Songs of Time and Eternity
D’Anna Fortunato, mezzo-soprano; Larry Bell, piano; Woodstock-Fringe American Song/Fest, August 2003, Woodstock, NY.
D’Anna Fortunato, mezzo-soprano; Larry Bell, piano; Music on Marlborough, Boston, MA, October 2004. Robin Reinert, soprano; Luis Ortiz, piano. Today’s Youth Performs Today’s Music, Brown Hall, New England Conservatory, January 2005 and May 2, 2005 St. Cecilia’s Church.
The poems of Emily Dickinson are often grouped together by subject matter. One such grouping, poems of “Time and Eternity,” is the source of the five poems in this short cycle. Songs 2, 3, and 4 are preoccupied with the afterlife and a healthy religious skepticism. The perspective of songs 1 and 5 ranges from a childlike wonder about the future to an adult’s obsessions with romantic memory.
I.
Will there really be a “Morning”?
Is there such a thing as “Day”?
Could I see it from the mountains
If I were as tall as they?
Has it feet like water lilies?
Has it feathers like a Bird?
Is it brought from famous countries
Of which I have never heard?
Oh some Scholar! O some Sailor!
Oh some Wise Man from the skies!
Please to tell a little Pilgrim
Where the place called “Morning” lies!
II.
Going to Heaven!
I don’t know when,
Pray do not ask me how,
Indeed I’m too astonished
To think of answering you!
Going to Heaven!
How dim it sounds!
and yet it will be done
As sure as flocks go home at night
Unto the Shepherd’s arm!
Perhaps you’re going too!
Who knows?
If you should get there first,
Save just a little place for me
Close to the two I lost –
The smallest “Robe” will fit me
And just a bit of “Crown;”
For you know we do not mind our dress
When we are going home.
I’m glad I don’t believe it
For it would stop my breath –
And I’d like to look a little more
At such a curious Earth!
I’m glad they did believe it
Whom I have never found
Since the mightyAautumn afternoon
I left them in the ground.
III.
To know just how He suffered – would be dear–
To know if any human eyes were near
To whom He could entrust His wavering gaze–
Until it setteld broad – on Paradise –
To know if He was patient – part content –
Was Dying as He thought – or different –
Was it a pleasant Day to die –
And did the Sunshine face His way –
And if He spoke – What name was Best –
What last
What One broke off with
At the Drowsiest –
Was He afraid – or tranquil –
Might He know
How Conscious Consciousness – could grow –
Till Love that was – and Love too best to be –
Meet – and the Junction be Eternity
IV.
It makes no difference abroad –
The Seasons – fit – the same –
The Mornings blossom into Noons –
And split their Pods of Flame –
Wild flowers – kindle in the Woods –
The Brooks slam – all the Day –
No Black bird bates his Banjo –
For passing Calvary –
Auto da Fe – and Judgment _
Are nothing to the Bee –
His separation from His Rose –
To Him – sums Misery –
V.
Heart! We will forget him!
You and I – tonight!
You may forget the warmth he gave –
I’ll forget the light!
When you have done, pray tell me
That I might begin!
Haste! while you are lagging
I may remember him!
More Vocal and Choral Works
The Prism of the Lyre, Opus 197
Seven Principles for SATB chorus acapella No. 7, Opus 193
In Common Things for soprano and piano, Opus 190 no. 2
Music when soft voices die, no. 1, Opus 190 no. 1
The Shadows Fall So Gently, Opus 181
Parables of Love and Death, Opus 173
A Hymnbook for Congregational Singing, Opus 169
The Harp at Nature's Advent, Opus 167
Thou God of Love, Thou Ever Blessed, Opus 164
Blest Are the Sons of Peace, Opus 16
O God our Help in Ages Past, Opus 162
Awake our Souls, Away our Fears, Opus 160
Once to Every Soul and Nation, Opus 144
Arrangements of Congregational Music for Thanksgiving, Opus 142
I'm Just A Poor Wayfaring Stranger, Opus 131
And Am I Born to Die?, Opus 129
Fancies, a cycle of five songs for Tenor and Piano, Opus 117
Revels, A cycle of ten songs for Baritone Voice and Piano, Opus 114
The Echolocations of Cellos, Opus 108
The Seasons, A Cantata, Opus 101
Summer: The Fragrant Pathway of Eternity, Opus 100
Spring: In the Pendulum of My Body, Opus 99
Duet from Holy Ghosts, Opus 93
Winter: Exaltations of Snowy Stars, Opus 929
Unchanging Love, a hymn based on a text by Romulus Linney, Opus 87
Fall: Autumnal Raptures, a song cycle for Tenor and Harp, Opus 86
Ten Poems of William Blake, Opus 53
“The Immortal Beloved”, Opus 50
A Cry Against the Twilight, Opus 42
“Prologue” and “The End of the World”, Opus 14
Reality Is an Activity of the Most August Imagination, Opus 8