Sir William Walton (Hmv 9) Poem by johannes lewinsky

MENE, MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN

In all that I've attempted,
In every space I've entered,
in all whom I've stood by,
in all whom I've neglected
in all that I've not embraced
but reached towards

in all that I have embraced

in all the hours
prosaic or ecstatic
tedious or contentious
in all have I sought to find
in all have I sought to give
one thing only

from the depths of all
that is within and beyond

all that I've been with
all that I've attempted
all that I've triumphed in
all that I've embraced
and discarded

A simple call
An answering call

MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN




NB More than most great composers Walton struggled with agonies of doubt about the value of his work. Yet he was unquestionably one of the great originals, whose hedonistic lifestyle (he was very much one of the Bloomsbury set that included the Sitwells, Virginia Woolf etc)may have mitigated against a substantial volume of work yet whose style evokes a passionate & colourful temperament that is faithfully reflected in the dramatic qualities of his finest work (which includes many notable film scores, including that for Laurence Olivier's iconic film of Shakespeare's Henry V) . The Babylonian quote is from the Bible and features in Walton's great oratorio Belshazzar's Feast….'And in the same hour, as they feasted/Came forth fingers of a man's hand/And the King saw/The part of the hand that wrote/And this was the writing that was written: Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin…which translated means'thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting'