"Life"

"Life" Poem by Henrietta Cordelia Ray (1852 – 1916) Music composed by Andrea Reinkemeyer (b. 1976) Performed by In Mulieribus. Arwen Myers, soprano From the album “Cycles of Eternity” (2019) Life! Ay, what is it? E’en a moment spun From cycles of eternity. And yet, What wrestling ’mid the fever and the fret Of tangled purposes and hopes undone! What affluence of love! What vict’ries won In agonies of silence, ere trust met A manifold fulfillment, and the wet, Beseeching eyes saw splendors past the sun! What struggle in the web of circumstance, And yearning in the wingèd music! All, One restless strife from fetters to be free; Till, gathered to eternity’s expanse, Is that brief moment at the Father’s call. Life! Ay, at best, ’tis but a mystery! From Cycles of Eternity (2017) is a Song Cycle for Treble Voices (SSSSAA). The third song, “Life,” was commissioned by In Mulieribus in celebration of their Tenth Anniversary Season. Henrietta Cordelia Ray's poetry uses musical language and timeless thematic materials, including: the brevity of our individual lives within the great expanse of time, artistic struggle, our relationship with nature, and collective dreams of freedom. As an African-American poet of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries, Ray expresses discontent with her earthly experiences while also looking forward to the, “splendors past the sun” and being “gathered to eternity’s expanse… at the Father’s call.” Musically, this piece draws from both the present and past to further highlight the cyclic nature of human experience. A.R.