Living in Light (2014)
PURCHASE SCORE
Living in Light
soprano and cello // ~ 11 minutes
Texts by Sara Teasdale
Premiere: April 2017
Commissioned by Margot Rood
Program Note:
Margot Rood asked me to write a set of songs for soprano and cello, with the request that they focus on simplicity. With just two melodic instruments, my challenge was to write four contrasting pieces that remained simple while giving each song its own, distinct personality. To achieve both simplicity and contrast, I gave the cello a different area of focus for each song: in the first song, melodic writing to imitate the voice; in the second, pizzicato to maintain a lightness of character. The third song includes harmonics to achieve an uneasy, ethereal sound, including the cool “seagull effect”; and the fourth song contains double stops throughout, which helped me to reach a sense of stability and peace to end the song cycle. The poems, while agonizingly dark at times, also give way to a sense of hope amidst a backdrop of mortal human existence. I tried to capture the emotion behind Teasdale’s despair while ultimately favoring a sense of enduring love. The song cycle’s title comes from the last line of the fourth song, “Living in light, before they turn back to the nothingness that is their home.”
Songs
I. Buried Love (4:00)
II. I Shall Not Care (1:30)
III. June Night (3:00)
IV. A Little While (2:30)
Texts:
I. Buried Love
I have come to bury Love
Beneath a tree,
In the forest tall and black
Where none can see.
I shall put no flowers at his head,
Nor stone at his feet,
For the mouth I loved so much
Was bittersweet.
I shall go no more to his grave,
For the woods are cold.
I shall gather as much of joy
As my hands can hold.
I shall stay all day in the sun
Where the wide winds blow,
But oh, I shall cry at night
When none will know.
II. I Shall Not Care
When I am dead and over me bright April
Shakes out her rain-drenched hair,
Though you should lean above me broken-hearted,
I shall not care.
I shall have peace, as leafy trees are peaceful
When rain bends down the bough,
And I shall be more silent and cold-hearted
Than you are now.
III. June Night
Oh Earth, you are too dear to-night,
How can I sleep while all around
Floats rainy fragrance and the far
Deep voice of the ocean that talks to the ground?
Oh Earth, you gave me all I have,
I love you, I love you, oh what have I
That I can give you in return
Except my body after I die?