THE LOVE SONG OF COUNT VON COSEL

For Accordion

The love song of Count von Cosel is a piece for accordion and is based on the story of Carl Tanzer, a radiology technician living in Florida in the 1930’s who fell in love with Elena de Hoyos, who unfortunately died and then proceeded to dig up and live with her decomposing corpse. The piece is based on the song that Tanzer, who referred to himself as Count Von Cosel, thought he heard coming from Elenas’ grave; the tune is called La Boda Negra and is, coincidentally, about a mortician that digs up the body his love and takes her home. The piece starts with a hammer horror organ style introduction with the performer breathing ominously. It takes a turn for the sweet in the B section of the song, the love part of the love song, made grotesque by the performers increasingly raspy and beleaguered breaths. Then comes a waltz and a tango as Tanzler... well this is fairly self-explanatory. After a dark and brooding build-up of atonal material the piece breaks into the final love song, the heart wrenching ballad of a necrophilia in love. I chose the accordion because I wanted to juxtapose at all times the macabre nature of the story with the form in which it is told; many a couple in almost any European country have kissed in the moonlight to the sweet romantic sounds of the accordion, this should still be true even if your lover is a cadaver.