Waterhouse, The Witches' One-Times-One [Pet:N2706]

The Witches' One-Times-One.
Waterhouse, Graham.

Cello(s) & Other Instruments.
For: Speaking Voice-Vc.

from Goethe's "Faust" (for Speaking Voice and Violoncello).
In Goethe's tragedy 'Faust', Part 1, during the scene 'Witch's Kitchen', Mephistopheles leads Faust into the Witch's Kitchen in order that he (Faust) receive a magic potion, which is to make him younger by thirty years. Whilst preparing the potion, the witch declares the 'Witch's One-Times-One' from a large book. While some commentators negate any meaning to the mysterious figures in The Witches' One-Times-One', it seems likely that the poem refers to the "Magic Square", an arrangement of the figures 1-9 in such a way that the vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines add up to 15 inches. The music draws on the natural rhythms of the spoken text, developing, exaggerating, and parodying them. Sometimes particular intervals reflect the words in the text, e.g. a fourth for "four", a fifth for "five". In keeping with Goethe's own instruction at the beginning of the poem - 'mit grosser Emphase' ('with great emphasis') and considering the enchanted setting in which the action takes place, the text should be declaimed with verve and imagination. The English translation of the original German text is based on Bayard Taylor's translation of 'Faust' from 1870/71. There are two versions of the piece: 1) the original version; 2) a simplified version. Elements of both original and simplified versions can be interchanged at libitum. The work is also available with the original Germnan text (N2667). Playing and speaking simultaneously requires an advanced sense of coordination and is, from a pedagogical point of view, a valuable exercise for cellists! At the first performances the cellis both spoke and played but the piece works equally well with two performers. The 'Witches One-Times-One' was written for 9 year old Franziska Runge from Neuss, who gave the first performance in Winter 2006 at the German 'Jugend musiziert' competition." (Graham Waterhouse) // Graham Waterhouse was born on November 2nd, 1962, in London, England.

Voice(s) & Various Instruments.

Format: Sheet Music.
Published by Heinrichshofen.
Pet:N2706.
Distributed by Edition Peters.
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