Glaubst du an die Unsterblichkeit der Seele

Claude Vivier (G-F-imaginary language)

(Excerpted from a letter written to Thérèse Desjardins while the composer was in Paris, January 7, 1983. The program note below references the composer foreseeing his possible death.)

“…I continued my work with some kind of marvelous serenity. I compose more slowly because I have more and more notes of my music to write! I have just completed the first six minutes of Crois-tu en l’immortalité de l’âme. It is almost ‘dripping’ [as in the painting technique] that I am doing! The whole piece uses two poles: mobility and immobility! Here is a text that I use in a motionless part:

I was cold, it was winter
Well, I thought I was cold
Maybe I was cold.
Yet God had told me I would be cold.
Maybe I was dead.
It wasn’t so much death
That scared me, but dying
Suddenly I was cold
Very cold, or I felt cold.
The night had fallen and I was scared.

I think it is a very beautiful text for this piece I am composing at the moment…”

— Claude Vivier

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