Marvellous Error
Vocal/piano score
PEL3002-Vocal Solo and Piano
Instrumental part
PEL3002-IP
A SETTING OF ANTONIO MACHADO'S POEM FOR MEZZO-SOPRANO AND PIANO WITH OPTIONAL BASS
This piece begins with an atmospheric, dreamy feel that transitions into a more straightforward groove and ultimately builds at the words "a fiery sun was giving light inside my heart" before returning to the theme for the closing words "I dreamt that it was God here inside my heart."
Video
Notes
Included on the recording "Sound Over All Waters” with Theresa Thomason and Keramion Singers, directed by Paul Halley (PEL1001)
Texts
Marvellous Error
Words: “Last Night, As I Was Sleeping” by Antonio Machado; translated by Robert Bly
Music: Paul Halley (1952 - )
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt - marvellous error! -
that a spring was breaking
out in my heart.
I said: Along which secret aqueduct,
Oh water, are you coming to me,
water of a new life
that I have never drunk?
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt - marvellous error! -
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt - marvellous error! -
that a fiery sun was giving
light inside my heart.
It was fiery because I felt
warmth as from a hearth,
and sun because it gave light
and brought tears to my eyes.
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt - marvellous error! -
that it was God
here inside my heart.
