by Anaïs Nin (1903 - 1977) and by Edgard Varèse (1883 - 1965)

Nocturnal
Language: English 
Basses
 Wa ya you you
 wa wa yao
 ya ha ha ha you
 
 You belong to the night, you belong to the night, etc.
 
Soprano
 I rise
 I always rise after the crucifixion
 
Basses
 Dark! oh ... hm
 
Soprano
 o a o a oo a oo oo hm
 Bread and the wafer
 
Basses
 Womb and seed and egg
 wailing of the unborn
 
Soprano
 Perfume and sperm I have lost my brother ah
 
Basses
 oomp'ts'oomp'ts, etc.
 It grows again
 faces in the windows
 one window without light
 oomp'ts'oomp'ts'oomp'ts
 
Soprano
 Dark Dark Dark asleep asleep
 
Basses
 Hm
        ha ha you hoo hoorn
 
Soprano
 Floating floating again
 aoaoao
 oooo
 
Basses
 Ha ha hm
 
Soprano
 ppf
 
Basses
 wha ho
 ya whoo whoo sh
 ga ra ya ga ra ya ga ra ha hoo
 ba you ba a ba ee ba ba you boo pss
 
Soprano
 Crucifixion
 
Basses
 Crucifixion
 Shadow of death
 
Soprano
 I kissed his shadow.

Note: phrases from Nin's The House of Incest, published 1936, and phonetic syllables by Varèse.

Text Authorship:

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):


Researcher for this page: Jeroen Scholten

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-20
Line count: 49
Word count: 151