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No Ending - (2012)
Julie Dalton Williamson
medium or low voice and piano
Don't want no 'three people in the chapel' fun'ral.
Don't want no empty, awkward chairs.
When you take me to the fire to burn my bones,
Don't want no person there.
You gather who loved me an' you take them an' me
Up high on a rocky ocean side,
An' you pour my ashes when a big wind's blowin'
An' you let me scatter wide.Copyright © Julie Dalton Williamson 2012 All international rights reserved. Used with permission
2 pages, circa 1' 30"
My friend and colleague of many years sent me yet another text which amused me, this on the subject of a funeral. Given this, I chose here to put another face to her in this page drawn from some decades back, a look into the past and remembrance of events and things about my friend not known to me. We are all complex time creatures, we change much and muchly and in time we consider our ends, as we do the ending of others near to us. The uneven lines of this text tickled my thinking and a setting in a quasi-popular style came quickly asserted itself.
After a brief opening gambit, this two verse setting begins, the tessitura for the voice being low and bluesy. I interpolate "no" and "yes" between the lines of each strophe as personal commentary for such an quiet end -- no feted ending -- is my wish as well. For other texts of Julie Dalton Williamson, click here.
The score for No Ending is available as a free PDF download, though any major commercial performance or recording of the work is prohibited without prior arrangement with the composer. Click on the graphic below for this piano-vocal score.
