Joelle Wallach
From the Almanac of Last Things
Year: 1998
Duration (in minutes): 2'
Difficulty: Medium (college/community)
Category: solo voice(s) with piano
Instruments: alto, any female voice, any high voice, any low voice, any male voice, any medium voice, any voice, baritone voice, bass voice, mezzo soprano, soprano, tenor voice
Publisher: Joelle Wallach
Publisher website: https://joellewallach.com/composition/seasonal-songs/
Outside URL: https://joellewallach.com/composition/the-dream-of-now-2/
Video Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87XFH6z96VI
Score PDF: AlmanacCminorAug11.pdf
Description: From the Almanac of Last Things (from "The Dream of Now") is a love song about romance ripening at a relatively advanced age, based on a poem by Linda Pastan. Wallach's From the Almanac of Last Things was commissioned by tenor Paul Sperry for The Joy in Singing. From the almanac of last things I choose the spider lily for the grace of its brief blossom, though I myself fear brevity, but I choose The Song of Songs because the flesh of those pomegranates has survived all the frost of dogma. I choose January with its chill lessons of patience and despair--and August, too sun-struck for lessons. I choose a thimbleful of red wine to make my heart race, then another to help me sleep. From the almanac of last things I choose you, as I have done before. And I choose evening because the light clinging to the window is at its most reflective just as it is ready to go out.