jorge a. bosso

works_vocal_

Allemande
Unter den Linden Parte I
Courante
Unter den Linden Parte II
Sarabande
Unter den Linden Parte III
Gigue
Unter den Linden Parte IIII
Utqueant Laxis
Ciaccona

Dmitri Shostakowitsch wrote a letter to all the composers of the world: “…By building bridges into the future we must take care not to burn the bridges connecting today’s culture to its immortal past…” 

Every artistic creation is in close relation with its time and carries in itself a heritage that goes beyond its own nature. And every true artist is situated in an intersectional point between an acquired heritage, his present and a tomorrow that he elaborates himself through a unique and personal path.

Few years ago I wrote Bridges, a composition for female choir and an ensemble of 17 musicians. The work is based on the Preludes and Fugues op. 87 conceived by the Russian author on 1950. The premiere was held in Petrozavodsk and later at the Sakharov Festival in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, on the 3rd of June 2006. I orchestrated four preludes and fugues (DSCH) and conceived a work of ample gesture which included a Prologue, chorals, an intermezzo with the words of Shostakowitsch himself and an Epilogue that included all the themes of the cycle that I did not orchestrate. The lyrics I used are from Gavril  Romanovich Derzhavin (1743-1816), Mikhail Vasilievic Lomonosov (1711-1716), Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov (1853-1900), Ivan Andreevic Krylov (1768-1844), Ana Akhmatova, Alexander Blok, Alexander Pushkin.

The entire composition represents for me a symbol. I wanted to put forward the concept of the heritage, the legacy that should never be forgotten, that it is part of the cultural patrimony of every nation, in the search for a superior level of existence from the individual nature towards the collective one; that is in itself the utmost aim of art.

Der Frühling der Minnesänger, is a composition in which I added a vocal part to the  Partita II for solo violin in D minor by Johann S. Bach.

The first question that  should  spring  to the mind of every listener with a previous  knowledge  of Bach’s  work  is : Why  to take music already written and performed ; and more  than  that:  What could be added to a work  that has already acquired a position of privilege, an icon in our  musical History and  the  mainstay in the repertoire of every solo violinist?

Once again, through a musical composition, I tried to achieve a significance that goes beyond the work itself. Nietzsche wrote in 1874 “ that the great moments…of the individuals will build a  mountain range of the human kind…this is the thought of a faith in the humanity that expresses itself  through the urgency of a monumental history...the monogram of their existence, one work, one action, a rare illumination, just one creation: it will live, because no posterity will be able to live without it”. ... the urgency of a monumental history, he wrote ...The word monumentcomes from Latin verb monĕre that means to evoke, to remember, to celebrate. This is the meaning and the etymology of monument.

A monument includes always a tie.

A monument carries in itself a commitment.

A monument implies a responsibility with the past of a society and at the same time an obligation towards the future.

Every time I decide to work on a new composition it takes me quite a long time until I begin to translate into sounds an experience through which I went through. And it is not even about  rendering in music a poem, a story or a canvas. The consequence should be the result of  an assimilation, an absorption and finally a proposal of a point of view, an statement.

One’s proclamation.

The artist gives his testimony of  the truth, of his Truth of the world. The artist must be sure that he and his creation give answers to the wish of Truth.

“ Der Frühling der Minnesänger ” , was ist Minne?

Walter von der Vogelweide expressed:

“ Die Minn ist weder Mann noch Weib,
Sie hat nicht Seele, hat nicht Leib,…”

“ Love is neither man nor woman,

It has neither soul nor body,…”
“ Ihr folge ich als Führerin.”
“ I choose you as my leading ideal.”

( Sarabande)

This is the best definition I could find to understand what the Minnesang was. The tradition of lyric and song writing in Germany that flourished in the 12th century and continued into the 14th century. I quote, above, the words from the most popular poet of the Minnesang tradition to comprehend what this literary movement was, because nothing can speak better about a subject than the subject itself. Although most of the times there is the pretension to make us believe the opposite: a very usual turnover of the values in which the introduction, critical editions, bibliography are used as an smoke curtain to hide, to eclipse, to cover what the text itself has to say.

They wrote love poetry, in the courtly love tradition in Middle High German, during the High Middle Ages. The concept of Love in its utmost expression. The Minnedienst. The service of Love. The aim of the Minne was the elevation of the spirit, and the representation of this spiritual act was the image of the frouwe, the lady. It was a symbol, an emblem, an icon. The representation on the earth of this metaphysical tendency of the human being towards the time without end.

The first strophe of the lyrics, by Walter von der Vogelweide, I proposed for the Allemande:

“Lady, be godly!  Hear the plea I make.
I bring a message in my song:
A knight is burdened with a great heart-ache
Under which he's suffered long.
I am to inform you that
If you will turn his mood about,
Without a doubt,
Many hearts will then be glad.”

(Allemande)

The four dances have been written in an strict baroque counterpoint with lyrics of the minnesänger and the epic poem Der Nibelüngen. Four small intermezzi, with the text of the Unter den Linden by Vogelweide have been added in an style that it is nearer to the School of Notre Dame, Leoninus and Perotinus, and the Symphonies of Hildegard von Bingen, it means the XI-XII centuries.

“Under the lime tree
On the heather,
Where we had shared a place of rest,
Still you may find there,
Lovely together,
Flowers crushed and grass down-pressed.
Beside the forest in the vale,
Tándaradéi,
Sweetly sang the nightingale.”
“If any knew
He lay with me
(May God forbid!), for shame I'd die.
What did he do?
May none but he
Ever be sure of that — and I,
And one extremely tiny bird,
Tándaradéi,
Who will, I think, not say a word.”

Unter den Linden, Walther von der Vogelweide, and a nightingale that shared the lovers secrets. We are at the conclusion of the XII century and I feel the flavor of a  vision nearer to the paganism still, close to the times in which the voices of the animals communicated the divine will.  Until, of course, the Christians  did  invade the space of ancient cultures.

“ tandaradei,
schône sanc diu nahtegal. “

The Ciaconna was treated in a different and more abstract way, as regards the musical aspect itself. The lyrics  belong to Paolo Diacono (the hymn Utqueant Laxis), Giordano Bruno (De Magia Mathematica), Hildegard von Bingen and the Genesis.

I wrote about Minne, and about the meaning of Love in the tradition of the minnesänger.

During the ancient Greek times, a poetess from Lesbos sung:

“A troop of horse, the serried ranks of marchers,
A noble fleet, some think these of all on earth
Most beautiful. For me not anything else regarding
Is my beloved”.

(Sappho)

The concept of Love beside the image of Beauty.

This perception was called Kalokagathìa during the Greek ancient times. Hesiodus, another Greek poet that lived before Sappho, wrote that during the wedding of Kadmos and Harmonia the Muses have sung:

“ Who is beautiful is dear,
who is not beautiful is not dear.”

The Beauty had not a status at least until the age of Pericles, it was always associated to other qualities. 

I suggested, before, that the artist gives his testimony of  the truth, of his truth of the world. The artist must be sure that he and his creation give answers to the wish of truth. “I refused the concept of experiment, of research in the field of art ”, affirmed Tarkovsky, “any research in art, everything that is called avant-garde, it is pretentious I would dare to say”. Nobody knows what the beauty is. The idea people could have about beauty, the concept of beauty itself change through the history together with philosophical arguments on that matter and just together with the simple development of the man throughout his personal life. And this makes me think that in fact the beauty is the symbol of something different. But what exactly? Beauty as symbol of truth. But not in the sense of the opposition truth- lie, but in the sense of a path of  truth that the man chooses. The truth revealed through the beauty it is enigmatic; it cannot be explained with words, but when a human being stares at it, the beauty is perceived, it reveals at once its presence. The beauty is like a miracle and the man its witness. That is all. I think the man was created to live, and to do it through a path towards the truth. That is the reason for what the man creates. The man, somehow creates in a path towards the truth. This is his way of existing and the question about the creation could not really have an answer.

The noun Music has its origins from the name of the Muses, masai in Hellenic language, the act of researching, for the ancients considered necessary their help at the moment of looking for the expressive strength to give to their verses. Once again the origin of the word itself brings us to a superior world.

The great epic poems in Greece were recited as poetry. Also the oracles spoke in verses. The responses from Delphos were recited in verses too. In the I century A.C. the oracle from Delphos spoke in verses and prose, and the responses that were given in prose were later converted in verses by poets at the service of the temple, as we know through the writings of Strabo. Two centuries later Tacit, visited the oracle of Apollo and describes how the pitons in trance listened the requests of the people, then “ drinks a sob of water from a mysterious fountain and proclaims responses in verses”.

Poetry was then connected with the divine knowledge.

Among the ancient Arab cultures the word for poet was sha’ir, “ the one who knows”, or a  person that has received the knowledge from the spirits; the poet and the divine medium had been associated by a long tradition in the ancient world.

The attraction towards the divinity and the need of  embracing the supreme entity by the ancients poets was a constant at the moment of asking for help to achieve their commitments.

The Hebrew  word for heritage nahalà comes from nahàl, meaning river. I find this etymology particularly beautiful because it gives a clear idea of a flow, an evolution, a slow but continuous transformation through time. Fathers and sons swim in the same flow. Of course, I intend by heritage   not  merely its material  sense, but  its belonging to a tradition, which,  like a river, nahàl, descends from generation to  generation. As a symbol of water, since ancient times the river has been a symbol  of metamorphosis, the representation of life itself.

I have always felt attracted by the etymology. Because every word has an inherent antiquity, an own past, and the pretension of a present consciousness of their path through the centuries, casts us towards the future with the cognition of an archaic contemporaneity. Etymon means, in Greek, what is certain, because the Greeks conceived that what it is sure about a word is its origin, that primary instant in which it happens.

Abstract words are to  the speech like ancient coins whose  engraved images have been deteriorated through the process  of continuous use  and exchange.

Bach represents a point of arrival, after  following a long path which began with the school of the polyphony of Notre Dame. But at the same time is the foundation of a new era. Bach represents an infinite source that speaks nowadays towards eternity.

“ One generation come and another one goes and the earth forever remains still ” we read in the first chapter from the Ecclesiastes.

We come back, once more to this cyclic concept that appears almost constantly. The image of culture and tradition represented by flow, evolution, by a slow but continuous metamorphosis in time. Today we are here, but tomorrow no  longer ; nevertheless our ideas and our thoughts remain and they remain and exist  for thousand and ten thousand years, as Galileo wrote, creating a channel of communication from today towards time without end.

Art, as an expression of this infinite research, should be part of our daily life.

I do not believe in art as an absolute value. Should we perceive as a work of art any aesthetic manifestation  that does not have the possibility to establish a link between itself and the world in which it lives?

Aesthetic, as a word, appeared in  1735 in   Philosophical Meditations on Arguments Concerning Poetry written by Alexander Gottlieb Baumgartner. He formulated the expression “aesthetica” as   coming from the Greek root aisth and  aisthanomai,  which means “to relate to something through the senses”.

Music as an element of communion with others.
Each work of art has a reason to exist from the moment in which it establishes a fundamental bipolarity: from one side, the urgency, the fatal destiny of its arrival into our world, and from the other side  its reception into  the  world  and the need of a  response to  it.
The audience should be always be considered as a part of a process of active listening. And to achieve this result I feel necessary the sense of originality.

Originality, intended in its deepest meaning, originality as daughter of an inner need. Its etymology in Latin : orīri , to rise.

Originality as a result from a need of communication.

Originality, not in the sense of presenting an artistic project to the community, but as an urgent rendering, commūnis, an artistic manifestation.

As regards the lyrics for the Ciaccona, I proposed the hymn of Paolo Diacono, Utqueant laxis, the verses from which Guido D’ Arezzo conceived the name of our musical notes. I overlapped the whole hexachord and in this way I worked out the whole movement.

“Ut queant laxis
Resonare fibris
Mira gestorum
Famuli tuorum
Solve polluti
Labii reatum,
Sancte Iohannes”

“ So that your servants
could sing with free voices
the marvels of your actions,
cancel the sin,
O Saint John,
from their corrupted lips”

(Ciaccona)

I decided to use it, because it is our primary matter. As for the language it is the letter, for our way of expression, our clay, our mud it is the sound. 

Monuments built to construct a collective memory made of indelible bricks that ties us to a common History, that monumental History Nietzsche spoke about. And these bricks, these letters had been created and introduced to  support the memory of things to avoid the possibility they could vanish into the oblivion.

As nearer as we consider a word, the more far away it looks. And the more we penetrate into the universe of a word, the more it offers us its own life through the centuries, because the word has its own existence and our lives happen through it. The same I feel with the sounds.

The sound was created before the word, before the possibility of communicating through the word among the human beings. The birds appeared before Adam and Eva.

“ And God said: …that the birds can fly over the earth and throughout the skies.” (Genesis, I, 20)

The arrogance of the man in his aim of climbing  towards the divinity was punished through the spoken language. The Babel tower was condemned by God  because the human kind tried to rebuild, against his will, that axis between heaven and earth, broken by the original sin. God, not to let accomplish their purpose, gave birth to the different languages. And on the other hand, He did not take away from the man the possibility of communicating through the music.

Because the intrinsic nature of the music, its essence in itself does not belong to us.

Another thoughts I included in the Ciaccona come from De Magia Mathematica by Giordano Bruno and the poetry by Hildegard von Bingen.

From the very beginning I decided to use them, because of  their clarity of logos, lucidity  of the concept of God and his operationes divinae. The idea of the ultimate beginning.

The man becomes  idealist when proper circumstances allow his imagination to conceive probable developments, and on the other hand when the faculty of thinking reaches such an improvement that the mind can anticipate the experience.

The man is a symbolic animal, and he should not become bigger that his ideas, as Music should be always part of something wider than ourselves. I am persuaded that if we could embrace just part of its flavor and essence, it could be a huge step forward towards a research for a superior level of existence.

Jorge A. Bosso

Lyrics

Allemande		(English translation)
"Frouwe, vernemt dur Got von mir diz mære: ich bin ein bote und sol iu sagen, Ir sült wenden einem ritter swære, der si lange hât getragen.  Daz sol ich iu künden sô: ob ir in welt fröiden rîchen, sicherlîchen des wirt manic herze frô. Frouwe, enlât iuch des sô niht verdriezen,  ir engebt im hôhen muot. Des mugt ir und alle wol geniezen, den ouch fröide sanfte tuot. Dâ von wirt sîn bereit, ob ir in ze fröiden bringet,  daz er singet iuwer êre und werdekeit. Frouwe, sendet im ein hôhgemüete, sît an iu sîn fröide stât. Er mac wol geniezen iuwer güete, sît diu tugent und êre hât. Frouwe, gebt im hôhen muot. welt ir, sîn trûren ist verkêret, daz in lêret daz er daz beste gerne tuot." Ja moth ich michs an in niht wol gelâzen, Daz er wol behuote sich. Krumbe wege die gent bi allen strazen, Da vor Got behüete mich. Ich wil nâch dem rehten varn, Ze leide im, der mich anders lêre. Swar ich kêre, Dâ müeze mich doch got bewarn! Walther von der Vogelweide (um 1170 - 1230)		Lady, be godly!  Hear the plea I make. I bring a message in my song: A knight is burdened with a great heart-ache Under which he's suffered long. I am to inform you that If you will turn his mood about, Without a doubt, Many hearts will then be glad. Lady, his "high spirits" are your goal. Don't neglect this; don't be coy. This surely will advantage you, and all Who rejoice in sharing joy. For he'll employ his every phrase (If indeed it's joy you bring) Just to sing Aloud your honor and your praise. Lady, grant his spirits a reprieve. You are all his heart's delight. Truly he is worthy to receive Your favors.  This is good and right. Lady, raise his spirits high. You can give him what he yearns, That he learns Loves best demands to satisfy. "Yet I wonder what his suit forebodes? Can I trust his winning ways? Crooked paths are found beside straight roads! May God protect me all my days! I will do the things I should, Frustrating him who points the way, But leads astray. Teach me, God, to know what's good."
Unter den Linden Part I Unter der linden an der heide, dâ unser zweier bette was, dâ muget ir vinden schône beide gebrochen bluomen unde gras. Vor dem walde in einem tal, tandaradei, schône sanc diu nahtegal.		(English translation) Under the lime tree On the heather, Where we had shared a place of rest, Still you may find there, Lovely together, Flowers crushed and grass down-pressed. Beside the forest in the vale, Tándaradéi, Sweetly sang the nightingale.
Courante Das Nibelungelied (1190-1200) IV Aventivre wie sivrit mit den sahsen streit (verses 197-200,202)		(English translation)
si fvorten doch niht mere | niwan tvsent man darvber zwelf rechen | stieben do began di molten von den strazen | si riten vber lant da sah man von in scinen | vil manegen herlichen rant do waren ovch di sahsen | mit ir scharn chomn mit swerten wol gewachsen | daz han ich sit vernomn div swert div sniten sere | den helden an der hant do wolden si den gestn | weren bverge vnd lant der herrn scarmeister | daz volch do fvorte dan do was ovch chomn sivrit | mit den sinen man di er mit im brahte | vzer niderlant des tages wart in stvrme | vil manech plvotigiv hant sindolt vnd hvnolt | vnt ovch gernot di slvogn in dem strite | vil manegen helt tot e si daz reht erfvnden | wie chvene was ir lip daz mvose sit beweinen | vil manech edel wip die von tenemarche | versvochten wol ir hant do horte man von hvrte | erdiezen manegen rant vnt ovch von scaerpfen swerten | der man da vil geslvoch …. si chomn degenliche | mit samt sivride dar.		More than a thousand warriors / they there had not a man, Saving twelve knights-errant. / To rise the dust began In clouds along the highway / as they rode across the fields, And gleaming in the sunlight / were seen the brightly shining shields. Meanwhile eke was nearing / of Saxons a great throng, Each a broadsword bearing / that mickle was and long, With blade that cut full sorely / when swung in strong right hand. ’Gainst strangers were they ready / to guard their castles and their land. The leaders forth to battle / led the warriors then. Come was also Siegfried / with his twelve chosen men, Whom he with him hither / had brought from Netherland. That day in storm of battle / was blood-bespattered many a hand. Sindold and Hunold / and Gernot as well, Beneath their hands in battle / full many a hero fell, Ere that their deeds of valor / were known throughout the host. Through them must many a stately / matron weep for warrior lost. The knights of Denmark tested / how they could weapons wield. Clashing there together / heard ye many a shield And ’neath sharp swords resounding, / swung by many an arm. … O’er brightly gleaming helmet / ’neath Siegfried’s mighty hand. (translation, George Henry Needler)
Unter den Linden Part II		(English translation)
Ich kam gegangen zuo der ouwe: dô was mîn friedel komen ê. Dâ wart ich empfangen (hêre frouwe!) daz ich bin sælic iemer mê. Kust er mich? Wol tûsentstunt: tandarandei, seht wie rôt mir ist der munt.		I came to meet him At the green: There was my truelove come before. Such was I greeted — Heaven's Queen! — That I am glad for evermore. Had he kisses? A thousand some: Tándaradéi, See how red my mouth's become.
Sarabande
Die Minn ist weder Mann noch Weib, Sie hat nicht Seele, hat nicht Leib, Irdisch Bildniß ward ihr nicht beschieden; Ihr Nam ist kund, sie selber fremd hienieden, Und es kann doch Niemand ohne sie Des Himmels Gnad und Gunst gewinnen; (Vertraue denen, die da minnen:) In falsche Herzen kam sie nie. Nachgedichtet von Karl Simrock (1802-1876) Aus: Gedichte Walthers von der Vogelweide übersetzt von Karl Simrock und erläutert von Karl Simrock und Wilhelm Wackernagel In der Vereinsbuchhandlung Berlin 1833 Viel falsche Münz' in unsern Tagen Ist nach der Minne Bild geschlagen. Doch hast du ihr Gepräge recht erkannt, Dann setz' ich meine Treue dir zum Pfand: Folgst ihrer Leitung du mit treuem Sinn, So wird dich Rohheit nie bemeistern. Zum Himmel kann die Lieb' begeistern: Ihr folge ich als Führerin. Nachgedichtet von Karl Pannier Aus: Walthers von der Vogelweide Sämtliche Gedichte Aus dem Mittelhochdeutschen übertragen mit Einleitung und Anmerkungen versehen von Karl Pannier Zweite Auflage Leipzig 1876 Walther von der Vogelweide (um 1170 - 1230)
Unter den Linden Part III		(English translation)
Dô hete er gemachet alsô rîche von bluomen eine bettestat. Des wirt noch gelachet inneclîche, kumt iemen an daz selbe pfat: bî den rôsen er wol mac, tandarandei, merken wâ mir'z houbet lac.		There he had fashioned For luxury A bed from every kind of flower. It sets to laughing Delightedly Whoever comes upon that bower; By the roses well one may, Tándaradéi, Mark the spot my head once lay.
Gigue Wolfram von Eschenbach (1170/75 - 1220)		(English translation)
Ez ist nu tac Daz ich wol mac Mit wärheit jehen : “ich will niht langer sîn” Diu vinster naht Hat uns nu brâht Ze leide mi den morgenshîn. Sol er von mir scheiden nuo, Min vriunt, diu sorge ist mir ze vruo. Ich weiz vil wol, daz ist mir ouch ime, Den ich in mînen ougen gerne burge, Morh ich in also behalten. Mîn kumber wil sich breiten. Owê des, wie kunst ers hin? Der hôhste vride müeze In noch an mînen arn geleiten. Daz guote wîp Ir vriundes lip Vaste umbevie, der was entslâfendô. Dô daz geschach Daz er ersach Den grâwen tac Dô muose er sîn unvrô. An sîne bruste er sie Dructe und sprach ‘jô ‘nerkante ich nie Kein truric scheiden also snel. Und ist diu naht von hinnen alze balde, Wer hat sî sô kurz gemezzen? Der tac wil niht erwinden, Hat mine an saelden teil, Diu helfe mir, Daz ich dich noch Mit vröiden mueze vinden.		“It is day now! I will not break my word In saying I will be no more. Dark night has brought us morning’s light. Greatly to my grief If my friend leaves me now, That misery has come too soon for me. I know quite well he feels the same I’d like to guard him safe inside my eyes, If I meant I could keep him touched in there. My grief is going to grow How can he get away? May God’s safe conduct Keep him still in my arms. That good woman Wrapped herself tight around her friend, Who was asleep. When it happened that he saw the day’s rey light He was less than overjoyed. Against his breast he pressed her And said “ I knew So sad a parting in so short a time. If the night has scuttled off so quickly Who was the one who measured it so short? The day will not go back If love has any share of luck Then let her help me to find you.
Unter den Linden Part IIII		(English translation)
Daz er bî mir læge, wesse'z iemen (nu enwelle got!), so schamte ich mich. Wes er mit mir pflæge, niemer niemen bevinde daz, wan er und ich, und ein kleinez vogellîn: tandarandei, daz mac wol getriuwe sîn.		If any knew He lay with me (May God forbid!), for shame I'd die. What did he do? May none but he Ever be sure of that — and I, And one extremely tiny bird, Tándaradéi, Who will, I think, not say a word. translation copyright © 1970, 1981, 2001 by Raymond Oliver
Utqueant Laxis		(English translation)
Ut queant laxis Resonare fibris, Mira gestorum Famuli tuorum, Solve polluti Labii reatum, … (Sancte Iohannes)		So that your servants may, with loosened voices, resound the wonders of your deeds, clean the guilt from our stained lips, … (O Saint John).
Ciaccona De Magia Matematica, Giordano Bruno (1548- 1600)		(English translation)
Influit Deus in angelos, angeli in corpora caelestia, caelestia in elementa, elementa in mixta, mixta in sensus, sensus in animum, animus in animal; ascendit per animum animal ad sensus, per sensus in mixta, per mixta in elementa, per mixta in caelos, per hos in daemones seu angelos, per istos in Deum, seu in divina operationes. Sic Dei vel a Deo est descensus per mundum ad animal ; animalis vero est ascensus per mundum ad Deum. Deus est cacumine schalae.		God provides his influence to the angels, The angels to the celestial entities, the divine entities to the elements, the elements to the mixed entities, the mixed entities to the senses, the senses to the soul, the soul to the living beings; the living being ascends through the soul to the senses, through the senses to the mixed entities, through the mixed entities to the elements, through the elements to heaven, through heaven to the demons – or angels-, through them to God or to the divine actions. In this way it is represented The descend of God- or from God- Through the world to the living being; And through the world the ascend towards God opens to the animate being. God is the culmination of the scale.
Genesis (1/27-31)		(English translation)
Et creavit Deus hominem ad imaginem suam; ad imaginem Dei creavit illum; masculum et feminam creavit eos. Dixitque Deus: “Ecce dedi vobis omnem herbam afferentem semen super terram et universa ligna, quae habent in semetipsis fructum ligni portantem sementem … Viditque Deus cuncta, quae fecit, et ecce erant valde bona. Et factum est vespere et mane, dies sextus.		So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God said: “ Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit … And God saw everything what he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
Das Annolied		(English translation) The Song of Anno
WIr horten ie dikke singen Von alten dingen, Wi snelle helide vuhten, Wi si veste burge brechen, Wi sich liebin vuiniscefte schieden, … Nu ist ciht daz wir dencken Wi wir selve sülin enden. Crist der vnser héro güt Wi manige ceichen her vns vure düt, Alser uffin Sigeberg havit gedan Durch den diurlichen man Den heiligen bischof Annen Durch den sinin willen, Dabi wir uns sülin bewarin Wante wir noch sülin varin Von disime ellendin libe hin cin ewin Da wir imer sülin sin. In der werilde aneginne, Dü liht war vnte stimma, Dü diu vrone Godis hant Diu spehin werch gescuph so manigvalt, Dü deilti Got sini werch al in zuei, Disi werlt ist daz eine deil, Daz ander ist geistin: Dü gemengite dei wise Godis list Von den zwein ein werch, daz der mennisch ist …		Often have we listened to tales of antiquity related in song; how valiant heroes battled, how powerful cities fell to them, how close friendships were broken … Now it is time for us to consider how we ourselves shall end. How many signs has Christ, our good master given us, as He did on the hill at Siegburg in the person of that fine man, the saintly Bishop Anno, and for his sake, that we might be vigilant. For we shall yet journey from this miserable life to an eternal one, where we shall remain forever. In the beginning of the world, when there was light and voice, when the holy hand of God fashioned the marvels of His so manifold creation, God divided all His work in two. This world is one part, the other is spiritual. Then God in His wisdom and skill blended the two to make a single work,  the human being… (The Song of Anno" was composed in 1100 ca. by a monk of the Siegburg Abbey)
Hildegard von Bingen (1098- 1179)		(English translation)
O rubor sanguinis, qui de excelso illo fluxisti, quod divinitas tetigit, tu flos es, quem hiems de flatu serpentis num quam lesit. O splendidissima gemma et serenum decus solis qui tibi infusus est, fons saliens de corde Patris, quod est unicum Verbum suum, per quod creavit mundi primam materiam, quam Eva turbavit. Hoc Verbum effabricavit tibi Pater hominem, et ob hoc es tu illa lucida materia perquam hoc ipsum Verbum exspiravit omnes virtutes, ut eduxit in prima materia omnes creaturas.		O ruby blood which flowed from on high where divinity touched. You are a flower that the winter of the serpent's breath can never injure. O most splendid gem, this fair grace like the sun which pours through you, is as a spring leaping from the Father's heart, For this is His only Word, and from this the prime matter of the world was created, which Eve disturbed. So the Word was fashioned, by the Father, into human form, And therefore you are that one shining matter, whereby the Word exhales all virtues, drawing out all creatures from the prime matter.

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