Purchase Scores

Child of the Heartless Wind
Paul J. Rudoi
high voice, piano

Secular

1. Joy
Listen to the movement

2. The Cloud
Listen to the movement

3. The Wind
Listen to the movement

4. November
Listen to the movement

5. Moon's Ending
Listen to the movement

6. Let It Be Forgotten
Listen to the movement

Program Note:

“Child of the Heartless Wind” is a cycle of six heart-stirring songs based on poems by Sara Teasdale. Through this lyrical poetry, the vocalist finds and loses love, and searches for deeper meaning as a result. Each piece involves modern elements and harmonies in traditional forms. “Joy” is a short, quick ode bursting at the seams with new love. “The Cloud” and “The Wind” slow down that initial pace to examine what is really going on behind the scenes. As the second half of the cycle begins in “November”, the vocalist must confront this realized heartbreak, and by “Let It Be Forgotten”, an acceptance is born out of the rubble.

Texts:

1. Joy

I am wild, I will sing to the trees,
I will sing to the stars in the sky,
I love, I am loved, he is mine,
Now at last I can die!

I am sandaled with wind and with flame,
I have heartfire and singing to give,
I can tread on the grass or the stars,
Now at last I can live!

2. The Cloud

I am a cloud in the heaven’s height,
The stars are lit for my delight,
Tireless and changeful, swift and free,
I cast my shadow on hill and sea--
But why do the pines on the mountain’s crest
Call to me always, “Rest, rest.”

I throw my mantle over the moon
And I blind the sun on his throne at noon,
Nothing can tame me, nothing can bind,
I am a child of the heartless wind -
But oh the pines on the mountain’s crest
Whispering always, “Rest, rest.”

3. The Wind

A wind is blowing o’er my soul,
I hear it cry the whole night through,
Is there no peace for me on earth,
Except with you?

Alas, the wind has made me wise,
Over my naked soul it blew,
There is no peace for me on earth,
Even with you.

4. November

The world is tired, the year is old,
The fading leaves are glad to die,
The wind goes shivering with cold
Where the brown reeds are dry.
Our love is dying like the grass,
And we who kissed grow coldly kind,
Half glad to see our poor love pass
Like leaves along the wind.

5. Moon’s Ending (from Strange Victory – 1933)

Moon, worn thin to the width of a quill,
In the dawn clouds flying,
How good to go, light into light, and still
Giving light, dying.

6. Let It Be Forgotten

Let it be forgotten, as a flower is forgotten,
Forgotten as a fire that once was singing gold,
Let it be forgotten forever and ever,
Time is a kind friend, he will make us old.

If anyone asks, say it was forgotten
Long and long ago,
As a flower, as a fire, as a hushed footfall
In a long-forgotten snow.

- All poems by Sara Teasdale

©2010 Graphite Publishing. All Rights Reserved. All content of this website is the copyright of Graphite Publishing,
and any unliscensed duplication, digital or otherwise, is against the law.