Surge et aperi mihi
Four songs from Song of Songs

for soprano and piano (2008)

 

Duration: 16 minutes

Text: Latin

Compiled by the composer from Song of Songs

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Movements:

1. Qualis est dilectus meus?
2. Pone me ut signaculum super cor
3. Surge aquillo
4. Ego dormio et cor meum vigilat

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Premiere:

Jeanne Lucas, soprano; James Busby, piano

Church of St. John the Evangelist, Boston, MA

May 28, 2008

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English Translations:

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1. Qualis est dilectus meus?

Unto what is my beloved likened from among the others?
My beloved is wholly beautiful!
What is my beloved?
He is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

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2. Pone me ut signaculum super cor
Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if any man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.

 

3. Surge aquilo
Arise!

Arise O north wind, and come thou south wind;
Blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow.
Arise and come!

 

4. Ego dormio et cor meum vigilat
I slept and my heart kept watch. By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth. The voice of my beloved knocketh: “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled!”

I sought him, but I could not find him;
I called him, but he gave me no answer.

I rose up to open to my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh; my fingers with the sweetest myrrh. I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone.

I sought him, but I could not find him;
I called him, but he gave me no answer.

The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I asked, “Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?” The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls stripped my veil from me.

I sought him, but I could not find him;
I called him, but he gave me no answer.

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