You Gather Things To You
SATB choral/organ score
PEL2092-Choir and Organ
A WORK FOR SATB CHOIR AND ORGAN.
A simple and graceful setting of Pablo Neruda's beautiful love poem, "Poema XII" (Para Mi Corazón), in the English translation by W. S. Merwin "Poem XII (Your Breast Is Enough For My Heart). The magical, ethereal, almost surreal quality of Neruda's imagery and metaphor are allowed to shine in this simple, direct setting by Halley. Sopranos and altos alternate phrases with the tenors and basses in a lovely dialogue expressing yearning and devotion. This is a piece from the heart to grace occasions where love is the theme.
Composed for Elizabeth Crowninshield Race Rogers and Mark Alexander Wright in honour of their wedding, September 13, 2014.
Video
Notes
Included in the Pelagosmusic recording "In The Wide Awe And Wisdom", with Keramion Singers, directed by Paul Halley (PEL1006).
Texts
You Gather Things To You
(musical setting in English)
Words: Pablo Neruda (Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto 1904 - 1973)
Music: Paul Halley (1952 - )
Para mi corazón basta tu pecho,
para tu libertad bastan mis alas.
Desde mi boca llegará hasta el cielo
lo que estaba dormido sobre tu alma.
Es en ti la ilusión de cada día.
Llegas como el rocío a las corolas.
Socavas el horizonte con tu ausencia.
Eternamente en fuga como la ola.
He dicho que cantabas en el viento
como los pinos y como los mástiles.
Como ellos eres alta y taciturna.
Y entristeces de pronto como un viaje.
Acogedora como un viejo camino.
Te pueblan ecos y voces nostálgicas.
Yo desperté y a veces emigran y huyen
pájaros que dormían en tu alma.
‘Poema XII’ (Para Mi Corazón) by Pablo Neruda
From the collection 'Veinte poemas de amor y una cancion desesperada'.
Used by permission of The Neruda Foundation, Santiago, Chile (S.C.D)
All rights reserved.
Translation (musical setting is in English):
Your breast is enough for my heart,
and my wings for your freedom.
What was sleeping above your soul will rise
Out of my mouth to heaven.
In you is the illusion of each day.
You arrive like the dew on the cupped flowers.
You undermine the horizon with your absence.
Eternally in flight like the wave.
I have said that you sang in the wind
like the pines and like the masts.
Like them you are tall and taciturn,
and you are sad, all at once, like a voyage.
You gather things to you like an old road.
You are peopled with echoes and nostalgic voices.
I awoke and at times birds fled and migrated
that had been sleeping in your soul.
English translation by W.S. Merwin.
"Your Breast Is Enough" from TWENTY LOVE POEMS AND A SONG OF DESPAIR: (Dual Language Edition) by Pablo Neruda, translated by W. S. Merwin. Translation copyright © 1969 by W. S. Merwin, used by permission of Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Reviews
"This is the best piece Paul Halley has ever written." - Liza and Mark
