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Synopsis #13: Thy Sting is Not So Sharp (2008, arr. for violin and viola 2020)

from Blueprints I by Lisa Bielawa

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Rebecca Fischer, violin
Oriana Hawley, viola

originally composed for Gabby Diaz, solo violin

This subtitle is taken from Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Gabby (by nature a happy person) and I share a particular affinity for the aching, yearning side of artistic expression. I wanted to write her something that she could really ache through, so I turned to Shakespeare, who really knows how to grab your soul. One thing I learned from him – a useful piece of wisdom that can help an artist in any medium! – is that in all tragedy there is an element of comedy, and vice versa. As You Like It is, I suppose, technically a comedy, but it is rife with achings, yearnings, poignancies. In it the character Amiens, one of the Lords of the Duke, is asked to offer a song to comfort and entertain, but the words he sings takes us to one of Shakespeare’s darkest depictions of the human soul:

Blow, blow thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude:
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho, sing heigh-ho, unto the green holly.
Most friendship is faining, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho, the holly,
This life is most jolly.


Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky
That dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy Sting is Not So Sharp
As friend rememb’red not.
Heigh-ho, sing, &c.

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from Blueprints I, released August 14, 2020

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Lisa Bielawa New York, New York

Lisa Bielawa is a Rome Prize winner in Musical Composition. Bielawa’s work consistently incorporates community-making, including her made-for-TV-and-online opera Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser; Broadcast from Home, a large-scale interactive work in response to the coronavirus pandemic crisis; and music for public spaces in NYC, San Francisco, Berlin, Rome, and more. ... more

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