Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Romance

The fleeting and suffering soul,
the gentle soul,
the fragrant soul of those divine lilies

which I gathered in the garden of your thoughts,
Whither have the winds forced it,
that adorable soul of the lilies?

Is there no fragrance remaining 
of the heavenly loveliness of those days 
when you enveloped me
in their supernatural mist

Fashioned of hope,
of faithful love,
of blessedness and peace?

These are the the English lyrics to a French song I am singing in women's chorus.It is called "Romace," by Claude Debussy. Today we were singing it with very little passion. It was as though none of us  knew what the song was really saying.  Dr. Powell stopped the class and had us discuss the lyrics. We talked about how Debussy was reminiscing about a time when everything was good between he and the one he loved. He was talking about what had gotten in the way of their love for one another and about how important it was for them to remember how great it was in the beginning so they could continue to love one another. The choir also discussed how we relate to this piece. We talked about how we have all been in a similar situation and from there Dr. Powell encouraged us to use the hurt we felt then and turn it into passion to sing. When we did this the song sounded amazing! It was so beautiful. It was really neat to hear how the notes and words complemented each other to bring about something incredibly beautiful. It was also very cool to hear how good a song could sound when it was sung with great passion. 

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