Composed By David Lang

Title: I Lie (Leyg ikh mir in bet arayn)

sample first page

Published by G. Schirmer (Red Poppy)

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Voicing: SSA

Keyword Yiddish, Song of Songs, Love

Language: Yiddish

Difficulty: moderate

Country: America

Solos: soprano

Instruments: none

Lyrics: Joseph Rolnick

Year Composed/Published: 2001

Timing: 5:00

Tempo: slow

First Line: Leyg ikh mir in bet arayn

description: The Kiska ensemble asked Lang to write a kind of ‘‘modern folk song.’ Lang wrote: “seemed natural to me to take the text of an old Yiddish song and give it new music. I chose this particular text because it has a darkly expectant feeling about it. It isn’t about being happy or sad or miserable or redeemed; rather, it is about waiting for happiness or sadness or misery or redemption. As is the case in many Yiddish songs, something as ordinary as a girl waiting for her lover can cast many darker, more deeply beautiful shadows.”

The Yiddish poem was clearly inspired by verses in the biblica “Song of Songs.” The setting is hypnotic, minimalist, evocative, mysterious.

This music was used in the film La Grande Bellezza