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Abbie Betinis
Abbie Betinis Music Company
Peace with Me Now (High voice)
A contemporary torch song inspired by an unearthly winter evening landscape.
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Peace with Me Now
High voice, piano
This secular ballad evokes both the stark solitude of a winter evening, and the warmth that pours into the heart as it yearns for inner peace. The verse/chorus form seems simple, but has breadth and depth, allowing ample room for individual expression. Use the fully-notated score as an art song, or improvise on the chord symbols for a torch song or jazz ballad. The comfortable tessitura extends briefly to outline an octave and a half – low B (or optional D) to high F – which composer Abbie Betinis deftly uses to highlight the descriptive 20th century lyrics by English poet Walter de la Mare.
Abbie represents the third generation of composers in her family who sent an original carol each year as a holiday greeting card, beginning in the 1920s with her great-grandfather, then her great-uncle Alfred Burt. “Peace with Me Now” premiered on Minnesota Public Radio in 2014, before being sent as Abbie’s holiday card to family and friends. (Suggested pairing: Alfred Burt’s Ah, Bleak and Chill the Wintry Wind.)
Text
Clouded with snow
The cold winds blow,
And shrill on leafless bough
The robin with its burning breast
Alone sings now.
The rayless sun,
Day’s journey done,
Sheds its last ebbing light
On fields in leagues of beauty spread
Unearthly white.
REFRAIN:
Peace in thy hands,
Peace in thine eyes,
Peace on thy brow;
Flower of a moment in the eternal hour,
Peace with me now.
Thick draws the dark,
And spark by spark,
The frost-fires kindle, and soon
Over that sea of frozen foam
Floats the white moon.
All the night’s dews,
All the world’s leaves,
All winter’s snow it would seem
Here with their quiet to have stilled…
Stilled in life’s dream.
(REFRAIN)
-Walter de la Mare (1912), adapted by Abbie Betinis © 2014.
From the poems “Winter” and “The Ghost”.
These lyrics may be reprinted in relation to this musical work (e.g. concert programs) without additional permission, but with attribution. For permission to reprint for any other purpose, please contact the copyright holder.
$4.25 per licensed PDF
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