The different Bible translations below have been chosen for their clarity. The text is inspired by Psalm 137 of the Old Testament, and beautifully captures its overall feeling. Here is the text in Italian followed by an English translation.
It’s important to know the poet’s thoughts as well as the composer’s. People often sing unaware of the meaning of the text, sometimes even when it is their own language. In looking at this piece, it is important also to consider the words of the librettist, Solera, as well as Verdi’s music. Whether he speaks of Babylonians, Hebrews, kings, queens, great warriors, peasants, or courtesans, he makes us feel the joys and sufferings of everyone he represents on the stage. He did not write about gods and goddesses but about people people who share the same feelings no matter what society they belong to, and no matter their place within that society. Verdi was a composer who was affected by the words and how they express the human condition. Finally, the music returns to a unison chorus, where everyone is united again with one voice. In the second section, it breaks into harmony, but you can still sing the melody and leave the harmony to those who have the ability to sing it. The experience of performing the same music helps them express their feelings while sharing their feelings with people around them. It starts with everyone singing in unison, which gives confidence to those who are shy about singing. “Va pensiero” may be the perfect piece for people to come together and perform as a chorus. Often with vocal music, that deeper look is as much about the text as it is about the music itself.Ī chorus is a group of individuals who join to form a musically cohesive community you are both yourself and part of something bigger than yourself. There are many beautiful musical works and several that could be considered greater than “Va pensiero”, so why has this one captured people’s hearts with such intensity? Like all great music, it functions on many levels - some of them easily accessible and some requiring a deeper look. Over time many of these organizations have disappeared, and we have come to rely more and more on professionals to make music for us, either live or through recordings.
Depending on where the chorus was located, its repertoire ranged from choral works by great composers to the folk music of the region. There was a time when most cities and towns had community choruses, a place where people of differing talents and life views could get together to share each other’s company and to express themselves through singing. It is easy to find over forty countries where it has been sung. During the last few months I have seen internet performances of “Va pensiero” from all over the world. These performances have sometimes been planned, but they often seem to happen spontaneously, especially in Italy. In recent years, and especially during the COVID pandemic, the chorus of Hebrew slaves, “Va pensiero”, from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Nabucco, written to a libretto by Temistocle Solera, has been performed often, live and on the internet.
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