Program Notes:

Written for The College of Wooster’s Wooster Chorus, In den finsteren Zeiten uses text by Bertolt Brecht.

Original German (used with permission):

In den finsteren Zeiten,
wird da auch gesungen werden?
Da wird auch gesungen werden.
Von den finsteren Zeiten.

from „Svendborger Gedichte“

(Titelnummer 40072)

Bertolt Brecht, Werke , Band 12 © Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt am Main 1988

Translation by John Willett:

In the dark times,
will there also be singing?
There will also be singing.
About the dark times.

I first came across this text in the spring term of 2021, during the COVID-19 Pandemic. My mother had sent me Bertolt Brecht’s poem, and I immediately knew I wanted to set it to music. I chose to set this because as communities around the world were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, we were living in dark times. I wanted to reflect on Brecht’s idea that even during our darkest times, there still can be singing. We will sing about the dark times we have endured.