Schmetterling und Rose
Award winning at “females featured” competition 2025
Composer Mona Rasenberger based this work on Heinrich Heine’s poem Der Schmetterling ist in die Rose verliebt (The Butterfly is in Love with the Rose). She positions the central question-and-answer dialogue at the core of the piece: “The butterfly is in love! – With whom, then? – With the rose!”
The composition opens with the fluttering wings of the butterfly as it glides along on delicate vocalises. In the middle of the poem, a very human element comes to light when we learn about a newly smitten couple. Curiosity takes over, prompting a flurry of whispering (“But who is the rose in love with? I’d like so much to know!”). Yet, the rose refuses to commit (“But I love you all”); the whispers subside, and the butterfly drifts off as delicately as it arrived.
A dynamic, rhythmically complex work for female voices.
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Composer
Mona Rasenberger
| 1962
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Songwriter / Librettist
Heinrich Heine
| 1797-1856