Scores available at Veritas Musica Publishing
Rilke Songs: Autumn Day and Love Poem
for tenor voice and piano
These songs were recorded at the Colorado Public Radio Performance Studio and broadcast on June 12, 2015 on Colorado Spotlight with Charley Samson. Recording engineer: Martin Skavish.
Daniel Hutchings, tenor
Rachael Hutchings, piano
Autumn Day
Lord, it is time. Summer was enormous.
Lay your shadow now across the sundials
And let the winds fly free across the open fields.
Bid the last remaining fruits to ripen now;
Give them just one or two warm days more
then drive them to ripeness, and chase
a final bit of sweetness into the heavy wine.
Whoever has no house now will build no more.
Whoever is alone, will long remain so now,
will rise, and read, and write long letters
and in the boulevards will wander
restlessly, among the drifting leaves.
Love Song
How shall I hold back my soul, that
it does not touch on yours? How shall I
lift it up and over you to other things?
Oh how I’d like to shelter it away
with something forgotten in the dark,
in a strange and quiet place, where nothing
resonates, when your depths start ringing.
But everything that touches us, you and me,
takes us together, like a bow
pulling forth one voice from two strings.
Upon what instrument are we two strung?
And who’s the player holding us?
Oh, sweet song!
Rainer Maria Rilke
both translations copyright Margaret Coote, 2014