Our Rhyme (2017)
SATB choir
SATB choir
PROGRAM NOTES
Adapted from John Keats’s poem, Ode on a Grecian Urn, this love song describes an image of a young couple: a “bold” young man (the “happy melodist”) serenades a “fair” young woman “beneath the trees.” The two lovers yearn to be together, but it is impossible as the image is engraved on an ancient vase (hence Keats’s title). The text marvels at both the heartache and the beauty of the young lovers’ situation. On one hand, the two can never kiss each other, even though they are “winning near the goal,” but at the same time, there is still joy because the moment “cannot fade.” The young man finds solace in the fact that, though he falls short of his “bliss,” he will forever love the young woman and she will forever be beautiful. In the end, Keats delivers the moral of the story in some of his most famous lines: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
Our Rhyme is a musical depiction of this tale, illustrating both the paradoxical joy and sad longing of Keats’s two young Greek lovers. This setting of the poem begins and ends with Keats’s final lines, creating an arc of passionate storytelling in between two bookends. As the composition develops—eventually employing a pair of soloists to represent the young couple—it strikes its apex, emphasizing the lyrics “More happy love!” Here, after a moment of silence and a brief return to the original material, the soloists make one final, longing gesture together, still knowing they will never kiss. The choir envelops them, softly echoing “Beauty! Truth! Love!”
—Jacob Beranek
TEXT (adapted by composer)
Adapted from John Keats’s poem, Ode on a Grecian Urn, this love song describes an image of a young couple: a “bold” young man (the “happy melodist”) serenades a “fair” young woman “beneath the trees.” The two lovers yearn to be together, but it is impossible as the image is engraved on an ancient vase (hence Keats’s title). The text marvels at both the heartache and the beauty of the young lovers’ situation. On one hand, the two can never kiss each other, even though they are “winning near the goal,” but at the same time, there is still joy because the moment “cannot fade.” The young man finds solace in the fact that, though he falls short of his “bliss,” he will forever love the young woman and she will forever be beautiful. In the end, Keats delivers the moral of the story in some of his most famous lines: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
Our Rhyme is a musical depiction of this tale, illustrating both the paradoxical joy and sad longing of Keats’s two young Greek lovers. This setting of the poem begins and ends with Keats’s final lines, creating an arc of passionate storytelling in between two bookends. As the composition develops—eventually employing a pair of soloists to represent the young couple—it strikes its apex, emphasizing the lyrics “More happy love!” Here, after a moment of silence and a brief return to the original material, the soloists make one final, longing gesture together, still knowing they will never kiss. The choir envelops them, softly echoing “Beauty! Truth! Love!”
—Jacob Beranek
TEXT (adapted by composer)
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Truth, beauty is truth, truth beauty,
That is all you know on earth, and all you need to know. Thou still unravished bride of quietness, Thou foster-child of silence and slow time, Who can express a flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme? Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter; Not to the sensual ear, but more endeared. Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone: Fair youth, beneath the trees, Thou canst not leave thy song! Bold Lover, never canst thou kiss! Though winning near the goal, yet do not grieve; She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, Forever wilt thou love, and she be fair! |
And I, the happy melodist, unwearied,
Forever piping songs, forever new; More happy love! Forever warm and still to be enjoyed. Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone: Fair youth, beneath the trees! More happy love, happy love! Truth, beauty is truth, truth beauty. Who can express a flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme? She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, But, never, never can we kiss. That is all you know, and all you need to know. All you know. Truth! Beauty! Love! |
