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Before Me
$10.00
suggested price
I wrote this piece for the 2012 Three Twelve album, Something Begun, but we decided it was too similar in feel to the "Still / This Tree" diptych we'd already committed to, so we saved "Before Me" for a later project. (Oh well.) The piece is much less "mainstream tonal" than most of my other works, and in fact a diligent observer will notice some Hauer-esque melodic retrogrades and inversions, that help to give the piece its unsettled consistency. Don't worry too much about the meter changes, either—as long as the pianist and the vocalist can hit the downbeats more or less together, the piece works just fine.
Lyrics
The sun is high as I step out of the wood,
and shadÂows that stretched long this mornÂing have gone.
The grass is tall, and it slows my cerÂtain step
as insects fling themÂselves from shelÂter to flight.
There now before me, a wall of ancient stone climbs to the sky.
WeathÂered and crumÂbling, these stones stood long before my heart began to beat.
A doorÂway yawns where great timÂbers hinged ago,
proÂtectÂing sacred space withÂin and withÂout.
The roof is gone: lichÂened beams across the floor.
The walls that held it, now unburÂdened, stand tall.
SomeÂhow, above me, the sun, trapped by these walls, moves ever on,
crossÂing horiÂzons as one light sets, and in its place, a milÂlion shine.
SomeÂhow withÂin me, the wanÂderÂer finds home here in the dark.
I set my pack down, and there we stand, outÂside of time,
those stones and I.
©2011 David M. GlasÂgow (ASCAP)
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