The Promise Of Light

Len Schiff and I attended graduate school together at NYU, and I have been a fan of his since the first time I heard him put words together and make them rhyme.  Years ago we wrote a song for solo voice called “The Promise Of Light” that started with the lyric, “Candles and oil lamps and bulbs on a tree, and logs on the fire, blazing and bright.”  For some reason the song never quite worked.  Perhaps the music wasn’t right or the sentiments were too big for one person to sing alone.  A few years after we’d abandoned the song, I asked Len if he would mind if I tried to set his lyric for a choir, and he asked if first he could take another crack at the lyric.  The resulting piece, which you’re holding, has little to do either musically or lyrically with our original song, but it retained the title and the spirit of celebrating not a particular December holiday but, rather, the winter and the warmth of spirit and the lights that all of those holidays have in common.  Musically, the piano should tingle with the excitement of a crackling fire or sparkle with the image of sunlight glistening off unbroken snow, and the voices should be filled with expectation.  Though some of the imagery is dark, remember that this is a piece about light and promise and hope, and the underlying sentiment should always be celebratory.

LYRICS:
AUGUST WAS YOUR SWEETEST MONTH,
BEAUTIFUL AND BRIGHT;
SEPTEMBER BURNED,
OCTOBER TURNED
INTO NOVEMBER’S NIGHT.
SO YOU WRAP YOURSELF IN WOOL AND DOWN
AND DECEMBER DONS HER MIDNIGHT GOWN
WITH A SNOWY CAPE AND A STARRY CROWN
AND YOU SETTLE IN FOR WINTER.

WINTER’S HEART IS COLD AND DARK,
BITTER AND SEVERE,
BUT WHEN THE SHROUDS
OF SNOW AND CLOUDS
DEPART, THE MOON IS NEAR.
AND YOUR FACE IS WASHED IN SILVER BEAMS,
THE SIDEWALKS SHINE LIKE FROZEN STREAMS
AND THE STREETLAMPS GLOW, AND THE CITY DREAMS…

SO BLOW WIND
AND FALL THE SNOW
YOU WILL WALK INTO THE NIGHT.
YOU’LL SPREAD YOUR ARMS
AND TIP YOUR FACE
TOWARDS THE GRACE AND THE PROMISE
OF LIGHT.

LONELY AS A PILGRIM
IN A COUNTRY FAR FROM HOME
LOOKING FOR SALVATION
IN A TOWN OF STEEL AND CHROME,
YOU NEED INDIGO AND VIOLET SKIES,
YOU NEED POOLS OF MOONLIGHT IN YOUR EYES
FOR THE SUN TO SET; FOR YOUR SOUL TO RISE.

AND SO YOU CLIMB
ON STREAMS OF FREEZING AIR
OVER TREES, OVER BUILDINGS
OVER CARE…

SO BLOW WIND
AND FALL THE SNOW
YOU WILL SOAR INTO THE NIGHT
YOU’LL SPREAD YOUR ARMS
AND SET YOUR COURSE
TOWARDS THE SOURCE AND THE PROMISE
OF LIGHT.