Instrumentation: SATB choir and piano
Duration: 3:10
Premiere: 10/13/91
The New York Concert Singers, Judith Clurman Conductor
Merkin Hall, New York, NY
Program Note:
Hark My Love is a setting of verses from the Song of Songs in Marvin Pope’s translation for the Anchor Bible (verses 8-10, 14, 16-17). This richly-textured symbolic text sparked my musical imagination, and the lyrical translation and rhythmic flow of this translation seemed especially apt for musical interpretation. I tried to capture something of the spirit and content of the word in the musical flow and text setting. Hark My Love was commissioned by choral conductor Judith Clurman and premiered by her and the New York Concert Singers at New York’s Merkin Hall. It is dedicated to my husband, Michael Kubovy. The poetry is from the Song of Songs (Anchor Bible), in a version translated and edited by Marvin H. Pope. The text is used by permission of the publisher, Yale University Press. –JS
Text:
Hark my love,
There he comes
Leaping over mountains
Bounding over hills.
My love resembles a buck
Or a young stag.
Lo, there he stands,
He stands at the wall,
Peeking in the window,
Peering in the lattice.
My love spoke and said to me
Arise, my darling
My fair one come away
My dove in the cleft mountains,
In the covert steep.
Show me your form,
Let me hear your voice.
For your form is fair,
My love is mine, and I am his
Who browses on the lotus
Until the day breathes,
And the shadows flee
Turn and be my love
Like a buck or a young stag
On the cleft mountains.
[Hark my love.]