1990
Soprano Solo. Text by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
UA: 23/2/1991, Rotterdam, Festival VOX, Lucia Meeuwesen, Sopran
NIE RECHT (Never right, 1990) is a one-minute piece for solo soprano which I composed during half an hour on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
The piece is written for a collection of 10 little pieces for the Dutch state publishing house ‘Donemus’: never give this state-enterprise more than half an hour of your life-time…
The text is by the young Felix MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY. It describes the problem of musical composition itself: whatever you do, it is always wrong. If it is too ‘light’ the composition is not taken seriously, if it is to ‘serious’, public and critics yawn.
Mendelssohn’s advice is simple: boys, do not listen to anybody. Just compose what you believe to be right. A quotation from Mendelssohns ‘Italic Symphony’ is easily recognizable in this little musical flea.
You can download the score here: Nie recht.pdf