Es savai māmiņai
SSA trio or choir
(2018)

Text: traditional Latvian children’s song
Language: Latvian
Duration: 6 minutes 30 seconds

Premiered May 2018
Artemisia Trio
Chicago IL

Additional Performances
Mägi Ensemble 2019, 2022
Seattle WA

Composer’s Note

This piece is a setting and arrangement of a Latvian folk song: “Es savai maminai.” The original tune remains intact throughout the piece, though it gets progressively more difficult to locate it as the piece goes on. As the verses progress, the harmonic density ebbs and flows as the melody is folded deeper into a thicket of twisty and turning chromaticism; it never technically disappears, but oftentimes it becomes so crowded by major and minor seconds, or descant-like lines, that it’s hard to pick it out directly. Instead, the residue of its structure is what can be recognized.

Text

For my mother,
I am in her heart
I am rooted in her heart,
Like a flower in the garden.

My dear, lovely mother
Who raised me so lovingly!
She trudged through the mud
Carrying me in her arms.

Every evening the nightingale
Sits sheltered among the birch branches;
So my dearest mother
Waits for me at home.

Run, little birds, at the forest’s edge
With my childhood stories,
Carry them away to my mother
Bring a hundred good evenings.

Shine brightly, little moon,
Through the gaps in the forest’s trees;
I wander through the night,
In these spots is where I find my mother.

Generous birches, sheltering with your branches
All the way to the ground!
Mother, your protecting goodness
Reaches to eternity!

(Translation by K. Pukinskis and J. Pukinskis)