STACY GARROP • COMPOSER

VIDEO/AUDIO
Chanticleer
She Said/He Said • Chanticleer Records CLIC010 • Purchase recording

POET
Carl Sandburg

COMMISSIONER
Chanticleer

ORDERING SCORES
Inkjar Publishing Company
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PERUSAL SCORE
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PROGRAM NOTES
Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) was an American author known for his hard, unflinching observations that allow readers to experience Sandburg’s pride, distain, love, hatred, and sympathy for humanity through his works. In particular, his poetry grasps the best and worst of mankind, from the noblest aspirations of man to the subjugation of the poor, as well as to the trials and tribulations of the working class. Very few poems exhibit his softer side, and even fewer reflect his thoughts on love. At a Window (the poem’s original title) is one of these rare gems in his body of work. Sandburg starts the poem angrily, challenging the forces that control the universe to take away all that he has; this anger quickly gives way to a surprising gentleness as he asks for love in place of all else. In my piece (titled Give Me Hunger, drawn from the first line of text), I reflect Sandburg’s enraged voice with a relentless ostinato (a repeating gesture) coupled with dissonant chords; for the poem’s softer side, I employ rich, lush harmonies to anticipate the "coming of a little love." This piece was commissioned by Chanticleer.
-S.G.

TEXT
Give me hunger, 
O you gods that sit and give 
The world its orders. 
Give me hunger, pain and want, 
Shut me out with shame and failure 
From your doors of gold and fame, 
Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger! 

But leave me a little love, 
A voice to speak to me in the day end, 
A hand to touch me in the dark room 
Breaking the long loneliness. 
In the dusk of day-shapes 
Blurring the sunset, 
One little wandering, western star 
Thrust out from the changing shores of shadow. 
Let me go to the window, 
Watch there the day-shapes of dusk 
And wait and know the coming 
Of a little love. 

AUDIO
Then and There, Here and Now • Warner Classics 0190295617783 • Purchase recording

TEXT
Traditional Hungarian-Romani folksong

COMMISSIONER
Chanticleer

ORDERING SCORES
Inkjar Publishing Company
Click here to email Inkjar for purchasing options

PERUSAL SCORE
Click here

PROGRAM NOTES
Jarba, Mare Jarba is a popular traditional Hungarian-Romani folk song. Its text speaks of the longing to return to one's homeland.

TEXT
Transliteration
Jarba, mare jarba mas duce a casa, da nu pot ca am jurat,
Jarba, mare jarba mas duce a casa, da nu pot ca am jurat.
Mare jarba, verde jarba nu me pot duce a casa.
Jarba, mare jarba mas duce a casa, da nu pot ca am jurat.

O mers mama de pe sat, O lasat coliba goala,
Infrunzitu, ingurzitu da plina de saracie, da plina de saracie.
Mare jarba, verde jarba nu me pot duce a casa.
Jarba, mare jarba mas duce a casa, da nu pot ca am jurat.


Translation
Green grass, tall grass, I would like to go home,
but I cannot, because I have sworn not to.
Tall grass, green grass – oh, that I cannot go home!

My mother has left the village; she left the hut empty,
Adorned with leaves but full of poverty.
Tall grass, green grass – oh, that I cannot go home!
Tall grass, green grass – I would like to go home.
but I cannot, because I have sworn not to.