Soon
Duet for Soprano, Baritone, and Piano
Lyrics by Vikram Seth
COMMISSIONED: Sing for Hope Presents AIDS Quilt Songbook @ Twenty
PREMIERE: December 2012, The Great Hall at Cooper Union, NYC; Amy Burton, soprano; Randall Scarlata, baritone; Thomas Bagwell, piano
DURATION: six minutes
PUBLISHER: All Conrad Cummings works are self-published; contact him here
INSTRUMENTATION: soprano, baritone, piano
Excerpt from an alternate version of the work for singers and ensemble:
Thomas Bagwell knew my music and was familiar with the version of “Soon” that I had recorded with my ensemble. I felt honored that he wanted to include it in the AIDS Quilt Songbook @ 20 concert at Cooper Union, and it was a pleasure to make a new version for piano. Together with Thomas, Amy Burton and Randall Scarlet performed it glowingly.
—Conrad Cummings
Soon
Music: Conrad Cummings
Lyrics: Vikram Seth
I shall die soon, I know.
This thing is in my blood.
It will not let me go.
It saps my cells for food.
It soaks my nights in sweat
And breaks my days in pain.
No hand or drug can treat
These limbs for love or gain.
Love was the strange first cause
That bred grief in its seed.
And gain knew its own laws –
To fix its place and breed.
He whom I love, thank God,
Won’t speak of hope or cure.
It would not do me good.
He sees that I am sure.
He knows what I have read
And will not bring me lies.
He sees that I am dead.
I read it in his eyes.
How am I to go on –
Now will I bear this taste.
My throat cased in white spawn –
These hands that shake and waste?
Stay by my steel ward bed
And hold me where I lie.
Love me when I am dead
And do not let me die.