My own journey with the text began when I was
encouraged to use it as the basis for an extended exercise in contemplative
prayer. After that exercise was completed, I returned to explore the same
territory in musical terms. The text I eventually chose was what spoke to me in
translation, adapted in the light of the greek of the septuagint.
This is why
the text is set for male voice, so that it comes from my own perspective.
Most
translations of the Song of Songs insert words like “bride”,
“bridegroom” and “companions” into the margins, to indicate who is
speaking, but these are not present in the original, where the only indications
come from the word endings which indicate the gender of the person being
described. I have therefore felt
free to disregard traditional ascriptions of gender, and let the text flow
freely as it spoke to me, and the result is that the text (sung by a male
voice) has a gay edge, which is integral to the conception.
This is not an excuse for high camp, but neither
would it be appropriate for the piece to be sung (an octave higher) by a
soprano.
The text used is drawn from Chapter 2, 8–13 and 16–17, and chapter 3,1–8,
with verse 15 and 16 of chapter 4 forming the prologue and epilogue. The division of the text into
separate sections is what suggested itself to me, rather than based on anything in the text itself:
| Prologue |
 |
The fountain in my garden is a spring of living water,
flowing down from Lebanon.
Awake, north wind, and come, south wind;
blow upon my garden that its perfumes may pour forth,
that my beloved may come to his garden and
enjoy its rare fruits.
|
| |
| Song 1 |
|
Hark! My beloved! Here he comes,
bounding over the mountains, leaping over the hills.
My beloved is like a gazelle or a young wild goat:
there he stands outside our wall,
looking in at the windows, peering through the lattice.
|
| |
| Song 2 |
|
My beloved spoke, he said to me:
“Rise up my true love, my fairest come away.
For now winter is past and the rains are over and gone;
the flowers appear in the country side;
the time is coming when the birds will sing,
and the turtle-doves cooing will be heard in the land;
when the green figs will ripen on the fig-trees
and the vines give forth their fruit and fragrance.
Rise up my true love, my fairest come away.”
|
| |
| Song 3 |
|
My beloved is mine and I am his; he delights in the lillies.
When the day is cool and the shadows fade to darkness
turn, my beloved and show yourself a gazelle
or a young wild goat
on the hills where the cinnamon grows.
|
| |
| Song 4 |
|
Night after night on my bed I have sought my true love;
have sought him but not found him,
I have called him but he has not answered.
I said “I will rise and go the rounds of the city,
through the streets and the squares, seeking my true love.”
I sought him but I did not find him,
I called him but he did not answer.
The watchmen patrolling the city met me, and I asked
“Have you seen my true love?”
Scarcely had I left them when I met my true love.
I hugged him and would not let him go
until I had brought him to my mother’s house,
to the room where I was conceived.
|
| |
| Epilogue |
|
The fountain in my garden is a spring of living water,
flowing down from Lebanon.
Awake, north wind, and come, south wind;
blow upon my garden that its perfumes may pour forth,
that my beloved may come to his garden
and enjoy its rare fruits.
|
The piece is scored — and conceived — primarily for baroque instruments with their
distinctive sound, and a relatively light “early music” tenor voice. The harpsichord part
was conceived in terms of the warm and resonant sound of a friend’s eighteenth century english
instrument (made by Longman and Broderip).