LisiVeri

Is it friednship, is it love?

The famous Ukrainian poetess of the late 19th century, Lessja Ukrajinka (1871-1913), wrote this poem "На мотив з Міцкевича" ("On a motif by Mickiewicz") around 1893. Here she quotes the Polish national poet Adam Mickiewicz (1798- 1855) with these two verses that inspired her: "...I znowu sobie zadaję pytanie: / Czy to jest przyjaźń, czy to jest kochanie?" ("... and again I ask myself the question: / Is it friendship, is it love?"). They come from a well-known poem by Mickiewicz entitled "Uncertainty".
Lessja Ukrajinka describes in her poem, similarly to Mickiewicz in "Niepewność", doubts about her feelings for a person close to her and whether it is love or friendship between them.

The Ukrainian composer LisiVeri admires Lessja Ukrajinka's works, which contain a lot of vitality, courage, hope and wisdom.
When reading these verses, a melody immediately sounded in her mind and it was a very interesting process to let the varied emotions described in the poem, the different states and the unconditional love of the protagonist sound as music through the special instrumentation with soprano, violin, viola and piano.

Additional information: The singer and the piano accompaniment can either sing or play from the score or from the enclosed vocal score.