two new voice pieces by Peter John, sung by David Fair

"the kaliedescope of the darkness" and "when we speak of death we are dreaming" from "The Bookshelf Series" song cycle

Composed in 2011 by Peter John
Tenor: David Fair
Pianist: Peter John
Performed at Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music, April 2011

LYRICS

I would go back to sleep.
I'd awake for a moment, long enough to hear the organic creaking of the woodwork.
Open my eyes and stare at the kaleidescope of the darkness.
Savour in a momentary glimmer of consciousness the sleep into which were plunged
the furniture, the room, the whole of which I was but a small part,
whose insensability I'd return to share.
I would go back to sleep, sleep, sleep....

LYRICS #2
Alone on the sea washed rock
I could hear the lament of my daughter
she cried long and loud yet I could not save her
When the mountain storms come
and the night wind rears up the wave
I sit on the echoing shore,
and gaze across the sea at the terrible rock.
Oft, by the light of the waning moon,
I see the ghosts of my children.
Twilight they wander in strange unity
Why dost thou awaken me, oh zephyr of spring?
Thou dost speak of love, saying "I spread the drops of dew from heaven"
nigh is the storm that will defoliate me.
And in the morn, the wanderer will come,
The wanderer will come who saw me in my glory
His eyes will seek me in the field,
but they will not find me.

These pieces were inspired by some of my favorite pieces of fiction. The first, "the kaleidescope of the darkness" is from Prousts "Swanns Way". Proust describes sleep as if the whole room is plunged with the sleeper into the dream world, and the sleeper is just a secondary character of the entire space.
The second piece, "when we speak of death we are dreaming" is taken from Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther". In short, a Norse God watches as his daughter is stuck on a rock in a storm. When his son, a warrior, goes to save her, he too is trapped on the rock and they die. In this scene, he returns to where they died and remembers them, seeing their ghosts wander "side by side in strange unity".

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Peter John
• Piano
• Pianist
• David Fair
• Singer
• Tenor
• modern music
• new music
• art song
• fiction
• proust
• goethe
• original music
• classical
• opera

[riccardo50001]

Beautiful! I don't know what your goals are, but I hope you keep singing. You have a wonderful natural talent.

Richard