Get all 8 Stepha Schweiger releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Floryan nachdenklich (Jlin Remix), When I was a Bird, Sea Crazy Song, Now I'm a Plant - Remixes, Now I'm a Plant, Dissolve into, visionmusique, and Sp19ri9ng one for Piano.
1. |
When I was a Bird
03:41
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When I was a Bird
Words by Kahterine Mansfield
When I was a Bird
I climbed up the Karaka Tree
into a nest all made of leaves
but soft as feathers
I made up a song that went on singing all by itself
when I was a Bird
and hadn’t any words
got sad at the end
when I was a Bird
I climbed up the Karaka Tree
into a nest all made of leaves
but soft as feathers
That’s what my song said though it hadn’t any words-
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2. |
Light as Feathers
04:53
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Light as Feathers
Words by Katherine Mansfield
Outside the sky is light with stars;
There's a hollow roaring from the sea.
And, alas! for the little almond flowers,
The wind is shaking the almond tree.
How little I thought, a year ago,
In the horrible cottage upon the Lee
That he and I should be sitting so
And sipping a cup of camomile tea.
Light as feathers the witches fly,
The horn of the moon is plain to see;
By a firefly under a jonquil flower
A goblin is toasting a bumble-bee.
We might be fifty, we might be five,
So snug, so compact, so wise are we!
Under the kitchen-table leg
My knee is pressing against his knee.
Our shutters are shut, the fire is low,
The tap is dripping peacefully;
The saucepan shadows on the wall
Are black and round and plain to see.
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3. |
Jangling Memories
04:20
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Jangling Memories
Words by Katherine Mansfield
Heavens above ! here's an old tie of yours—
Sea-green dragons stamped on a golden ground.
Ha ! What children we were in those days !
Do you love me enough to wear it now ?
Have you the courage of your pristine glories ?
You laugh and shrug your shoulders.
Those were the days when a new tie spelt a fortune :
We wore it in turn—
I flaunted it as a waist-belt.
What easily satisfied babies !
“I think I'll turn it into a piano duster.”
Do you love me enough to wear it now ?
Have you the courage of your pristine glories ?
We wore it in turn—
…Fling it into the faces of other children !”
We laughed and laughed till the tears came !
Do you love me enough to wear it now ?
Have you the courage of your pristine glories ?
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4. |
Sea Crazy Song
07:49
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Sea Crazy Song
Words by Katherine Mansfield
I will think no more of the sea !
Of the big green waves
And the hollowed shore,
Of the brown rock caves
No more, no more
Of the swell and the weed
And the bubbling foam.
…
She is old and bent
With a pack
On her back.
Her tears all spent,
Her voice, just a crack.
With an old thorn stick
She hobbles along,
And a crazy song
Now slow, now quick
Wheeks in her throat.
Memory dwells in my far away home,
She has nothing to do with me.
And every day
While there's light on the shore
She searches for something,
Her withered claw
Tumbles the seaweed;
She pokes in each shell
Groping and mumbling
Until the night
Deepens and darkens,
And covers her quite,
And bids her be silent,
And bids her be still.
Memory dwells in my far away home,
She has nothing to do with me.
The ghostly feet
Of the whispery waves
Tiptoe beside her.
They follow, follow
To the rocky caves
In the white beach hollow …
She hugs her hands,
She sobs, she shrills,
And the echoes shriek
In the rocky hills.
She moans : “It is lost!
Let it be! Let it be !
I am old. I'm too cold.
I am frightened … the sea
Is too loud … it is lost,
It is gone …” Memory
Wails in my far away home.
Memory dwells in my far away home,
She has nothing to do with me.
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5. |
Gay Bouquet
04:19
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Gay Bouquet
Words by Katherine Mansfield
She handed me a gay bouquet
Of roses pulled in the rain,
Delicate beauties frail and cold—
Could roses heal my pain?
She smiled: ‘Ah, c'est un triste temps!’
I laughed and answered ‘Yes,’
Pressing the roses in my palms.
How could the roses guess?
She sang ‘Madame est seule?’ Her eye
Snapped like a rain-washed berry.
How could the solemn roses tell
Which of us was more merry?
She turned to go: she stopped to chat;
‘Adieu,’ at last she cried.
‘Mille mercis pour ces jolies fleurs!’ …
At that the roses died.
The petals drooped, the petals fell,
The leaves hung crisped and curled.
And I stood holding my dead bouquet
In a dead world.
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6. |
Floryan nachdenklich
04:46
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Floryan nachdenklich
Words based on ”Floryan nachdenklich“ by Katherine Mansfield
Floryan sits in a black chintz chair,
An Indian curtain behind his head
Blue and brown and white and red.
Floryan sits quite still – quite still.
There is a noise like a rising tide
Of wind and rain in the black outside.
But the firelight leaps on Floryan’s wall
and the Indian curtain suddenly seams
To stir and shake with a thousand dreams.
And the great tree grows and moves
Through the silent room, the rising tide
Of wind and rain on the black outside.
The Indian flowers drink the fire
As though it were sun, and the Indian leaves
Patter and sway to an echo breeze.
On the great brown bows of the Indian tree
Little birds sing and preen their wings.
They flash through the sun like jewel rings.
And the great tree grows and moves
Through the silent room, the rising tide
Of wind and rain on the black outside
Fades – and Floryan stirs
And lifts his eyes and weeps to see
The flowers of the Indian tree.
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7. |
Pretending
04:36
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Pretending
Words based on „There was a Child Once“ by Katherine Mansfield
There was a child once.
He came to play in my garden;
He was quite pale and silent.
Only when he smiled I knew everything about him,
I knew what he had in his pockets,
And I knew the feel of his hands in my hands
And the most intimate tones of his voice.
I led him down each secret path,
Showing him the hiding-place of all my treasures.
I let him play with them, every one,
I put my singing thoughts in a little silver cage
And gave them to him to keep…
It was very dark in the garden
But never dark enough for us. On tiptoe we walked
Among the deepest shades;
We bathed in the shadow pools beneath the trees,
Pretending we were under the sea.
Once near the boundary of the garden
We heard steps passing along the World-road;
O how frightened we were!
I whispered: “Have you ever walked along that road?”
He nodded, and we shook the tears from our eyes….
There was a child once.
He came quite alone to play in my garden;
He was pale and silent.
When we met we kissed each other,
But when he went away, we did not even wave
Pretending we were under the sea.
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8. |
La Chance
04:14
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La Chance
Words by Katherine Mansfield
What a day to be born!
And what a place! …
" Mais, tu as de la chance…“ …
The bright little eyebright …
And a thousand others
All were there to greet her —
And growing so high —
Right up to the sky,
thought the butterfly,
On either side of a little lane.
" Mais, tu as de la chance, ma chere!"
Only, my dear, breathed an old snail
Who was hugging the underside of a dock leaf
Dont attempt to cross over.
Keep to this side —
The other side is just the same…
Believe me — just the same flowers —…
Stay where you are and have your little flutter in Peace —
" Mais, tu as de la chance, ma chere!"
That was enough for the butterfly.
… Never to go out into the open?
Never to venture forth?
To live, creeping up and down this side.
Her wings quivered with scorn.
Really, said she, I am not a snail!
" Mais, tu as de la chance, ma chere!"
And away she flew.
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Stepha Schweiger
2023 Heroines of Sound Festival, 2022 The Moon Is No Door - band release - tour, 2020/21 When I was a Bird - album - maxi single, 2018/19 Now I'm a Plant, 2017/18/19: The Mark on the Wall - music theatre wp, 2018 musikprotokoll Steirischer Herbst. Avant-garde composer, pianist, electro, singer/songwriter, industrial, conceptual, krautrock, free jazz, psychedelic, postpunk, spectral, natural tuning ... more
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