for Voice and Piano
The great majority of Charles Bukowski's writings center around a small number of subjects: Women, alcohol, gambling on horses, and a general pessimism toward society. However, amongst his hundreds of poems, a few rays of beauty shine through the cracks. His late poem "Bluebird" illustrates this well:
there's a bluebird in my heart thatFor this set of three songs, I did find three poems in which Bukowski does let his bluebird out, and in composing the music to accompany them I too let my own bluebird show his head. The musical language is one of simplicity and overt tonality. Often in his works, Bukowski mentions his favorite composers; Mahler, Brahms, Bruckner. Keeping this in mind, I like to think he would approve of my settings. All of the poems in the set invoke water imagery, hence the title "Watermarks".
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
youthere's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whisky on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?
Performance history:
11/99 - by Dana Bhatnagar, soprano & Julian Gargiulo, piano.
Sulzberger Parlour at Barnard College, New York City.
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