let me come in (arr. SSA) (2023) 10'

program note

let me come in was written for the soprano Angel Blue, co-commissioned by LA Opera and the Fisher Center at Bard College.

let me come in is part of a series of pieces I have been writing over the past several years, in which I have applied different literary filters to the text of the biblical ‘Song of Songs.’  The idea behind this series is that if we look at the text from many different angles it may eventually begin to reveal more of its emotional and spiritual powers.  Or at least that is the hope.

For this song, I started with one verse in the King James version of the text, where the woman is awaiting the knock of her lover on her door.

5:2  I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night

I love the sense of waiting for something beautiful to happen, the anticipation of the moment, and also I love that the narrator hasn’t moved to open the door yet – the sensuousness of the waiting is more powerful for her, and for us, than the actual physicality of meeting.

Of course, these texts were originally in Hebrew, then translated and mistranslated into Greek and Latin and eventually English, and their various translations have changed the details of their various meanings.  Many of these are intentional mistranslations; different Christian denominations, for example, have their own shaded versions of the text, in an attempt to lower the temperature of the original, to tone down its sensuality, or to make it seem more like a metaphor, or like a dream.  I took 17 different versions of this verse, each slightly different, and then I alphabetized their phrases and got rid of all the duplicated lines, in order to make one single text, with all its interpretive angles shown.

let me come in is dedicated to Sophie Claudel, in memory of Frédéric Bonnemaison.

Libretto

let me come in
words and music by david lang

a sound
a voice

and my hair is damp from the mist
and my hair with the dampness of the night
and my locks of the drops of the nights
and my locks with the drops of the night

and saying

for my head is covered with dew
for my head is drenched with dew
for my head is filled with dew
for my head is full of dew
for my head is wet with dew

let me come in
let me

I dreamed my lover knocked at the door
I sleep, but my heart is awake
I sleep, but my heart wakes
I sleep, but my mind is awake
I slept but my heart was awake
I was asleep but my heart was awake
I was asleep, but dreaming
I was asleep, but my heart waked
I was asleep, but my heart was awake
I was asleep, but my mind was dreaming
I was sleeping, but my heart was awake

it is the voice of my beloved
it is the voice of my beloved that knocks

let me come in

listen

my beloved is knocking
my beloved was knocking
my darling, my sweetheart, my dove
my darling, my very own, my flawless dove,
my hair with droplets of the night
my hair with the dampness of the night
my hair with the dewdrops of night.
my head is drenched with dew
my head is drenched with evening dew.
my head is wet with dew
my locks with drops of the night
my locks with the damp of the night
my locks with the drops of the night
my love is knocking
my love was knocking
my lover is knocking at the door

open for me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one
open for me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one
open the door for me
open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one
open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my perfect one
open to me, my sister, my friend, my dove, my perfect one
open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, mine undefiled
open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one
open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled
open to me, my treasure, my darling, my dove, my perfect one
open to me, my true love, my sister, my dove, my perfect one
open up for me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my perfect one
open, open to me, my companion, my sister, my dove, my perfect one

the one I love was at the door
the sound of my beloved knocking
the voice of my beloved
the voice of my beloved knocking

there’s a sound

when I heard my lover knocking and calling

while I slept, my heart was awake