Prague Songs (2009)
by Dan Senn

      
for Soprano, Marimba, Violin (1-4), Viola (1-4), and Cello (1-4) (BMI)

      

      
This collection of songs was
      written in the Spring of 2009 in the countryside near Prague,
      in Libušín, and then in Prague itself, in my Břevnov flat. The Songs are based on my own texts and presented
      as four musical vignettes which are meant to be humurous, and
      both socially and personally reflective. The overall duration, with breaks, is about 13 minutes.

Except for The Chubby Little Czech, which is more fictitious, the songs report on things I observed while in the Czech Republic the Spring of 2009. The Gathering is about an experience I had with artist friends at a villa just outside Prague. For hours we discussed politics and art with great intensity and suddenly a cell phone rang and everyone was out of there in a minute. Really very comical. One minute, we were ready to march on Parliament and the next, buzz, and everyone left as if nothing meaningful had been discussed.  The Chubby Little Czech is about my experiences while riding the bus in Prague to get groceries. Most of it is true, some of it invented. On one of these trips, I observed a man who seemed to want the attention of all the sour faced Czech mums around him returning from the market. The man could have stripped naked and they could have cared less, and this indifference seemed to disturb him. He had something to say! And so I invented a character on the spot, in my playful imagination, with symbolic ties to nationalism and, perhaps, a WW2 consciousness. To me, this piece too is humorous but there are some serious political-social inferences. The Lonely Child is not intended to be humorous. It evolved from watching a mother and her three children interact in a public park, with the emotional dynamic between them as presented. It was not a happy family... and then I interpreted these relationships through those of my own upbringing. The piece remains a little mysterious to me now. Perhaps a little dark. The Belle from Brno is about a student of mine (from the city of Brno, the second largest city in The Czech Republic) who kept backing out of a project she had proposed. She drove me nuts and the piece is meant to be humurous. A light ending to the four songs.
The sound files which accompany
      the following scores, at this point, are crude notation
      software renderings. Even so, the timings are correct and as
      an introduction and rehearsal tool, they are adequate.


      
Click title to see and hear.
The
      Gathering,
      3:27 (text)


      
The
      Lonely Child, 3:25 (text)


      
The
      Chubby Little Czech*, 3:39 (text)


      
The
      Belle from Brno, 1:45 (text)


      
* uses the Czech National
      anthem
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