Frage und Antwort (2. Fassung)

Hugo Distler's two-part song Frage und Antwort explores a theme of profound questioning. The text, in German, uses poetic imagery to delve into the origins of love and longing, posing rhetorical questions about natural phenomena and the self. "Speak, why does the wind stir its wings with ghostly speed, and whence do the sweet springs lead their hidden waters?" The second version of this Lieder-style piece for two-part male voices (TB) invites the singers to embody both the questioner and, perhaps, the elusive answer, urging the listener to "ban the wind in full course" and "hold the sweet springs" with a "magic wand."