Three Songs of Sleep
for soprano and piano (or harp) (1998)
duration: 10’
text by Ross Baglin
GRT • 054 / 118

CD available
Mercurial
Larissa Cairns (soprano), Patrick Lawrence (piano)
Reed Music

Repose
Linda Thompson (soprano), Deviani Segal (piano)
Move Digital
(Lullaby only)


YouTube (3: Balloon Ride)
Balloon_Ride-yt

score available from
Australian Music Centre

text
1: Late Autumn lullaby
The light in the flower
Is never too long ;
The nightingale hour
Of radiant song
Is broken and fled -

The tree that once carved
The sunlight to leaves
Is spindle and starved ;
An autumn wind heaves
Its litter of red

Through mists made of satin
And sunlight in caul
As chestnuts that fatten
Mahogany fall
Where young deer are fed ;

Stay close now as winter's
White fuse burns across
The lake and the hinterland
Clasped in the frost
And hasten to bed ;

For while time is sleeping
And dreaming of you
Far out in the sweeping
Dark, seasons renew
Though I feel days shorten
Sleep on summer's wings
Stay close now, for autumn
Shall sing of the spring.

2: Lullaby from Nelson
Wisht, child, follow
The night's dappled stealing
Through wattle and hollow
Through wicket's way feeling ;
And sleep, for tomorrow's
Fair light in the ceiling
May bring peace or sorrow,
Affliction or healing,
But sleep, and you borrow
All things in God's keeping
So hush-a-bye hush-a-bye,
Fawn of the forest,
And hush-a-bye, hush-a-bye
Lamb of the fold.

3: Balloon Ride
Tender as snow falls
Seahorses ride
Sleep blows a balloon
And upward you glide

Where butterflies sway
And chimney smoke flies
Up where the starlings
Speckle the sky

Silver satellites
Weave starlit filaments
Over the valleys
Where steeples lie sleeping

Sleep now and float
Forever, where Earth
Rises in dreams