(2005; quartet version)
Instrumentation: voice, flute or violin, cello, piano
Additional version for voice and piano
Duration: 4:00
Note
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Along with Forgetting, Love Song with Counterpoint was initially composed as part of a set of four songs entitled, Early, After, Ever, Now, originally scored for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, harp and percussion, and commissioned and premiered by Network for New Music in 2000. A version of Love Song with Counterpoint for voice and piano was performed by Judith Kellock with Stephen Gosling in 2005 also. These two songs represent my first attempt at writing both words and music together. Love Song with Counterpoint is a kind of strange, suspended moment during which an entire lifetime might to pass, or at least be darkly imagined.
I don’t know if I will ever learn your name
Will you look my way? I don’t know
You’re in every catch of thought
When I see the light around your sudden face
I don’t know if I can hold the thrill
The air on your lips, the plum of your hair
Your silver voice
When I wake the morning of the day you’re gone
My heart would die–
When I line up all my amber-lidded dreams
I don’t know