Khell’s Artistic Approach
In this song cycle, Bishara Khell approaches Impressionism not as a specific historical style, but as a way of perceiving and composing. He explains that the original text is not transferred directly into music, nor is it retold in a literal manner. Instead, it is read and allowed to leave its traces in memory, in the form of images, phrases, colors, emotions, and scattered impressions. From these traces, a new musical work takes shape.
Some phrases have been preserved as they appeared in the original text, while others have been rearranged or placed in new contexts. The writer, Adnan Tarabshi, collaborated with Khell in reorganizing these images and impressions to serve the musical structure. In this sense, the songs do not represent the original text literally, but rather the impression it left on the composer.
Khell therefore conceived these songs primarily as musical compositions, rather than songs in the traditional sense. He distinguishes between two parallel texts: a visible text, expressed through the singer’s voice, and a hidden text that is not spoken in words but expressed through the instruments. Foremost among them is the cello, which carries this concealed narrative, adding further layers of meaning and imagery.
According to Khell, this separation between the spoken and the hidden text opens a space for the listener’s imagination. The music does not explain the words or define their meaning. Instead, it reveals their shadows and what may lie beyond them, allowing each listener to reconstruct the images and impressions in their own way.
This approach gives the songs their theatrical character without making them part of theatre or musical theatre in the traditional sense. They draw upon theatrical suggestion, the presence of characters and situations, and an underlying sense of dramatic movement, yet remain independent of the stage. As Khell sees it, their world is created within the music itself, and they remain, above all, songs of a theatrical character.
