Musicians: Elly Toyoda, violin; Graeme Steele Johnson, clarinet; Lisa Moore, piano

Soundtrack available on Bandcamp: https://martinbresnick.bandcamp.com/t…

Performed, filmed, and recorded in celebration of Martin Bresnick’s 75th birthday at Firehouse12, New Haven CT USA.

“And I Always Thought” (2015) is a musical trope based on two poems of Bertolt Brecht – “And I Always Thought” and “Legend of the Unknown Soldier Beneath the Triumphal Arch”. Though this composition consists only of “poems without words”, it is the hope of the composer that an attentive listener might sense and follow its lyric trajectory. “And I Always Thought” was commissioned by, and is dedicated to, Plexus – Philip Arkinstall, clarinet, Monica Curro violin and Stefan Cassemenos piano. (Martin Bresnick) After B.B. And I Always Thought And I always thought that the simplest words Must be enough. When I say how things are Everyone’s heart must be torn to shreds. That you’ll go down if you don’t stand up. Surely you see that. Legend of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Triumphal Arch We came from the mountains and from the Seven Seas to kill him. We abandoned our work and stood In the collapsing cities, calling to each other In many languages, From the mountains to the seven seas, Telling where he was. Then in the fourth year we killed him. There were present: Those whom he had been born to see Standing around him in the hour of his Death. All of us. And a woman was present, who had given him Birth, and who had said Nothing when we took him away. Let her womb be torn out. Amen. But when we killed him We made him unrecognizable So that he should be the son of no man. And we dug him out from under the metal, Carried him home to our city, and Buried him beneath a Triumphal Arch Which weighed one hundred thousand pounds, So that the Unknown Soldier in No circumstances stand up on Judgment Day, and walk before God, Though once more in light, Pointing his finger and expose us, Who can be recognized, To Justice.

https://www.martinbresnick.com https://www.lisamoore.org https://www.graemesteelejohnson.com https://www.ellytoyoda.com

Video Mateusz Zechowski – https://www.studioteo.com/

Video Editor Elly Toyoda

Audio Engineer Greg DiCrosta

Audio Editor Nick Lloyd

Firehouse12 (Studio B) New Haven – https://www.firehouse12.com