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PROGRAM NOTE
Hex is a setting of seven Serbian poems, translated by Charles Simic, with an orchestral prologue. All except the last two poems are folk rhymes, but all seven share a sinister quality; something unspoken, unsettling, and unhealthy behind the action, despite the seemingly light surface.

The musical material is tightly controlled and is laid out quite baldly: The opening prologue presents four major 7th chords (on F, A, C, and E) along with four-note clusters built on each note of each chord. These chords are then superimposed upon each other in various combinations to provide the thick sonorities and harmonic centers of the other movements. The choral lines are, for the most part, made up of scales drawn from the four-note cluster chords.

After Uneasy Village, the murky prologue, Sow Your Sorrows is light and fleet. As Hexcontinues, however, it becomes darker and more dramatic. After the fourth song, Crazy Radoye, the action winds down as less and less happens in the orchestra. The penultimate song is accompanied by a repeated two chord figure, gradually slowing down; the final song, Nobody, by a low drone.

TEXTS
Sow Your Sorrows
Plow, Maro, the plains,
And sow your sorrows.
If marigold grows for you
Wither darling for me.
If sweet basil grows for you
Come to me on bare feet tonight.
If violets grow for you,
We’ll kiss until tomorrow. 
traditional (Serbian) trans. Charles Simic


Brotherless Sisters
Two sisters who had no brother
Made one of silk to share,
Of white silk and of red.
For his waist they used barberry wood,
Black eyes, two precious stones.
For his eyebrows sea leeches.
Tiny teeth a string of pearls. 
They fed him sugar and honey sweet
And told him: now eat and then speak. 
traditional (Serbian) trans. Charles Simic


Crazy Radoye
The sky is strewn with stars
And the wide meadow with sheep.
The sheep have no shepherd
Except for crazy Radoye
And he has fallen asleep.
His sister Janja wakes him:
Get up, crazy Radoye,
Your sheep have wandered off.
Let them, sister, let them.
The witches have feasted on me,
Mother carved my heart out,
Our aunt held the torch for her. 
traditional (Serbian) trans. Charles Simic


Wind Blows
Wind blows, one can smell the wild rosemary.
It seems to me my love is coming.
If I knew from what direction
I’d sow sweet basil in his path,
Red roses where there is no path.
Let my love come by their scent,
By their scent and not by the light of day. 
traditional (Serbian) trans. Charles Simic


Don’t Cry, Eaglets
The smallest basil leaf was heard to whimper:
Silent dew, won’t you fall on me?
I fell on you two days in a row,
But today I was distracted watching
The mountain fairy quarrel with an eagle.
The fairy said, the mountain is mine.
The eagle said, no, it’s mine.
The fairy broke the eagle’s wings.
The eaglets in the nest cried bitterly,
Bitterly they cried in their sorrow.
Don’t cry, eaglets in the nest, I said,
I’ll take you to the land of India
Where amaranth grows to the horses’ knees,
Sweet clover to their shoulders
And the sun never sets.
At that the eaglets were consoled. 
traditional (Serbian) trans. Charles Simic 


Blue Frog Kisses My Sweetheart
An exquisite
Blue frog
Kisses my sweetheart
In the morning she squats on his forehead
At noon she shines in his hair
In the evening she settles next to his heart
My sweetheart is very happy 
Ljiljana Djurdjic (b.1946) trans. Charles Simic


Nobody
He shows me tonight
his hair of wire glass and flowers
double-edged lips
five-pointed tongue 

Ah he unbuttons
his silk vest—
he has a body after all—
a gold watch 

And in the meantime meantime
in the shadow of his trousers
instead of feet
he has two little wheels
devilish little wheels 
Novica Tadic (b.1949) trans. Charles Simic