Krystal Classical Productions Presents
Adina Aaron In Recital
in The Best Contemporary American Music

I. EASTER SONGS WILLIAM MASELLI

1. THE CHILD
Rivers of Light,
Streaming and swirling,
Caress with radiant glow
The Child,
A Dreaming Star to Light the World!

2. MUSIC
Your essence flows into the soul of Easter,
A universe rising to new life
With every breath,
And every smile,
Of the music of you.

3. HEAVEN
In my arms I feel your face upon mine
And I soar in holy realms of wonder and hope:
I give you all I am And yet you, in tender peace,
Have borne me,
With tears of joy,
To the Light of Heaven.
Text by William Maselli,
. . . In the wake of Tristan and during the eclipse of the sun. Bayreuth, August 11, 1999

II. SONGS ON TEXTS BY LANGSTON HUGHES RICKY IAN GORDON

1. Stars
O, sweep of stars over Harlem streets,
O, little breath of oblivion that is night.
A city building
To a mother’s song.
A city dreaming
To a lullaby.
Reach up your hand, dark boy, and take a star.
Out of the little breath of oblivion
That is night,
Take just
One star.

2. Harlem Night Song
Come,
Let us roam the night together
Singing.
I love you.
Across
The Harlem roof-tops
Moon is shining.
Night sky is blue.
Stars are great drops
Of golden dew.
Down the street
A band is playing.
I love you.
Come,
Let us roam the night together
Singing.

3. Prayer
I ask you this:
Which way to go?
I ask you this:
Which sin to bear?
Which crown to put
Upon my hair?
I do not know,
Lord God,
I do not know.

4. Litany
Gather up
In the arms of your pity
The sick, the depraved,
The desperate, the tired,
All the scum
of our weary city
Gather up
In the arms of your pity.
Gather up
In the arms of your love-
Those who expect
No love from above.

5. Love Song for Antonia
If I should sing
All of my songs for you
And you would not listen to them,
If I should build
All of my dream houses for you
And you would never live in them,
If I should give
All of my hopes to you
And you would laugh and say: I do not care,
Still I would give you my love
Which is more than my songs,
More than any houses of dreams,
Or dreams of houses-
I would still give you my love
Though you never looked at me.

6. My People
The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.
The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people.
Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.

III. HIGH SUMMER STEFANIA de KENESSEY
Song cycle on poems by Tom Disch

1. High Summer
When the bluebells have left off blooming
And the woods are dusty and dry,
It’s time to go to the movies
And switch from Low Cool to Hi.
When all the daffodils have withered
And the scum is thick on the shore,
Then go where the weather caresses
In a large department store.
The season of blossoms is fleeting;
Then come the wearisome weeks
When even the beaches are beastly
And the rusty screen door squeaks,
And you sigh for those simpler summers
When you stayed in the city and drank
Perriers by a recycling fountain
In the plaza of Chemical Bank.

2. Imperfect Love
Imperfect Love’s to be preferred
To perfect which implies
A readiness to edit out
Kindness, when it lies.
Imperfect Love will minister
To needs but ill expressed –
Is greedy, but accommodates
Itself to second best,
While Perfect Love, persnickety,
Must bide its time until
Its perfect complement appears,
Congruent to its Will.
True Love is not occasion for
The laying down of laws.
Your perfect Love, my friend, is but
A bone that Plato gnaws.

3. Love Is
What you recall from way back when;
A major drug-free hit of Zen;
The best, the most, a boost, a boast;
The cause that brought you to this coast.
A mode of speech, the perfect peach,
Eternity upon the beach
Of Here and Now and Whee and Wow;
The common ground of every brow -
Middle, Low and High united
In a single Zing! Delighted!
Oh, be my own and never leave,
And you may ever call me Eve.

4. On Returning to The Golden Treasury

O peerless beauty! Treasure! Gold!
Let all thy secret names be told:
Nymph and Goddess! Noon’s Diana!
Beloved! Liebling! Sweet banana!
If there is anyone more young,
Let her ears and neck be hung
From the nearest doughty pine:
Then shall those lips and tongue be mine!
Strip her, grip her, give her to me.
Love’s a tomb that’s very roomy.
I’m alone and you are not
Able to resist this thought.
Dearest Darling, Duty, Love -
I swear by these boots and one glove
That all my ardor is in vain
If ink can’t penetrate your brain,
And what is more, I will avow,
Lust’s a boar and Love’s a sow
And, Honey, were I with you now,
This Herr would herrlichkeit his Frau.

5. God’s Crime Policy
Seeing that things had got out of control,
God imposed curfews from zone to pole.
If folks went to bed early and got up betimes,
There probably would be many less crimes.
He still fed them well, for a while at least,
But wouldn’t you know it: crime increased.
So he cut their rations, and turned the heat low,
Covering half the world with snow.
That kept them indoors, but they raped their wives
And beat their kids and led scandalous lives,
Cheating on taxes, and driving drunk, until God got into a terrible funk
"These are my people, and look what they do.
I’ll leave them forever and just let them stew!
They’ve seen the last of their honeydew.
I’ll turn my face from them! I’m through!"
But then some weeks later, waking up, God remembered the buttercup.
He considered the lily and the lamb, and smiled and spake, "I am that I am!
And today I am bountiful, blithe and gay all these flowers - it must be May.
Hey, your sinners, look what I’ve done! You’re all forgiven. So go have some fun.
’For that month and, then, for most of the next,
The crime rate declined, and God was unvexed
But smack in the middle of a steamy July,
On a weekend so hot that you wanted to die,
A mugger offed some bum who’d dissed him.
You might have thought, "Who would have missed him?’
But the bum had friends, and they had heat,
And soon stray bullets strafed the street.
And God was wroth, and He saw fit to declare again that this was it
He’d call a curfew and once and for all
Crime would abate. And that’s why it’s fall.

IV. DREAMS OF LOVE WILLIAM MASELLI

1. CARRY ME LOVE
Carry me, love,
To the holy places you lie.
Like snow falling in deep space
You are cold to the touch and to the eye.
Yet I burn with inner fire by the sight of you
And I wait with patient grace
For the unfolding
Of you

2. LET THE FUTURE COME
In distant mystery you repose,
At least for me,
Though you may not rest
And may be close to another
Why wonder at this world
Which dreams in sub-conscious bliss?
Let the future come
And in that flow perchance
You shall come to me.

3. YOUR SOUL
O love,
My spirit burns with longing.
Every piece of my essence ---
Of the Universe - - -
Seethes in swirling mysterious commanding search to union.
All is at war
And no peace can be
Without the touch
Of your soul
On mine.

4. LAMENT
How can I make you feel
The pure spirit of my love
And send the light of my devotion
Into your heart so strong that it shines in your eyes
It is my wish and only dream
That the pure spirit of my love
Forever shines in your eyes
To light the stars
So my love and soul
And all Eternity ---
Through my love for you ---
Are One.

5. IN TIME
All is fine with the world,
Of course,
In time;
You who gave me new life,
Who relit the stars,
Has cast the darkness into the very depths of my soul;
All is fine with the world,
Of course:
In time.

6. HOPE
In a vision of the world dreaming spirits love with kindness
Drifting melodies foretell harmonies that color blindness
In the suffering of the world dreaming spirits love with kindness
Love sustains the universe, hope remains a mystic timeless soul
You create the universe, so my heart has been relating
Lifting up my lonely soul, dreams my art has been creating
In the magic of your eyes fires glitter unabating
Heating up my frozen soul, beating in my heart creating love.
Love keeps hope alive, hope keeps love alive
Angels dressed in robes of white in the spirit’s world transcendent
Holding forth the sacred flame lighting stars in skies resplendent
Lift my long-enduring heart with your love
I touch the essence of creation born within Life’s timeless vision
And the magic of your blessing, timeless sacred love
If on mortal paths we part torn by tragedies unfolding
Save the essence of my soul, burning love we’ve both been holding
Love soars on high, is reborn by your prayers
Prayers of love keep hope alive
Only the light of hope keeps my spirit alive
Hope creates the flow of love
And only love sustains the Universe.

7. WEDDING DAY
Today is your wedding day!
Oh Joy and sublime love!
The sun shines between the passing clouds,
And snow falls from the mountains,
And in my heart a song sounds again and again,
Lifting me to the shore
By the lake
Of my lost dreams.

Text by William Maselli