Blessing – Carol Barnett

Composer: Carol Barnett

Instrumentation: Mezzo-soprano, piano

Duration: Approx.  2:45

Date Written:  2019

Composer’s note:  

Written for the Source Song Festival 2019, Blessing was premiered by mezzo Clara Osowski and pianist Mark Bilyeu as part of a panel discussion entitled “How Text Gets Paired with Song.” Libby Larsen, who organized the project, also wrote a setting of the poem, with fascinatingly different results.

Blurb: A loving benediction from a wise older voice.

Paragraph: The three repetitions of the text invoke life scenarios where sorrow may come–youth, prime of life, and old age. The song flows in three quarter time, with undulating eighth notes lapping against the ears like water on a boat.

text:

Blessing

Sorrow will come
May there also be kindness and grace
Easy silence in the place beyond words
and words to warm the silences
A channel that guards the passage
of your small and battered boat
then opens again, wide

Marg Walker
(used with the permission of the author)