Three Haim Sabari Poems - Program Notes

The poems "Atzvut," "Le-An," and "Zikhtuni be-odi aley adamot" represent effectively the maturing progress of my father Haim Sabari from a bewildered youngster to a self-assured adult. The first two poems, written by my father at the age of nineteen, portray feelings of extreme anguish and disorientation - in "Atzvut" (Sadness) an infinite, although restrained , despair and in "Le-An" (Whither) a hopeless, painful sense of indirection. My father wrote "Zikhtuni be-odi aley adamot" (Remember Me while I am Still upon the Earth) in his mid-twenties; the lyrics are an explicit plea, and thus display a somewhat better-formed personality. The subjects of all three songs, nonetheless, are not particularly merry, to say the least.

In the songs three instrumental combinations are utilized. In "Atzvut" the loneliness and the confined emotion is expressed with the dark alto voice and the thin, warm guitar accompaniment. The leaping voice part and the roaming cello line in "Le-An" portray the tormenting absence of clarity and direction. Only in the third song do all members of the ensemble come together. It is the longest song of the three, and it is richer in texture and more clearly formed.

The score is accompanied by a translation of the Hebrew songs and a very detailed pronunciation guide that will allow the singer to sing comfortably in Hebrew, no matter what language she speaks.