Jacob Beranek Music
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Prelude & Lullaby (2020)
tenor voice, piano

  • Duration
    9 minutes
  • Premiere
    April 10, 2021
    Anighya Crocker, Jacob Beranek

    Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University
    ​Nashville, TN
  • Dedication
    for Anighya Crocker
    ​

Program Note

Reflections on love and its ineffable nature, these two songs are united by the question “How could I love you more?” and the answer “I could not love thee more.”
—Jacob Beranek
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Picture
click image for score sample
Texts
Prelude

by Richard Aldington (1919)

How could I love you more?
I would give up
Even that beauty I have loved too well
That I might love you better.

Alas, how poor the gifts that lovers give
I can but give you of my flesh and strength,
I can but give you these few passing days
And passionate words that, since our speech began,
All lovers whisper in all ladies' ears.

I try to think of some one lovely gift
No lover yet in all the world has found;
I think: If the cold sombre gods
Were hot with love as I am
Could they not endow you with a star
And fix bright youth for ever in your limbs?
Could they not give you all things that I lack?

You should have loved a god; I am but dust.
​Yet no god loves as loves this poor frail dust.

​A Lullaby

by Janet Lewis (1938)

Lullee, lullay,
I could not love thee more
If thou wast Christ the King.
Now tell me, how did Mary know
That in her womb should sleep and grow
The Lord of everything?

Lullee, lullay,
An angel stood with her
Who said: “That which doth stir
Like summer in thy side
Shall save the world from sin.
Then stable, hall, and inn
Shall cherish Christmas-tide.”

Lullee, lullay,
And so it was that Day.
And did she love Him more
Because an angel came
To prophesy His name?
Ah no, not so,
She could not love Him more,
But loved Him just the same.
​Lullee, lullay.
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Picture
© Copyright 2019-2022 by Jacob Beranek Music. All rights reserved. | Photos by Margaret Butler.
  • Home
  • About
    • Long Bio
    • Short Bio
    • Artist Statement
    • In the News
    • Headshots
  • Works
    • Large Ensemble
    • Solo & Chamber
    • Vocal
  • Listen
  • Events
  • Connect