Program Notes
"An Old Frisian Poem" uses an excerpt from one of the oldest texts in the Frisian language, The First Emsiger Codex, which is a book of laws and miscellaneous documents dating from around 1400 AD. Although this text has been used widely by philologists to compare the development of language (primarily the "sister" languages of German, Dutch, Frisian, and English), its narrative and poetic qualities seem less important to scholars. But, in an article called "An Old Frisian Poem" (published in Modern Philology, Feb. 1915), Francis A. Wood proposes that sections of this text are actually poems. He attempts to reconstruct one particular section into its "true" poetic form and believes that it originated several centuries earlier. He draws attention to its use of alliteration and with some editing, he believes that it is a "finished product of no mean merit, worthy to live in the light of the world." The text is striking, whether it is intended to be poetry or legal prose. It describes the struggle of a family that must endure the coming winter without the father of their household, both mournful and desperate. There is no record of this text or others from this era being sung or set to music, and while this setting relies on historical traditions for its musical style, it is simply a musical response to the text, not a proposition of the sound of Old Frisian music. It uses both the Old Frisian text and the English translation provided by Francis A. Wood. In addition to this choral setting, one could sing the texts as a solo or accompanied by period instruments.
Lyrics
thenna thiu neílthiùstera nácht and thi nédkàlda wínter
ur tha túnar hléth, sa farther alra mónna hwélic
inna sin hóf and inna sin hús, alder hi sin líf on bihálde,
and thet wílde diar secht thene hóla bam and thera bérga hlí:
sa wéniath thet nérighe bárn and wépth tha sine nákeda líthi
and sin húslase and sinne féder, ther hine hrédde with thene winter
kálder and with thene héta húngher,
thet hi sa diápe bislághen and sa dímme bisléten
is únder éke and under érthe bithácht.
When murky night and mist-cold winter
On the fields down fall, and fare all men
To the sheltering roof to shield them from death,
And the wild-beast hies to the hollow tree
Or lays him down in a den in the rocks:
Then weeps the child of want when winter chillds his limbs,
And homeless bewails the father, who should ward from him hunger
and cold,
And mourns that so deep he is lying, so darkly shut from the light,
Under the oaken board and burdened by the earth.
- Francis A. Wood, translator
Full Score
Lyrics
thenna thiu neílthiùstera nácht and thi nédkàlda wínter
ur tha túnar hléth, sa farther alra mónna hwélic
inna sin hóf and inna sin hús, alder hi sin líf on bihálde,
and thet wílde diar secht thene hóla bam and thera bérga hlí:
sa wéniath thet nérighe bárn and wépth tha sine nákeda líthi
and sin húslase and sinne féder, ther hine hrédde with thene winter
kálder and with thene héta húngher,
thet hi sa diápe bislághen and sa dímme bisléten
is únder éke and under érthe bithácht.
When murky night and mist-cold winter
On the fields down fall, and fare all men
To the sheltering roof to shield them from death,
And the wild-beast hies to the hollow tree
Or lays him down in a den in the rocks:
Then weeps the child of want when winter chillds his limbs,
And homeless bewails the father, who should ward from him hunger
and cold,
And mourns that so deep he is lying, so darkly shut from the light,
Under the oaken board and burdened by the earth.
- Francis A. Wood, translator
Full Score