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Mu'tazz Songs
1982

voice
piano

SCORE
Night has Fallen
Watch Now
The Lemon on its Branch
Streams of Wine
The New Moon
The Narcissus Stares
The Cavalry of Dew
When Fire is Fanned
The Night I Worried
The Burdened Clouds

In 1982 I collected 32 songs, including these, to be performed individually or in sets as
Songbook 1. Most of the very earliest of these were virtually unperformable as originally
notated: unrealisticallly fast, vast vocal leaps, obsessive use of articulations and dynamic
swivels. As they appear here the most egregious naivities have been cleaned up, but I've
tried to maintain the spirit as intended. It was kind of sweet to see what the 25-year-old
me was doing to desperately try to appear 'modern' on the page, when my music has always
been, at heart, deeply triadic.

TEXTS
Night Has Fallen
Night has fallen about us my friend, light our fire with wine
So, while the world sleeps, we may kiss the sun in the dark.

Watch Now
Watch now the beauty of the crescent moon as it ascends,
Ripping the darkness with its light 
Look, a scythe of silver
Mowing a black prairie that's clustered with white narcissi.

The Lemon on its Branch
And the lemon on its branch is true gold,
A coloured ball once struck hangs in flight
For an eyeblink, still poised on the swung polo stick.

Streams of Wine
With streams of wine the garden is crossed,
And the doves sing higher and higher.
Do not blame the branches if they dance,
They are drunk with song and liquor.

The New Moon
Thank God, the new moon,
Ramadan has gone.
Quick, lash out the wine;
the moon's a silver dhow
Laden with amber.

The Narcissus Stares
The narcissus stares without once resting its eyes; its back is bent 
By still raindrops, its face is pale
Watching how the sky chastens the earth.

The Cavalry of Dew
The cavalry of dew is mounted on flowers.
Stirred by the whip of the wind.
The field gallops as it stands.

When Fire is Fanned
When fire is fanned
Wood and charcoal
Flames rise like cedars of gold.

The Night I Worried
The night I worried stretched so long
I felt the sun had joined the stars.

The Burdened Clouds
The eyelids of the burdened clouds let fall cascades 
Of rain, and the parterred garden is spattered with drops.
You see the exact spot when each hits the hoed ground:
It's like silver coins which bounce, are snatched, yet leave a mark.
So often the rain slaps the cheek of the earth
There are running streams and the garden newly blossoms. 

Abdullah ibn al-Mu'tazz (d.869) trans. Abdullah al-Udhari and George Wightman