the sky.
V. RAKÚT (TENDERNESS)
Hu hayá malé rakút;
Hi haytá kasha
Vechól káma shenistá lehishaér kach,
Pashút, uvlí sibá tová,
Lakách otá el toch atzmó,
Veheníach Bamakóm hachí rach.
He was full of tenderness;
She was very hard.
And as much as she tried to stay thus,
Simply, and with no good reason,
He took her into himself,
And set her down
In the softest, softest place.