Twilight and Night
Text Source
Lyrics by Don "Orfeo" Rechtman
Music
Music by Don "Orfeo" Rechtman
Instrumentation
Tenor solo, chorus, violin, piano
Twilight and Night by Don "Orfeo" Rechtman (2005)
is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
(This means you can perform it non-commercially or commercially without having to pay royalties, but you are required to acknowledge its authorship and where you got it. You cannot modify it without written permission from Don "Orfeo" Rechtman.)
Sheet Music
(Disregard the old copyright notices on the printed pages; the above Creative Commons now applies.)
Full Score octavo
Recording
This May 10, 2002 recording is of the Voices of the Rockies, a 24-member chorus in Boulder, Colorado under the direction of David Harris; Gary Cox, tenor. Piano played by the composer.
Video
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Practice Tracks
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Lyrics Printout
See below.
Notes (yeah; really funny!)
Much of Don’s music is imbued with Central- and East-European influence. In Twilight and Night, the words and philosophy reflect the Gypsy reverence for and honoring of all phases of the Life cycle; this is also reflected in the way the music moves from key to key and minor to major.
Twilight and Night bring the Dawn;
Darkness and gray grow to light;
Autumn and snow bring the Spring,
And the leaves that are dead grow to life.
Dead are the leaves that have fallen,
But the children’s dance shares their joy:
Though Death will make our hearts sadden,
Our Hope is in that little girl, in that little boy.
Dance in the leaves; Dance in the leaves!
Life joins with Death as we dance in the leaves!
Throwing darkened pinecones in feigned and joyous strife,
As older generations make way for newer life.
Dance in the leaves; Dance in the leaves!
Dance, Dance, Dance!
The setting for the ballet is a park. The tenor solo, in gypsy garb, is followed by a similarly dressed violinist whose playing seems to echo the story the tenor is singing. An open picnic basket and a turned over bottle of wine and two empty glasses are on a picnic cloth on the ground. An elderly couple are nearby informally lying down asleep. As he sings, a family approaches. The boy and girl run up to their sleeping grandparents and awaken them. The parents approach, and it is hugs all around! During the song, the children play, the grandparents dote on the children, the parents beam proudly, and during the musical interlude, they all dance in a circle. The grandparents quickly tire, then the parents, and finally the children. The grandparents become quite sleepy, and the children help them lie down. But this time, they lie down flat on their backs parallel to each other and cross their arms over their chests. As the song ends, the children place flowers at their grandparent's feet, and as the family slowly walks away, the children turn and wave good bye to their grandparents.