Osvaldo Golijov Yiddishbbuk Inscriptions for String Quartet (full score) YTALIANNA MUSIC PUBLISHING 85.74 GS8iy996.7771 C5814 Yiddishbbuk was written for the St. Lawrence String Quartet: Geoffrey Nuttall, Barry Shiffman, violins, Lesley Robertson, viola, Marina Hoover, cello Commissioned jointly by the Tanglewood Music Center and the Fromm Music Foundation, Winner of the “Paul Fromm Award.” Premiered by the St. Lawrence String Quartet at the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, July 27, 1992Program Note “A broken song played on a shattered cymbalon.” Thus, writes Kafka, begins Yiddishbbuk, a collection of apocryphal psalms, which he read while living in Prague's street of the alchemists. The only remnants of the collection are a few verses inter- spersed among the entries of his notebooks, and the last lines are also quoted in a letter to Milena: “No one sings as purely as those who are in the deepest hell. Theirs is the song which we confused with that of the angels.” Written in Hebrew characters and surrounded with musical notation, marks similar to those of the genuine texts, the psalms’ only other reference to their music is: “In the mode of the Babyloni Lamentations.” Based on these vestiges, these inscriptions for string quartet are an attempt to reconstruct that mus ic. The movements of the piece bear the initials of persons commemorated in the work, The first movement commemorates three children interned by the Nazis at the Terezin: Doris Weiserova (1932-1944), Frantisek Bass (1930-1944), and Tomas Kauders (1934— 1943). Their poems and drawings appear in the book “...I never saw another butter- fly...", published by the US Holocaust Museum. The second movement bears the initials of the writer Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991), and the last movement the initials of Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990). Performance Notes: Movement IA: This movement represents a howl shattered into thirteen fragments. Each fragment indicated by a small circled number and the “leader” printed above the violin staff in bold type. D: barlines indicate the next fragment should begin “clean” without any note(s) holding shed barlines indicate a connection between the fragments; solid over from the previous section. A double barline (e.g., no. 10) indicates a slight pause, Movement IB: This movement represents 12 strokes on a bell made of ashes. The length of each stroke should be felt, rather than counted, Itis very important that there is no pause between movements 1B and 1C.Yiddishbbuk Inscriptions for String Quartet (1992) Dw. 1932-1044 i 1A Osvaldo Golijov (* 1960) ® jy sultasto, non vib. sul pont, V* ——————————————————————————— sul pont col ego bat, with regular acess iv un col legno bat, with irregular accents do not synchronize with Va. Violin 1 do not synchronize with Vn Viola Violoncello Vat Vn. col Jegno batt, with iregular accents ® 1 donot synchronize with Va. or Ve ol ego at. ith eer acents donot smchronize with Vn for Va SSS = we nae © Copyright 2001 by Yialianna Music Publishing@ “arotaio > ceo be Be Ba : if cf f gf start naynchronizad: gradually ‘Srchronar with Vo. nd SF pesante 5 sultasto start unsynchronized: gradually “snchronize with Vn Hand Ve. start nnomchronized: gradually sonchrontze with Vn. Il and Va. ee > ft ass. ——— ff mdm Tuttioa 20-30 appena pressando ©4 TK, 1994-1943SSS SS prPEseaaeey 4; a ei peenteee! eee ee eee aie ee Step Prerr rrr ser rere eee aS == Dee. Pie re wep eee =f) ——S = Se == = gees eddies es 2 : a a a ee ceee tire ties fener Oe pa ce 3 = ra # “f) — eee Fes = ee a a a a i Sepeser tere eter enel Crt oper Errrrterrsresass oa —_ p~— — | fog gaey te ete ea a f f & f5 =>18S. 1904-1091 9 2 Con moto, leggiero rocking gently as in a lullaby, until tenerament, in the forezround ca " PPP sempre101 long bows and feverish vibrato, like a flickering candle, until sul tasto & Bp doleissino sul tasto doleissimo sul tasto Ppp doleissimo sul tasto doiciino (like an accordion until2 Intensissimo 7 2 praniterik sound unt ety ny ny ny sub, t orth3 ee | # ft4 _ a ‘gradually humar nizing the soundDi s = Pia lento, Hberamente a or ik oe16 LB. 1918-1990 4 = ca 52 sempre intenso, poco o senza vibrato ' visceral sound, the frontier ieween sobbing and singing z = fp —=f F=f saltasto 7h orn a eras ae wt (echo) ppp rows 5 NM Fr ‘ Bliss. 3 oo eS GE ee ee 5 tae ba ae 7 ee a :———-F fp—fr—f FP ase es —=——s y $ sal se Bae == > fete pes 100 — = r et hy xm Sa = 5 = pa jae fp—f fp lp ‘a visceral sound, the frontier secant Ses, ee : fn - — P ? ms fe fe PP eel —— oo it ‘(unt) t ade es _— payee at7 * All rill are to the note M4 tone higheroF tree treme th uae poe ae a eee eS te oe be | tote elie tee tee ace tie te |24pp of23