A Review of Pasatieri's "Jew" from "Letter to Warsaw"

Instead of posting a review of Pasatieri’s recently premiered Symphony on the blog, I decided to explore some other works by the American composer, finally settling on his 2003 song cycle, Letter to Warsaw. In this work, Pasatieri sets to music six texts by poet/cabaret artist Pola Braun. Written by Braun in the Warsaw ghetto and in the Majdanek concentration camp (where she died in 1943), the texts are made all the more powerful by Pasatieri’s musical environment and by the commemorative spirit which they now embody.
Here, I will review the first piece in Pasatieri’s song cycle, “Jew.” This work is a dialogue between child and mother, in which the two question what it means to be a Jew. The English translation, done by Barbara Milewski, is sung in this recording by Jane Eaglen.
The song opens with several minutes of instrumental music, pairing the styles of romanticism and film music in a syrupy, contemplative setting. A common motive, made up of two groups of semi-tones, unifies the introduction; its chromatic ascension seems to hint at a dark future. Pasatieri makes an excellent use of the various instruments in this section, with the eerie-sounding motive being passed from strings and clarinets, French horns, then to be imitated in a piano statement, and finally through the voice of a muted, distant-sounding trumpet. Texturally, Pasatieri also provides plenty of variety, creating contrasting thick and thin, homophonic and polyphonic textures. The motive is passed around the ensemble, is transformed rhythmically, transposed chromatically, stated in chains of sequence, and yet remains easily identifiable throughout the introduction—in other words, behaving exactly as a well-written motive should. The often happy, carefree-sounding musical background is paired with this distinct, yet slightly mysterious and foreboding, motive.
Next, the vocalist enters, portraying the questioning daughter in a disjunct, atonal-sounding melodic line. The instrumental accompaniment maintains a certain amount of independence, and seems to shift tonalities so frequently; they do little to establish a harmonic center. The familiar motive of the introduction is heard in repeated chains of sequences in the strings, happening simultaneously with the child’s question “Tell me, dear mama, is it a disgrace, That I am such a little Jew?”
Her response, however, is recognizable only through the text; Pasatieri uses no “Erlkönig”- type registral shifts to indicate the sudden change in character. The vocal line of the mother remains similar to the daughter, continuing to sound disjunct leaps and atonal sounding melodic lines, which are now imitated in the instruments. The music supports the text at several instances here. For example, upon the mother’s mention of hope and of the “believe in the future” that Jews hold, both instrumental and vocal lines suddenly become more romantic-sounding, more tonal. This stylistic shift, paired with the mother’s ascending, increasingly loud vocal line, creates a climactic and hopeful, yet temporary, musical setting of Braun’s text. Upon the mentioning of the “trembling heart” of the Jew, however, both lines descend, grow softer, and seem to move away from the promising lines stated just before.
Additionally, Pasatieri does an excellent job in portraying the daughter’s second response, in which the child recalls being laughed and sneered at, asking “Are Jews good for nothing?” The quickly rising motivic sequences in the instrumental line crescendo, portraying her frustration. The song continues with the mother’s final response, in which she attempts to encourage her daughter once more. Here, however, her efforts seem in vain: upon singing, “A Jew is… Wait, I know what to tell you…” the instrumental music dies off, leaving the mother singing monophonically, searching for the answer but faltering… Her response this time seems forced, (“Jew is a mighty word, believe me,” with a triumphant-sounding major chord sounded upon the word “mighty”). Finally, the song ends with the lines “A Jew is very likely the only person, Who knows truly bitter tears,” after which the strings take over, imitating the shape of the mother’s last words. The woodwinds hold a sustained chord as the strings return to the motive first heard in the introduction of the work, repeating it in chains of ascending sequences until the dynamics grow so low that the music fades to nothing.
Despite the sometimes overly-romantic styling and movie-music sounding brass timbres, Pasatieri’s “Jew” does an excellent job of setting Braun’s words to music. The questioning, despairing attitude of the child is contrasted with the encouraging, informative one of the mother, and the composer uses several instances of word-painting-like musical lines. When I first began listening to this work, I expected something that was either depressing, or disturbing, considering that this is a song cycle commemorating the Holocaust. Pasatieri, however, picks up on the complex emotions that are Braun expresses in the two characters, mixing optimism, hope, fear, and frustration into his music at the appropriate times. The motive serves as a unifying device, running throughout the song and occasionally connecting the instrumental and vocal lines through imitation. Pasatieri does an excellent job of providing enough interest for the listener (texturally, timbrally, and harmonically), yet still maintaining clarity in the vocal line and portraying the deeper meanings found in the poetic text.