Songs of the Seasons by Margaret Bonds and Langston Hughes

Performed on April 23, 2021 by:
Chabrelle Williams - Soprano
Keith Weber - Collaborative Pianist/Coach

Isn't this cycle gorgeous? I absolutely adore them. You can find the song cycle (among other fabulous pieces pieces!) in the collection linked below by the great Margaret Bonds!

https://www.classicalvocalrep.com/pro...

POEME D'AUTOMNE

The autumn leaves
Are too heavy with color.
The slender trees
On the Vulcan Road
Are dressed in scarlet and gold
Like young courtesans
Waiting for their lovers.

But soon
The winter winds
Will strip their bodies bare
And then the sharp, sleet-stung
Caresses of the cold
Will be their only Love.

WINTER MOON

How thin and sharp is the moon tonight!
How thin and sharp and ghostly white
Is the slim curved crook of the moon tonight!

YOUNG LOVE IN SPRING

When the March winds roar like a lion,
and the last little snow flakes drift down,
from a half dreary, half happy April sky,
and then lovely May rolls around,
and I walk with you down a country lane,
we know that spring has come again,
spring has come again.

When the rising sun laughs at the dawn,
and the scent of the soil's warm and sweet,
and the little green sprouts peep out of the earth
And grow upward,
the sunshine to greet
and we find a violet beside the way,
we know that spring has come to stay,
spring has come our way.

When I look at you in the haze
of the twilight's last lingering glow,
in the half dusky, half starry evening sky,
where sweet scented winds gently blow,
and our dreams like birds heading homeward soar,
We know that spring has come once more,
spring has come one more!

SUMMER STORM

Thunder, July, thunder,
and the wonder of lightning in the sky,
And a sudden gale that shakes the blossoms down
in perfumed splendor to the grassy ground.

Thunder, July, thunder,
and the wonder in my heart that I have found you,
wonderful you, beneath the blossoms gay,
in the perfumed splendor of a July day.

With the wonder of summer lightning in the sky,
and a sudden gale that shakes the blossoms down
like confetti in your hair, like confetti on the ground,
perfumed confetti drifting down on the sweet
and wonderful summer earth,
the sweet, sweet summer earth.

There pillowed on the grass in the orchard shade
I kissed you, and kissed you, and kissed you and kissed you
till a sudden gale, shook the blossoms down,
confetti in your hair, confetti on the ground,
and then the rain,
the sweet, sweet rain came down.

We run down the road in the dust of July,
we are happy for the rain,
clean and cool from on high,
in the dust, hand in hand,
in the dust of July,
hand in hand, you and I,
you and I, in July!

Thunder, thunder in my heart the wonder of love,
thunder, wonder in our eyes,
the wonder of being in love, we two
the wonder of being in love with you!