Symphony No. 2

by Herman Rechberger

"Hawwa" (Passionata)

Description

"Hawwa" is the arabic-persian expression for "passion" or "passionate". In Iwrith (Jewish) it means "Life" and it is also the biblical word for the mother of all mankind ("Eve"). This expression is closely related to the idea of the middle-aged "Minne" which again means "Love" in the sense of unfulfilled, unaccessable love. The expression "Minne" is probably derived from Arabic "Muhebb" or from the turkish word "Mehebbet", which meaning is exactly the same. "Hawwa and Muhebb cannot exclude eachother", wrote the philosopher Fazlullah Naimi, "because they are necessary to the everlasting creation of human life." The English translations of the text are drawn from the famous Sufi philosopher and poet Seyyid Imadeddin Nesimi (14th century), who was violently put to death for his critical opinions of the dogmatic Islam in his time. The arabic texts are drawn from North-African Nawba poetry (The love poems of Arab-Andalusian music).

© Herman Rechberger, 2003

2222 4331 14 1, keyb, str, 2sopr, baryt

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