Steven Gates
           

Madrigals
”Murio al Amanecer”
”Sin arrimo y con arrimo”

2004

 

Duration: 11:30 total

 

Download program notes


Listen:

”Murio al Amanecer”
(complete)

Catherine Cooper, alto
Kevin Cooper, guitar

To purchase CD:
Doberman Editions


Text:

Murio Al Amanecer

Noche de cuatro lunas
y un solo árbol,
con una sola sombra
y un solo pájaro.

Busco en mi carne las
huellas de tus labios.
El manantial besa al viento
sin tocarlo.

Llevo el No que me diste,
en la palma de la mano,
como un limón de cera
casi blanco.

Noche de cuatro lunas
y un solo árbol.
En la punta de una aguja,
está mi amor ¡girando!

Federico García Lorca

 

 

Sin Arrimo y con arrimo

Sin arrimo y con arrimo,
sin luz y a oscuras viviendo,
todo me voy consumiendo.

Mi alma está desasida
de toda cosa criada
y sobre sí levantada,
y en una sobrosa vida
sólo en su Dios arrimada.
Por eso ya se dirá
la cosa que más estimo,
que mi alma se ve ya
sin arrimo y con arrimo.

Y, aunque tinieblas padezco
en esta vida mortal,
no es tan crecido mi mal,
porque, si de luz carezco,
tengo vida celestial,
porque el amor da tal vida
cuando más ciego va sienda,
que tiene al alma rendida,
sin luz y a oscuras viviendo.

Hace tal obra el amor
después que le conocí,
que, si hay bien o mal en mí,
todo lo hace de un sabor
y al alma transforma en sí,
y así, en su llama sabrosa,
la cual en mí estoy sintiendo,
apriesa, sin quedar cosa,
todo me voy consumiendo.

San Juan de la Cruz

 

He Died at Dawn

Night of four moons
and one lone tree,
with one lone shadow
and one lone bird.

I seek in my flesh
the tracks of your lips.
The fountain kisses the wind
without touch.

I carry the No that you gave me
in the palm of my hand,
like a lemon of wax
almost white.

Night of four moons
and one lone tree.
On a pin's point
my love is spinning!

Translation by Greville Texidor

 

 

Anchorless and yet anchored

Anchorless and yet anchored,
living in darkness without light,
I consume myself completely.

My soul is unattached
to any created thing,
raised above itself
in delightful life,
anchored in its God alone.
Now everyone will know
what's most important to me:
that my soul now finds itself
anchorless and yet anchored

And though I pass through shadows
in this mortal life
my pain is not excessive:
I may feel the lack of light
but I have life from heaven.
For when love grows this blind,
it gives us so much life
that the soul is left with
living in darkness without light.

Love has worked such things in me
since I came to know it,
that all my good and evil
it turns into my delight,
making my soul like itself.
And so, in the delightful flame
that I feel within myself,
swiftly and thoroughly
I consume myself completely.

Translation by Ken Krabbenhoft

Program notes for
Murio al Amanecer:


From Federico García Lorca’s book of poems, Canciones, “Murio Al Amanecer” is representative of
the collection with its heightened lyricism and a focus on momentary sensations. Lorca
uses a beautiful, almost hyper-intense description of atmosphere, which always guides the guestures of both the vocal line and
its accompaniment.
The song is anchored
in an essentially tonal framework, but one which takes occasional and fleeting excursions.

 

 

 

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©2006 Steven Gates