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Trees and Leaves
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Song with orchestral background -- see lyrics for the poem it is based on
vocal autumn poem
Artist picture
Contemporary classical, new age, acoustic piano music AND SONGS!
I didnt discover I could write music until I was nearly forty. Those were my road warrior days, and there was a hotel in Atlanta with a piano in the atrium where I used to give impromptu concerts. My musical training was as a classical pianist, and I thought of my music then as being in that genre (although they were very popular. People used to hang off the balconies in the evening listening to me play).. When I retired, I started to write novels. When I published the first one, I mentioned in the biography that I was also a composer. On a whim, I recorded some of my music and sent it to the editor. Shes a big rock fan, but she loved my soothing piano music. So, here are some pieces for you to (hopefully) enjoy. You can find my novels, also, under my pen name (W Richard St. James) at clublighthousepublishing.com . Youll see that the music may be mellow, but the books are very spicy!
Song Info
Genre
Acoustic • Acoustic Folk
Charts
Peak #94
Peak in subgenre #24
Author
W. Richard St. James
Rights
2015
Uploaded
May 02, 2015
Track Files
MP3
MP3 7.6 MB • 160 kbps • 6:40
Story behind the song
This is the first piece of music I wrote, in my very late 30s, setting a poem I wrote in my early 20s. The poem itself was triggered by the crisis of a second love. The lyrics are about letting go and starting over. It was originally written for piano, flute and choir with some solos, but it is set here with an orchestral background and solo voice.
Lyrics
TREES AND LEAVES The leaves swirl down in spirals of returning, From the stubborn lace of life that gave them birth. Freed of the branch that nurtures and deceives, They fly away to dreams with eager mirth. The still wet testimony of the earth Refutes with sullen strength their passioned yearning. The earth is wrapped in shattered souls and leaves, Bright heretics fore doomed to bonfire burning. The trees' thin limbs stir vainly in the air, As if the sky could give them some release. As if the stars that shone through winter nights Told tales of love or dreams of strange delights, Or sang to them how all was formed and turned, And taught the bitter solace and the peac Of those who watch while all they love is burned, Locked in the ice grip of the frost's despair. I wonder what the barren trees have learned. While the cruel moon laughed and dancing planets spun. And each frost robed in diamond tapestry Gleamed like a herald to greet the winter sun, And mocked the sable night's stark majesty. We flung our thoughts star daring into space, And found the awful secrets of the night, Found time beyond all mem'ry and all trace, And death beyond all love or fear or flight. And in death's silence we were still and bowed, Beneath the ancient frost's bright diamond shroud. But the moon played shrill upon her silver fife, And sang the joyous vision we had lost, Locked in the night, locked in the ancient frost, The joy of stirring and the eager pain Of buds held trembling to the soothing rain, And we remembered how the seasons turned And laughing shoots arose to suckle life Upon the ashes of the leaves we burned The bonfire smoke has wrapped the earth in shrouds, And to the sky the shrouds of smoke have spun, As if the leaves could chase and catch the sun, By merging with the angry purple clouds, And mingled smoke and clouds drift o'er the trees, Ambiguous patterns in the autumn breeze.
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