Hajnal Németh

White Song - Among Others

Concert performance

CHB – Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, 2017

White Song - Version 2 arranged and performed by: Christian Bringzen (guitar), Peter D'Elia (vocals, guitar)
Concept, textbook: Hajnal Németh

Radical Solution – Version 1 arranged and performed by: Wolfgang Kordbarlag (piano)
Concept: Hajnal Németh

The performance White Song is based on the transcript of Roy Harper's song “I Hate The White Man” (1970). In this song Harper explains why he hates the “White Man” in very significant poems that mention all destructive actions of white men against other races in this world. I found this song very strong and beautiful since Harper is a musician who strongly criticizes Western societies while being a British white man himself. Harper raises a very ambivalent question while he seems to be caught in his origins. From this song I abstracted single parts from the refrain and changed the colour to red, yellow and black. Since I introduced a comma after the colour, I changed the meaning of the sentene, so hate does not apply to humans anymore, but refers to some object or to the color itself. The significance of the comma is the main motif, this minimal correction completely confuses the meaning of the lyrics, abstracts it from the original statement: "For I hate the red, man, in its evergreen excuse / And I hate the white, man, in its doctrinaire refuse / For I hate the yellow, man, and its plastic excuse / And I hate the black, man, it turned itself loose.”

Photo: Barbara Antal