Vigil ist der erste Zyklus aus The Book of Hours. Das Stundenbuch ist ursprünglich ein Gebetbuch der christlichen Kirchen, um verschiedene Tageszeiten zu heiligen. Lyhrus hat den Gedanken der Einteilung des Tages und der Nacht übernommen und sie auf den Lebensweg übertragen.
Seine englischen Texte für Vigil (lat. Nachtwache) beschäftigen sich mit Fragen zum Lebensende und sind geprägt von Erinnerungen, Verlusterfahrung, Abschiedsritualen, dem Gefühl liebender Zusammengehörigkeit und auch transzendenten Bildern.
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Uraufführung 5. Juli 2025, Osterkirche Berlin
Triadischer Chor | Lyhrus, Clavier | Nils Jensen, Leitung
Die neun Gesänge aus Vigil:
Die Gesänge werden im Konzert ergänzt durch einige Klavierstücke aus dem Melophila-Zyklus von Lyhrus.
1 – Not ours (All that is given)
All that is given is taken from us again
All that is given, all that we know, is given to us to let it go
Why do you leave me, leave me right now?
Why do you leave me alone?
All that we owned for so many hours
All that we hoped for, all that we prayed for
Is still not ours.
27th January 2025
2 – Winter
Of all the hours we failed to share
Of all our gifts we lost somewhere
Of all the times we missed to keep our word
The times we thought it should not hurt
Of all our fears we failed to heed
Of those moments of despair
'Cause we did not care ...
What will remain of all these fails –
What will be left in spring, if anything?
So I came here to let you know:
I keep my word whereever you go.
28th February 2025
3 – Time is a cheater
I will never get over this
Don't you see me? Oh such a pain
I will never get over this
Time is a healer, time is a cheater
Time loves to mock our most sacred feelings
Time is a healer, it is a cheater
Time loves to dry out our vows
21st April 2025
4 – I roam the universe
I roam the universe
I flood my thoughts, I flood my hopes
I flood my soul with stars
I roam the universe
Hail to thee! My source of happiness
My source of happiness ...
Can you hear me
Can you hear me calling?
21st April 2025
5 – The Vigil
All the hours you stayed,
All the letters you wrote,
All the music you played,
All the seeds you sowed
Remain within me.
21st December 2017
6 – Family
Why should I belong to a family
Why should I belong to a source of pain
Why commit myself to a house of grief
Why should I belong to that family
To that source of pain
Why should I belong to that family
Why expose myself to the day they pass
Why should I hold on to that source of pain
Why expose myself to the day of loss
Why should I belong to my family
To this treasure trove, to my source of love
10th January 2025
7 – Grandma
As this evening full of mourning
Ends a day that once was dawning:
This life, too, was nourished by
The flame of hope
18th April 2025
8 – Out of silence
Out of silence all our songs emerge
And into silence all our songs return
Late 2008
9 – The last way home
All you loved ones, all you friends:
Time has come to say good-buy
We ask for your reverence
When we pass you by
Scatter roses on the way
On the last way home
It will be for us one day
The same last way home
23rd April 2025
