Ein Deutsches Requiem: After Brahms. Pt. 1

Ein Deutsches Requiem - No. 2
Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras (und alle Herrlichkeit des Menschen ist wie des Grases Blumen). 
[For all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. 1 Peter i.24.] 

photo-offset lithograph based on gouache & collage 
1971

Ein Deutsches Requiem - No. 3
Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen (Herr Zebaoth). 
[How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts. Psalm 1xxxiv.1.]

photo-offset lithograph based on gouache & collage
1971

Ein Deutsches Requiem - No. 4
Siehe ein Ackermann wartet (auf die köstliche Frucht der Erde). 
[Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth. James v.7.]

photo-offset lithograph based on gouache & collage
1971

Ein Deutsches Requiem - No. 5
Zu der Zeit der letzten Posaune. 
[At the last trump. 1 Corinthians xv.52.]

photo-offset lithograph based on gouache & collage
1971

Ein Deutsches Requiem - No. 6
Ich will euch trösten, wie einen seine Mutter tröstet.
[As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you. Isaiah 1xvi.13.]

photo-offset lithograph based on gouache & collage
1971

The following text, adapted from Works & Texts (1992) p.54, describes the creation of the original works from which these prints were derived.

This series of gouache/collages was painted in 1971 after an extended stint at Gastdozent at the school of art in Kassel which at the time was being run on pseudo-Maoist lines by the students themselves.

As a result of this episode, and its contrast with the deep humanism of Brahms, I used the cards I had collected in Kassel to make a pictorial commentary on the German Requiem which I had been lucky enough to sing in as part of the chorus in the recording made by the Philharmonia under Otto Klemperer.

The occasional irony shines through in these pictures which are also I hope not entirely without affection in their play with text, parallel text (from A Human Document needless to say), and image.