A House in Taos for Three Voices
This is a piece I composed for three part a cappella voices, set to a beautiful poem of Langston Hughes called A House in Taos.
You can listen to a wind trio version of it here: https://soundcloud.com/user-418502695/a-house-in-taos-wind-trio
Here are the lyrics:
Rain
Thunder of the Rain God:And we three Smitten by beauty.
Thunder of the Rain God:
And we three
Weary, weary.Thunder of the Rain God:
And you, she and I
Waiting for nothingness.
Do you understand the stillness
Of this house in Taos
Under the thunder of the Rain God?
Sun
That there should be a barren gardenAbout this house in Taos
Is not so strange,
But that there should be
three barren hearts
In this one house in Taos,—
Who carries ugly things to show the sun?
Moon
Did you ask for the beaten brass of the moon?We can buy lovely things with money,
You, she and I,
Yet you seek,
As though you could keep,
This unbought loveliness of moon.
Wind
Touch our bodies, wind.
Our bodies are seperate, individual things. Touch our bodies, wind,
But blow quickly
Through the red, white, yellow skins
Of our bodies
To the terrible snarl,
Not mine,
Not yours,
Not hers,
But all one snarl of souls.
Blow quickly, wind,
Before we run back into the windlessness,— With our bodies,—
Into the windlessness
Of our house in Taos.