Description

Voicing: baritone and piano

Level: 5

Duration: 10+ minutes

To see perusal score, please contact Jocelyn.

Text

I. “burn”

unto thee i
burn incense
the bowl crackles
upon the gloom arise purple pencils

fluent spires of forms
delightful with indefinable flowering,
the air is
deep with desirable flowers

i think
thou lovest incense
for in the ambiguous faint aspirings
the indolent frail ascensions,

of thy smile rises the immaculate
sorrow
of thy low
hair flutter the level litanies

unto thee I burn
incense, over the dim smoke
straining my lips are vague with
ecstasy my palpitating breasts inhale the

slow
supple
flower
of thy beauty, my heart discovers thee

unto
whom i
burn
olibanum*

*olibanum ~ Oriental frankincense

II. “your little voice”

your little voice
Over the wires came leaping
and I felt suddenly
dizzy
With the jostling and shouting of merry flowers
wee skipping high-heeled flames
courtesied before my eyes
or twinkling over to my side
Looked up
with impertinently exquisite faces
floating hands were laid upon me
I was whirled and tossed into delicious dancing
up
Up
with the pale important

Stars and the Humorous
moon

dear girl
How I was crazy how i cried when i heard
over time
and tide and death
leaping
Sweetly
your voice

III. “so quite new”

i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite new a thing.
muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones, and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which I will
again and again and again
kiss, I like kissing this and that of you,
i like slowly stroking the, shocking fuzz

of your electric fur, and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh . . . . And eyes big love-
crumbs,

and possibly I like the thrill

of under me you so quite new

IV. “i love you much (most beautiful darling)”

i love you much(most beautiful darling)

more than anyone on the earth and i
like you better than everything in the sky

-sunlight and singing welcome your coming

although winter may be everywhere
with such a silence and such a darkness
noone can quite begin to guess

(except my life)the true time of year-

and if what calls itself a world should have
the luck to hear such singing(or glimpse such
sunlight as will leap higher than high
through gayer than gayest someone’s heart at your each

nearness)everyone certainly would(my
most beautiful darling)believe in nothing but
love

V. “i carry your heart with me”

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called
life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars
apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

– All poems by E. E. Cummings 

“your little voice/ Over the wires came leaping”. Copyright 1923, 1951, © 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1976 by George James Firmage, “I like my body when it is with your”. Copyright 1923, 1925, 1951, 1953, © 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1976 by George James Firmage, “i love you much(most beautiful darling)”. Copyright 1958, 1986, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust, “I carry your heart with me(I carry it in”. Copyright 1952, © 1980, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust, “unto thee I”. Copyright 1932, 1951, © 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1976 by George James Firmage, from COMPLETE POEMS: 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.

Composer’s Notes

This cycle of songs characterizes and illuminates some of the many aspects of love: desire, infatuation, physical love, parental love, and eternal love. The following poems by E.E. Cummings are lush, descriptive, and poignant, captivating the reader with their vivid imagery. The first song, “burn,” sets the poem “unto thee i,” which incorporates Cummings’ typical idiosyncrasy of syntax (his own way of arranging words into larger phrases and sentences.) As a composer this poses a certain dilemma. Do I acknowledge the structure of the poem in the vocalist’s musical phrase, and if so, how could I do that most effectively? The carriage returns are so purposeful, and force the reader to consider certain words differently. Please read the poem “unto thee i,” and consider the placement of the word ‘burn.’ This significant assignment by Cummings greatly influenced my setting of the text, so much so that it gave the song its name. Not all of the songs in this cycle feature musical qualities that

mirror Cummings’ distinctive syntax, yet these “interruptions” and punctuations were taken into account during the compositional process.

The fourth song, “i love you much (most beautiful darling),” was written during the pregnancy of my first child, and is dedicated to him. ‘Sunlight and singing welcome your coming.’ It was a true joy to write this movement, and I knew it was appropriate for it to follow the third movement, “so quite new,” which vividly illustrates the act of physical love. The final song of the set depicts a great and true love that knows no boundaries: eternal love.