Скачать или смотреть Una Tsai's Jazz Original "Einsamer Wanderer" / English translation available under subtitle

Music, Lyric and Poetry by Una Tsai

Jazz German Song Cycle: Einsamer Wanderer

1st Movement: Einsamer Wanderer
2nd Movement: Nie Wieder
3rd Movement: Neuanfang

Einsamer Wanderer (Lonely Wanderer)

This German song cycle project took me one year to complete. I was inspired by my own research paper on the topic of Langston Hughes’s jazz poetry for Dr. Murphy’s research class. At the same time, it was also my 2017 new year resolution which is to write my very first original.
Lonely wanderer consists of three movements and the music is set in a style of modern jazz or ECM sound. The Lonely wanderer may refer to a little boy and the wind is one of main characters that weaves in and out of three movements. Vibraphone plays a vital role for this song cycle and it stands for the lonely wanderer.


Einsamer Wanderer, 1st Movement

The first movement starts out with the adventure of the lonely wanderer. He is looking for the meaning of life, but no one has an answer for the mystery of life. This movement sets in the scene of the wind and the coda represents the blowing wind that carries into the second movement.

Nie Wieder (Never Again), 2nd Movement
The adventure continues and the lonely wanderer tells himself never look back again. Although there are confusions and doubts, pains along his way, he knows that hope is always there for him. The meter alternates between 4/4 and 3/4 to accommodate the German lyrics. Specific melodic lines were written for vibraphone that represents the lonely wanderer.

Neuanfang (New Beginning), 3rd movement
The third movement is specially dedicated to homeless people. I was inspired both by a series of sermons on the topic of justice, and by watching several German interviews, and one 8-minute document short film about a homeless person, Holger Haupt, in Germany. Homeless people are like lonely wanderers, but the struggles are real in their lives. There should be no differences between homeless people and us. Lives with dignity as human beings like anyone else should not be an issue that they have to strive for daily.
The music is based on two pedal notes, D and D flat and there are many open fifths and fourths, chromatic lines, and the whole tone at the end describing the struggles of the homeless people.

Featuring:

Wes Dziedzic- Piano and keyboard
Adrian Laird-Bass and electric bass
Nathan McCord-Drumset
Hunter Strasser- Electric guitar
Destin Wernicke- Vibraphone
Una Tsai- Vocals