Pulse Ensemble: Canzone 164 di Francesco Petrarca - Kurt Bikkembergs

Uitgegeven door Sulasol, Helsinki 2019.
Dedicato a Daan, Ernesto, Stijn e Willem per il quinto anniversario di l’ensemble Impulso.
Tekst: Francesco Petrarca.

Albumhoes: Jan en Hubert van Eyck, Het Lam Gods (1432), uitsnede met Domtoren. Bron: Sint-
Baafskathedraal Gent, www.artinflanders.be, foto: Dominique Provost.

Dit album is tot stand gekomen met behulp van fondsen/stichtingen. Wij bedanken Kees Eijrond Fonds, Provinciaal Utrechts Genootschap en Vermeulen Brauckman hartelijk voor hun steun.

For more information in English about the album as well as the song texts, we kindly refer to our website: www.pulseensemble.nl.

pulseensemble.nl | fb.com/pulseensemble | [email protected]

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Op 1 augustus 1674 werd Utrecht getroffen door een geweldige zomerstorm, die de hele regio op zijn grondvesten deed schudden. De storm, die later ‘t Schrickelik Tempeest gedoopt werd, verwoestte menig toren en dak in de stad. Tot overmaat van ramp stortte door de aanhoudende valwinden het massieve middenschip van de Utrechtse Domkerk in. Al drie eeuwen eerder, rond 1374, voorspelde Geert Groote, de grondlegger van de Moderne Devotie, groot onheil voor de Domkerk: in zijn traktaat Contra turrim Traiectensem profeteert hij het ineenstorten van de Domtoren. De toren echter doorstond de storm met glans en staat nog altijd fier overeind. Op dit album bezingt en beweent het Pulse Ensemble het bouwen en weer instorten van menselijke bouwwerken.

On the evening of the first of August 1674, the city of Utrecht was hit by a great summer storm that wreaked havoc in the entire region. This storm, later aptly dubbed ’t Schrickelik Tempeest, “the Terrible Tempest”, destroyed roofs and church towers throughout the city. The ongoing thunderstorm downbursts completely disintegrated the massive nave of St. Martin's Cathedral, also called the Dom Church. Three centuries earlier, around 1374, a dutch canon had prophesied great calamity for the Dom Church. In his treatise Contra turrim Traiectensem, Geert Groote, founder of the Modern Devotion, predicts the collapse of the Dom Tower. The tower however survived the storm and still stands tall. With this album the Pulse Ensemble lauds and laments the building and collapse of human constructions.

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Or che 'l ciel et la terra e 'l vento tace
et le fere e gli augelli il sonno affrena,
Notte il carro stellato in giro mena
et nel suo letto il mar senz'onda giace,

veggio, penso, ardo, piango; et chi mi sface
sempre m'è inanzi per mia dolce pena:
guerra è 'l mio stato, d'ira et di duol piena,
et sol di lei pensando ò qualche pace.

Cosí sol d'una chiara fonte viva
move 'l dolce et l'amaro ond'io mi pasco;
una man sola mi risana et punge;

e perché 'l mio martir non giunga a riva,
mille volte il dí moro et mille nasco,
tanto da la salute mia son lunge.

[ENG]
Now that the sky and the earth and the wind are silent
and the wild creatures and the birds are reined in sleep,
Night leads its starry chariot in its round,
and the sea without a wave lies in its bed,

I look, think, burn, weep: and she who destroys me
is always before my eyes to my sweet distress:
war is my state, filled with grief and anger,
and only in thinking of her do I find peace.

So from one pure living fountain
flow the sweet and bitter which I drink:
one hand alone heals me and pierces me:

and so that my ordeal may not reach haven,
I am born and die a thousand times a day,
I am so far from my salvation.

Translation: The Complete Canzoniere - Petrarch. A translation into English by A. S. Kline, ISBN: 9781508827689.