lullaby

Ërdö ërdö de magos a teteje
Jaj de régen lehullott a levele
Árva madár párját kere sibene
Buza közeszáll a dalos pacsirta
Mertodafönt a szemelit kisirta
Buza virag buzakalász árnyában
Rágon dolt a régi elsö párjára

How high, green forest, spreads your highest tree?
How long since the last leaf fell silently?
Now a lone bird seeks her mates so mournfully.

High above the corn a lark now earthward flies;
Sad her heart, forlorn amidst the empty skies.
Sheltered, hidden under shade of leaf and flower,
Still she mourns the mate who left her lonely there.

(A Hungarian folk song)

I used this song as the basis for my piece "hommage à b.b."

You can listen to it here in a recording by Heidi Grant Murphy and Auréole. This is the piece I think I am proudest of; both in its subject, in the language (despite my last name, my background is about 90% Hungarian, and as a young boy I loved hearing the language, mysterious, spoken by so many of my relatives, and to this day I find the sound of Hungarian comforting, even the Hungarian accent of an English-speaker). I was never so intimidated by a project as I was when I got this commission, and I was paralyzed. Then the piece came to me almost instantly and completely and I wrote it in a few days. It was first performed at the Metropolitan Museum, in the Medieval Sculpture Hall, in late December 1998. The sound was breathtaking there.