…de longinquo…(from afar)

Composer：György Orbán

Words from composer:

This choral work is dedicated to a town – with nostalgia, with emotionality, even with sentimentality, because this town is so dear to me. (You will understand what I mean when thinking of beautiful places where you have had pleasant memories, or of even more beautiful places where you have never been before, but always wanted to go…)
A mediaeval French friar, Hildebert de Lavardin (1055-1133) described in his mighty hymn “Alpha et Omega, Magne Deus…” how heaven lives in his imagination: a beautiful and kind place, the town of “eternal springtide and eternal peace”.
How interesting: apart from the persistent light and lustrous gems, he saw just a typical, amiable and lovely mediaeval town in his dreams. (Perhaps I’m not wrong assuming: such a deeply moved enthusiasm, even passion is due to the beloved native town of the poet.)
There are many towns in the world like this: established in the Middle Ages, enclosed with walls, having a mountain fortress in the middle… My town is one of them, though it was not built of precious stones, and there were times when clouds and darkness fell upon it. It is a smaller, but liveable and loveable European town that has seen better days – and from a distance in time and way, I see it more and more shining and fair.
According to the friar, the inhabitants of the celestial town are honourable, even “similar to Jesus”, what is apparently an exaggeration – but for a long while I have
not been at home, and maybe the people of my beloved town amend their way of life through these decades. Distance lends enchantment to the view – thanks to God.
And this is absolutely all right, may it rest unchanged, our memories should remain grant and noble. Seldom we grow old in the town of our parents or grandparents,
the same place where we grew up, went to school, or where we first fell in love. Should beautify them the DISTANT (de longinquo) remembrance in time and space…