Melodrama No.1 ''The End of His Story Started Here''

Hello!

[Partly the description in the program booklet and youtube video]

Maarten Bauer – Melodrama No.1 ''The End of His Story Started Here,'' Op. 45.
11th of August 2017
Dedicated to all the victims in concentration camps during World War II.

The music begins at circa 2:00

On the 18th of November 2017 (one of the) most prestigious composition competition(s) in the Benelux took place: Prinses Christina Compositie Concours. I submitted my Melodrama No.1 ‘’The End of His Story Started Here’’ and to my surprise I won the first price of competition! I cannot express my gratitude for the judges, the performers (Trio Burlesco+) and the audience! Furthermore I would like to thank the other participating composers for the amazing experience and relaxed atmosphere during the stressful day.

Description
This melodrama uses the poem, which I have written in 2014 (see the text below), based on John Boyne’s astonishing book The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. This composition is composed for the Trio Burlesco and a soprano and a percussionist (Trio Burlesco+). The text and music strengthen each other, so none of the two can be omitted. The innocent soprano is both narrator and singer and she symbolizes the actions, the emotions and the thoughts of the main character in the poem: Shmuel. Shmuel is a Jewish boy, who has just arrived in Auschwitz, which is called Out-With by Boyne. He does not know where he is and he cannot find his family, consisting of his father, mother and his big sister, whom I called Anat, which means ‘singing.’

The motivation for me to write such a heavily-weighted piece, namely an innocent young boy who will probably die in a Nazi concentration camp, is because I noticed that people in my surrounding realize less and less that freedom and peace are not obvious. It is the greatest gift that we can live in freedom and peace in the Netherlands. I noticed that this important consciousness gradually drains away by the years. Therefore I wanted to compose a piece, which remembers us that we have to be grateful for the lives we now live and that the indescribable terrible crimes may never be repeated. When I wrote the poem, my tears flowed. When I composed the Melodrama, my tears flowed. And now again, my tears flow, because this may never happen again.

Never.

https://christinaconcours.nl/alles/9667/

I love how you are able to mix so many different types of emotion in one coherent piece. Sadness, creepiness, happiness, darkness...and those unexpected high moments that pop in when you least expect it (LOVE those!) 

5 hours ago, LostSamurai said:

I love how you are able to mix so many different types of emotion in one coherent piece. Sadness, creepiness, happiness, darkness...and those unexpected high moments that pop in when you least expect it (LOVE those!) 

 

Thank you very much!

@Maarten Bauer You have inspired me!

I love your melodramas and I would like to write one. Tell me, do the singers sing the lines of the poem or different words?

6 hours ago, aMusicComposer said:

@Maarten Bauer You have inspired me!

I love your melodramas and I would like to write one. Tell me, do the singers sing the lines of the poem or different words?

 

Thank you very much!

The text of my melodramas are generally the same as the poems, but I editted my poem for this piece to avoid the time limit.

Thanks again! Hearing that your music is an inspiration for somebody feels great!

I love your Music @Maarten Bauer

What a colorful use of that trio + percussion. Congrats!

@Maarten Bauer

Well done!

And I'm happy for you for winning the competition! How did you get people to actually play the music?

I have to say... although it sounds great at some places I... don't think people should make any kind of music about the Holocaust. I think it should have stayed a poem.

The music itself is great, but I don't like the idea of it all. I just think that when you're talking about an event like this one... there should be no music. Words and silence, that's it.

*Note that Anat doesn't mean "singing" (as far as I know), it's a name from the bible. 

*Also I don't think anyone can prevent something like that from happening again. I mean in general, not only with Jews. People never stay at their place, and everyone naturaly hate the foreign. 

3 hours ago, Luis Hernández said:

I love your Music @Maarten Bauer

What a colorful use of that trio + percussion. Congrats!

 

¡Muchas gracias, mi amigo!

1 hour ago, Rabbival507 said:

@Maarten Bauer

Well done!

And I'm happy for you for winning the competition! How did you get people to actually play the music?

I have to say... although it sounds great at some places I... don't think people should make any kind of music about the Holocaust. I think it should have stayed a poem.

The music itself is great, but I don't like the idea of it all. I just think that when you're talking about an event like this one... there should be no music. Words and silence, that's it.

 

*Note that Anat doesn't mean "singing" (as far as I know), it's a name from the bible. 

*Also I don't think anyone can prevent something like that from happening again. I mean in general, not only with Jews. People never stay at their place, and everyone naturaly hate the foreign. 

 

The music is performed by a standard ensemble of the Prinses Christina Concours. In this case it was Trio Burlesco+

Although I do get your idea about the Holocaust, I completely disagree with you. Why do you say that the music could have been left out? Words and silence are fantastic ways to express emotions, but at some places music surpasses language.

My goal is to motivate people to remember that our freedon is not obvious. Freedom is a gift.

So, with all respect, you say that it is useless to compose any art about the genocide, because people's nature is to kill each other? I am very concerned about this...

I think we CAN prevent new genocide(s) or we could at least try to...

Thanks for listening and your opinion.

8 hours ago, Maarten Bauer said:

The music is performed by a standard ensemble of the Prinses Christina Concours. In this case it was Trio Burlesco+

Although I do get your idea about the Holocaust, I completely disagree with you. Why do you say that the music could have been left out? Words and silence are fantastic ways to express emotions, but at some places music surpasses language.

My goal is to motivate people to remember that our freedon is not obvious. Freedom is a gift.

So, with all respect, you say that it is useless to compose any art about the genocide, because people's nature is to kill each other? I am very concerned about this...

I think we CAN prevent new genocide(s) or we could at least try to...

Thanks for listening and your opinion.

 

I think you got me wrong.

I said two different things (that's why the other one was in a note). I do think that future genocides are unpreventable but it has nothing to do with music.

I just don't think that people should make genocide music or trying to make people feel things using genocides as a tool.

Don't get me wrong, I do get the good intention. It's just against what I believe.

On 1-1-2018 at 7:37 PM, ilv said:

I feel that the music really suits the text. I couldn't understand the text well (I absolutely will NOT blame you for it, it's my fault), but from the tone of voice used, it sounded amazing. Great work! The music is fantastic!

 

Thank you very much, my friend. Here is the written text:

The silence in Out-With is horrible.
Terrible!
Can’t describe it…
We can’t sleep.
People are crying. Loudly!
Are calling, can’t hear what they say.
Suddenly it’s silent.
Did they have to be silent?

I see fume outside a building.
Black and grey.
It smells like…
Death.
For a moment it seemed like I heard mother’s voice:
‘’We loved you.’’

It’s raining, it’s night.
I want to sleep.
Staring at the ground, made of stone and sand.
Staring at my feet:
Very dirty.

I’m tired and confused,
Have to sleep for a few hours,
But I’m not allowed to.
I have to work, because the soldiers want to laugh.
‘’An die Arbeit,’’ said one of them.
I did not react. I did not hear him, actually.
He repeated his command and hit me.

It didn’t hurt.
I could only think about that voice.
It sounded like mother’s voice.
‘’We loved you.’’

I can’t believe it.
I won’t believe it.
I don’t want to believe it!

My small tears become bigger.
The ground becomes wet.
Just of thinking about the things that happened to me.

Thinking about that terrible train.
That has driven us to this place.

‘’Ihr könnt da arbeiten für euer Geld,’’ they said.
Afraid.
Afraid to know where we’d arrive.
I couldn’t breathe well.
Couldn’t look out any windows.
The train didn’t have any.

It seems terrible.
It isn’t.
It is more than terrible.
Can’t describe it.

The soldier is still watching me.
He is still laughing.
Loudly!
He hits me again!
With his strong hands!

Beside a fence, I saw many clothes with yellow stars on it.
Same ones that I had on my jacket.
Looking at them.
One by one.

Hoping to find something I could use…
Found a nice leather bag,
A nice hat and…
Same glasses mother had!
Looking at the head I found.
Wait, no way…
That’s father’s one!
And the bag was Anat’s!
My big sister!

They have killed my family.
I don’t have any family anymore.
I am the last member.
They will kill me too.
They want to kill me too.
Don’t know how they are going to kill me.

It doesn’t matter.
Nobody loves me anymore.
Nobody will remember me.
I begin to cry…
Softly.