UCLA Music Library

‘Was bin ich?’ opens Nell Walden’s poem, Frage. This phrase permeates this piece, written in 2023 for voice and piano, each time with a different word emphasised, as the voice returns to this age-old question time and time again.

In questioning human identity and existence, Walden uses images from the natural world, of moonlight, stars twinkling, the sun glowing. Whole-tone patterns and augmented and diminished chords are interspersed with a tone row which is used to create an other-worldly sound scape.

Vocal slides and sprechstimme are utilised within a wide vocal range, demanding colour and dramatic control from the performer. Patterns from the tone row are transposed in creating a silvery moonlit backdrop for the vocal line in the final section. The piece ends as it begins, with the timeless question, ‘Was bin ich?’, accompanied by bell-like chordal structures in the piano.