Winking Waking Wishes Wail is a pensive and sometimes dark art song for soprano and piano. The text is by Susan Jordan, who was the composer’s late aunt. The poem’s text deals with the struggle between reason and dreams. It explores the relationship and interaction between the conscious and subconscious world. The music alternates between dreamy (and perhaps whimsical) and darker, brooding sections. This piece calls for exquisite dynamic control and subtle, expressive tempo alterations.
This song is perfect for a recital or chamber concert.
Winking waking wishes wail
Across the effervescent realm
And reach reason
Where there is one sight ahead
Where dreams are dead
And fantasies of any hue
Do not exist
Nor nothing new
But reason
Struggling to gain control
The weight of conflict
Takes its toll
In repetition of the role
Caught by fingers reaching out
Beyond the pull of time
Back to the illusion
Of living and of rhyme