music        news/events        bio        contact        recordings

Songbook 2
1987 (revised 2025)

voice
piano

duration:
Noon—1'
Three French Songs—5'
Ten Mu'tazz Songs—9'
Susie Asado—3'
Two Happy Birthdays—1'
Three Apollinaire Songs—4'
Three Queneau Songs—4'
Three Soupault Songs— 8'

SCORE
Noon

THREE FRENCH SONGS
  If You Imagine  •  Louis XVI Goes to the Guillotine  •  Real Miracles

TEN MU'TAZZ SONGS
  Night has Fallen  •  Watch Now  •  The Lemon on its Branch  •  Streams of Wine
  The New Moon  •  The Narcissus Stares  •  The Cavalry of Dew
  When Fire is Fanned  •  The Night I Worried  •  The Burdened Clouds

Susie Asado

TWO HAPPY BIRTHDAYS
  Happy Birthday 1  •  Happy Birthday 2

THREE APOLLINAIRE SONGS
  Annie  •  La Dame  •  Clotilde

THREE QUENEAU SONGS
  Soixante-quatre Ans  •  Forme de la Ferme  •  Jardin Oublié

THREE SOUPAULT SONGS
  Medaille de Sauvetage  •  Georgia  •  Horizon


TEXTS
Noon
Bent white pine boards,
soaking up sun's heat,
Giant's cradle on the ground,
at Huron, North Dakota.
August sixteenth
Nineteen fifty three.
Jon Eichman



THREE FRENCH SONGS
If you Imagine
If you imagine,
if you imagine,
little sweetie, little sweetie,
if you imagine this will,
this will,
this will last forever
this season of love,
you're fooling yourself
little sweetie, little sweetie
you're fooling yourself.

If you think, little one,
if you think,
ah, ah, that that rosy complexion,
that waspy waist,
those lovely muscles,
the enamel nails,
nymph thigh,
and your light foot,
if you think, little one,
that will,
that will,
that will last forever,
you're fooling yourself,
little sweetie, little sweetie,
you're fooling yourself.

The lovely days disappear,
the lovely holidays,
suns and planets go round in a circle,
but you, my little one,
you go straight toward you know not what,
very slowly draw near,
the sudden wrinkle,
the weighty fat,
the triple chin,
the flabby muscle,
come gather,
gather the roses of life,
and may their petals be a calm sea of happinesses,
come gather, gather,
if you don't do it,
you're fooling yourself,
little sweetie, little sweetie,
you're fooling yourself.
Raymond Queneau (1903–1976) 
trans. Teo Savory


Louis XVI Goes to the Guillotine
Stink
stink
stink
what's that stink,
it's Louis the sixteenth, that bad egg,
and his head drops into the basket, his rotten head
Since the cold is terrific,
this twenty-first of January,
it rains blood,
it rains snow and all sorts of other filth
that flourishes out of his ancient corpse,
like a dog croaked
on the bottom of a pail,
in the midst of dirty laundry,
who has plenty of time to start decomposing
like the fleur-de-lys on the garbage can,
which the cows refuse to nibble,
for they give off an odor of true divinity,
god the father of all mud
who gave to Louis sixteenth the divine right to croak,
like a dog in a laundry pail.
Benjamin Peret (1899–1959) 
trans. Charles Simic


Real Miracles
Nice old priest!
After he'd left us we saw him fly over the lake,
just like a bat,
his thoughts absorbing him,
not even understanding that this flight was a miracle.
The hem of his cassock is wet!
THAT amazes him.
Max Jacob (1876–1944)
trans.



TEN MU'TAZZ SONGS
Night has fallen about us my friend, light our fire with wine
So, while the world sleeps, we may kiss the sun in the dark.
*
Watch now the beauty of the crescent moon as it ascends,
Ripping the darkness with its light
Look, a scythe of silver
Mowing a black prairie that's clustered with white narcissi.
•
And the lemon on its branch is true gold,
A coloured ball once struck hangs in flight
For an eyeblink, still poised on the swung polo stick.
•
With streams of wine the garden is crossed,
And the doves sing higher and higher.
Do not blame the branches if they dance,
They are drunk with song and liquor.
•
Thank God, the new moon,
Ramadan has gone.
Quick, lash out the wine;
the moon's a silver dhow
Laden with amber.
•
The narcissus stares without once resting its eyes; its back is bent
By still raindrops, its face is pale
Watching how the sky chastens the earth.
•
The cavalry of dew is mounted on flowers.
Stirred by the whip of the wind.
The field gallops as it stands.
•
When fire is fanned
Wood and charcoal
Flames rise like cedars of gold.
•
The night I worried stretched so long
I felt the sun had joined the stars.
•
The eyelids of the burdened clouds let fall cascades
Of rain, and the parterred garden is spattered with drops.
You see the exact spot when each hits the hoed ground:
It's like silver coins which bounce, are snatched, yet leave a mark.
So often the rain slaps the cheek of the earth
There are running streams and the garden newly blossoms.
Abdullah ibn al-Mu'tazz (d.869)
trans. Abdullah al-Udhari and George Wightman



SUSIE ASADO
Sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet tea.
Susie Asado.
Sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet tea.
Susie Asado.
Susie Asado which is a told tray sure.
A lean on the shoe this means slips slips hers.
When the ancient light grey is clean it is yellow, it is a silver seller.
This is a please this is a please there are the saids to jelly. These are the wets these say the sets
to leave a crown to Incy.
Incy is short for incubus.
A pot. A pot is a beginning of a rare bit of trees. Trees tremble, the old vats are in bobbles, bobbles
which shade and shove and render clean, render clean must.
Drink pups.
Drink pups drink pups lease a sash hold, see it shine and a bobolink has pins. It shows a nail.
What is a nail. A nail is unison.
Sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet tea.
Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)



TWO HAPPY BIRTHDAYS
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday Dear . . .
Happy Birthday to You