Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me, Saying [that]1 now you are not as you were When you [had]2 changed from the one who was all to me, But as at first, when our day was fair. Can it be you that I hear? Let me [view]3 you, then, [ Standing as when I drew near to the town Where you would wait for me: yes, as I knew you then, Even to the original air-blue gown! ]1 Or is it only the breeze, in its listlessness Travelling [across]4 the wet mead to me here, You being ever dissolved to wan wistlessness, Heard no more again far or near? Thus I; faltering forward, Leaves [around]5 me falling, Wind oozing thin through the thorn from norward, And the woman calling.
Mourning Madrigals
Song Cycle by Joelle Wallach (b. 1946)
1. The voice  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), appears in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries with Miscellaneous Pieces, first published 1915
Go to the single-text view
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRI Frisian (Geart van der Meer) , "De stim", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
1 omitted by Wallach.
2 Wallach: "were"
3 Wallach: "hear"
4 Wallach: "cross"
5 Wallach: "'round"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
2. Something Tapped  [sung text checked 1 time]
Something tapped on the pane of my room When there was never a trace Of wind or rain, and I saw in the gloom My weary Beloved's face. [ "O I am tired of waiting," she said, "Night, morn, noon, afternoon; So cold it is in my lonely bed, And I thought you would join me soon!" ]1 I rose and neared the window-glass, [ But vanished thence had she: ]1 Only a pallid moth, alas, Tapped at the pane for me.
Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), appears in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses, first published 1919
See other settings of this text.
View original text (without footnotes)1 omitted by Wallach.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
3. At the Piano  [sung text checked 1 time]
A woman was playing, A man looking on; And the mould of her face, And her neck and her hair, Which the rays fell upon Of the two candles there, Sent him mentally straying [ In some fancy-place ]1 Where pain had no trace. A cowled apparition Came pushing between; And her notes seemed to sigh; And the lights to burn pale, As a spell numbed the scene. But the maid saw no bale, And the man no monition And Time laughed awry, And the Phantom hid nigh.
Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928)
Go to the single-text view
View original text (without footnotes)1 omitted by Wallach.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
4. In paradisum deducant te angeli  [sung text checked 1 time]
In paradisum deducant te angeli, in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, [et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem]1. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et com Lazaro quondam paupere aeternam habeas requiem.2
Authorship:
- by Bible or other Sacred Texts , no title, antiphon from the traditional Latin liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church Requiem Mass
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Lau Kanen) , "Naar het paradijs", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
1 omitted by Wallach.
2 Britten adds (from another section of the Requiem):
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]