Three Songs from “The Prophet”

The composer writes: These songs are excerpted from Kahlil Gibran’s most famous poetic work, The Prophet, published in 1923. In this work, Gibran draws upon Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Bahá’í belief-systems to construct a philosophical discussion of the human condition, as presented by a prophet named Almustafa. Here, I have chosen three of the 26 “fables” contained within the poem that I found personally inspiring and musically evocative. In setting them to music, I have attempted to convey the mysticism and imagery found in The Prophet. These songs were written at the request of mezzo-soprano Maria Soulis, who gave the premiere performance on November 17, 2017, in Toronto.TEXTSI: Love Has No DesireLove has no other desire but to fulfill itself.But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.To know the pain of too much tenderness.To be wounded by your own understanding of love;And to bleed willingly and joyfully.To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;To return home at eventide with gratitude;And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.II: Your Hearts Know in SilenceYour hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights.But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart’s knowledge.You would know in words that which you have always known in thought.You would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams.The hidden well-spring of your soul must needs rise and run murmuring to the sea;And the treasure of your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes.But let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure;And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line.For self is a sea boundless and measureless.Say not, “I have found the truth,” but rather, “I have found a truth.”Say not, “I have found the path of the soul.” Say rather, “I have met the soul walking upon my path.”For the soul walks upon all paths.The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.III: Life and Death Are OneLife and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?And what is it to cease breathing but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.