Dec 2006
Premiere of Song Cycle, January 20, 2007
December 29, 2006 Filed in: Compositions
Christina Cuda-Robertson (piano) and Philip Dixon (baritone) will premiere Henry Flurry's new song cycle Three Poems of John Hall Wheelock at the Prescott Fine Arts Association concert on January 20, 2007, at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
The words to the poems set to music are as follows:
The Unknown Beloved
I dreamed I passed a doorway
Where, for a sign of death,
White ribbons one was binding
About a flowery wreath.
What drew me so I know not,
But drawing near I said,
"Kind sir, and can you tell me
Who is it here lies dead?"
Said he, "Your most beloved
Died here this very day,
That had known twenty Aprils
Had she but lived till May."
Astonished I made answer,
"Good sir, how say you so!
Here have I no beloved,
This house I do not know."
Quoth he, "Who from the world's end
Was destined unto thee
Here lies, thy true beloved
Whom thou shalt never see."
I dreamed I passed a doorway
Where, for a sign of death,
White ribbons one was binding
About a flowery wreath.
Unrest
These words are not in the public domain
Whenever Two Lovers Meet
(from Talismans Secrets and Deliverances)
Whenever two lovers meet
A new star in heaven is lit –
Heaven is the banner of love,
And night the memory of it.
The joyous embrace of love
Calls a new soul from its sphere
At the music of two hearts beating
God leans down to hear.
The words to the poems set to music are as follows:
The Unknown Beloved
I dreamed I passed a doorway
Where, for a sign of death,
White ribbons one was binding
About a flowery wreath.
What drew me so I know not,
But drawing near I said,
"Kind sir, and can you tell me
Who is it here lies dead?"
Said he, "Your most beloved
Died here this very day,
That had known twenty Aprils
Had she but lived till May."
Astonished I made answer,
"Good sir, how say you so!
Here have I no beloved,
This house I do not know."
Quoth he, "Who from the world's end
Was destined unto thee
Here lies, thy true beloved
Whom thou shalt never see."
I dreamed I passed a doorway
Where, for a sign of death,
White ribbons one was binding
About a flowery wreath.
Unrest
These words are not in the public domain
Whenever Two Lovers Meet
(from Talismans Secrets and Deliverances)
Whenever two lovers meet
A new star in heaven is lit –
Heaven is the banner of love,
And night the memory of it.
The joyous embrace of love
Calls a new soul from its sphere
At the music of two hearts beating
God leans down to hear.