Caroline Mallonée: So You Say (2011)

So You Say (2011)

SATB

7 minutes

So You Say, Movement II: From the Long Sad Party

performed by the Vocalis Chamber Choir,

James Burritt, conducting.

TEXT (by Mark Strand)

1. SO YOU SAY


It is all in the mind, you say, and has

nothing to do with happiness.  The coming of cold,

the coming of heat, the mind has all the time in the world. 

You take my arm and say something will happen,

something unusual for which we were always prepared,

like the sun arriving after a day in Asia,

like the moon departing after a night with us. 


2. FROM THE LONG SAD PARTY


Someone was saying

something about shadows covering the field, about

how things pass, how one sleeps towards morning

and the morning goes.


Someone was saying

how the wind dies down but comes back,

how shells are the coffins of wind

but the weather continues.


It was a long night

and someone said something about the moon shedding its white

on the cold field, that there was nothing ahead

but more of the same.


Someone mentioned

a city she had been in before the war,

a room with two candles

against a wall, someone dancing, someone watching.

We began to believe

the night would not end.

Someone was saying the music was over and no one had noticed.

Then someone said something about the planets, about the stars,

how small they were, how far away.


3. THE COMING OF LIGHT


Even this late it happens:

the coming of love, the coming of light.

You wake and the candles are lit as if by themselves,


stars gather, dreams pour into your pillows,

sending up warm bouquets of air.

Even this late the bones of the body shine

and tomorrow’s dust flares into breath.

To listen to more choral music by Caroline Mallonée, click here.

So You Say, Movement I

performed by the Vocalis Chamber Choir,

James Burritt, conducting.

So You Say, Movement III: The Coming of Light

performed by the Vocalis Chamber Choir,

James Burritt, conducting.