The Gorgeous Nothings

Song Cycle by Ingrid Stölzel (b. 1971)

Publisher: Composers Edition (external link)

1. Clogged Only With Music
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Clogged 
only with
 Music, like
 the Wheels of 
Birds 
 
Afternoon and 
 the West and 
the gorgeous 
nothings 
which 
compose 
 the 
sunset 
keep

their high 
Appoint
ment

Text Authorship:

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Note: the poem was written on three triangles of an envelope. On one appears: “Clogged/only with/Music, like/the Wheels of/Birds.” On another, written at an oblique angle to the first, appear these words: “Afternoon and/the West and/the gorgeous/nothings/which/compose/the/sunset/keep.” and the final triangle was torn from the envelope and pinned to the hinged sections and reads: “their high/Appoint/ment.”

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

2. In This Short Life
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
In this short Life
That only (merely) lasts an hour
How much -- how little -- is
Within our power

Text Authorship:

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Nur eine Stund", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "In questa vita breve", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

3. Paradise Is No Journey
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Paradise is no Journey 
because it is within —
but for that very cause 
though — it is the 
most arduous of 
Journeys — because as 
the servant conscientiously 
says at the Door 
we are out —
always — invariably —

Text Authorship:

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Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

4. The Little Sentences
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
The little 
sentences 
I begun 
and never
 finished —
the little 
wells I dug and 
never 
filled —

Text Authorship:

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Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

5. It Is Very Still
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
It is very still in the
world now — Thronged 
only with Music, like the 

Decks of 
Birds —

and the Seasons 
take their hushed 
places like figures 
in a Dream —

Text Authorship:

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Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
Total word count: 135