My dear friend and college roommate Nick Stead and I were set to musically reunite for a recital at Princeton University next month, under the auspices of Princeton University Concerts, in celebration of our 5th Reunion at Princeton. While of course that won't be happening as planned, Nick and I wanted to share a recording of one of the pieces we were set to perform, recorded by Nick in his apartment in NYC, and me in my apartment in San Francisco. I so hope that we'll have the chance to make music together in person soon.
We hope that Howells' beautiful setting of poetry by Walter de la Mare, telling a story of King David battling his sorrow and emerging out of it, will provide a moment of comfort to you today!
Text by Walter de la Mare:
King David was a sorrowful man:
No cause for his sorrow had he;
And he called for the music of a hundred harps,
To ease his melancholy.
They played till they all fell silent:
Played and play sweet did they;
But the sorrow that haunted the heart of King David
They could not charm away.
He rose; and in his garden
Walked by the moon alone,
A nightingale hidden in a cypress tree,
Jargoned on and on.
King David lifted his sad eyes
Into the dark-boughed tree --
"Tell me, thou little bird that singest,
Who taught my grief to thee?"
But the bird in no-wise heeded;
And the king in the cool of the moon
Hearkened to the nightingale's sorrowfulness,
Till all his own was gone.
28 апр 2020
