KUCHEN!
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EMILY FELDBERG'S MUSIC
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FRAGMENTS:
AUDIO CLIP LINKS
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August 1914Abschied LamentCanary Girls The Knock on the Door Under A Cloudless Blue Sky

Kuchen! (Another Mother's Son)
(This page)

Three Tommies Duty Alone Vale Lest we forget
Supported using public funding by ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND

KUCHEN!
Emily Feldberg's Music
UPDATES FROM THE COMPOSER
EMILY FELDBERG'S MUSIC
HOME PAGE
FRAGMENTS:
AUDIO CLIP LINKS
(listed below)
August 1914Abschied LamentCanary Girls The Knock on the Door Under A Cloudless Blue Sky

Kuchen! (Another Mother's Son)
(This page)

Three Tommies Duty Alone Vale Lest we forget
Supported using public funding by ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND



KUCHEN! (Another Mother's Son) a setting from
Fragments: Voices from the First World War



DETAILS AND TEXTS/TRANSLATIONS.

Kuchen! (Another Mother's Son):
Composer's note: This section focuses on a German family story, told to me by a friend, 15 of soldiers returning to the village where they were billeted. To their surprise and delight, they were presented with cake ('Kuchen!') by the villagers, although they were on enemy soil. In the context of the extreme food shortages, this is an extraordinary and very moving event, which makes sense when every soldier is viewed as 'another mother's son'. This is the basis of my text. Musically, I have visualised a rather inept village band in celebratory mood, faltering to a halt with the appearance of a bereaved mother, but picking up the threads again as the soldiers return to their cake.

Texts:

Kuchen [15]
We bring some cake here, it is for you
Eat and be rested, you are too thin
Habt ihr gehört? Habt ihr gehört?
[Have you heard? Have you heard?]
Hier gibt es Kuchen, Kuchen für uns!
[There's cake here, cake for us!]

Kuchen! Kuchen! Kuchen für uns! Schmeckt!
[Cake! Cake! Cake for us! Tasty!]
Vielen Dank, das ist gut!
[Many thanks, it's good!]
Kuchen! Kuchen! Kuchen für uns!
Cake will do you good!

Somewhere I have a son; he fought and killed just like you
He smiled, had fears, but I cannot dry his tears
And he lived and like cake just like you.
He was his mother's son; you are your mother's son
And you still live, to you I give this cake to a mother's son.

Somewhere now lies my son; he fought and killed just like you
He smiled, had fears, and I cannot dry my tears
But I can give to another mother's son.
He smiled, had fears, and she cannot dry her tears
But she can give to another mother's son.

Hier gibt es Kuchen, Kuchen für uns!
Eat and be rested, you look too thin...
Kuchen, Kuchen, Kuchen für uns! Cake will do you good.

REFERENCES:

15 Text by Emily Feldberg, based on an account by Anna Fleisch recalling a story told by her grandfather, who never otherwise talked about the war. Used by kind permission of Anna Fleisch. Thanks too to Dody Scheffler for advice on this and other issues.


Emily Feldberg's Music

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