The Mirthful Heart * NEW! *
Voicing: SAA with frame drumText: Grace Fallow Norton (1914)
Duration: 2:50 min.
Premiere: The MPR Carolers, Minnesota Public Radio - Dec. 21, 2012
See the score: PREVIEW THE SCORE (pdf)
Published by: Abbie Betinis Music Co., AB-073-C12 (released: Oct 2013)
Order now: Online order form
LISTEN:
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Featured on Classical Minnesota Public Radio |
Playlist:
[0:00] Let's Have a Merry Song Tonight (by Bates Burt) [0:45] Interview on the Burt Family Carol tradition [3:08] While All the Earth Was Dark and Dreary (B. Burt) [5:30] Interview with Abbie Betinis on The Mirthful Heart [9:05] The Mirthful Heart (by Abbie Burt Betinis) |
PROGRAM NOTE:
Since 2001, I've been writing an annual carol to send in my family's Christmas card -- a family tradition begun by my great-grandfather Bates Burt in 1922, and passed through my great uncle Alfred Burt.
This year, I surely read over a hundred Christmas and winter poems looking for just the thing I wanted to say to friends and family in 2012 -- a year which, for the United States, brought divisive politics, devastating natural disasters, and tragic shootings. On a personal note, I lost three influential women and role-models in my life: my grandmother, my great-aunt, and my godmother.
These hardships make me wonder how we -- the living -- make sense of life, despite this tragic world. What propels us, indeed, compels us to keep going, even when it's so hard to make sense of loss?
I think Grace Fallow Norton, born in Northfield, Minnesota in 1876, provides an answer in this poem from 1914. Her words inspire me to believe that, even in a dreary world, it's possible -- if indeed also absurd -- to hold this "strange carnival" of joy in our hearts.
And just now -- as I write this -- I realize I've composed this music for a trio of strong, lusty women. I love you Nonna, Aunt Harriet, and Aunt Anita. You each showed me, in your own way, how to keep a "mirthful heart," and to take delight in each new day. I will never forget our wonderful times together.
The Mirthful Heart
Without, a city's whirling dust,
A city's alley-wall;
Without, a bleak, pale strip of sky.
Within, high festival.
Without, no greeting on the street,
From the hurrying crowd no smile.
Within, my heart's bold pageant moves
In glorious solemn file.
Chorus: Noel, noel, noel, noel...
There was no call for revel. Day,
Who summons us each morn,
Came forth in dreariest garb and blew
No gala herald-horn.
But slave of day I am not -- nay,
Her mistress still, I wield
The crystal sceptre of my mood,
Bearing my dream's white shield.
Exultant, rapture-flooded, mad
With mystic inner mirth,
My heart holds her strange carnival
Unseen of all the earth.
Chorus: Noel, noel, noel, noel...
Adapted by Abbie Betinis from "Heart's Holiday" by Grace Fallow Norton. (From Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. January 1914.) The poem is in the public domain and may be reprinted from this webpage with proper attribution to the author(s).
Without, a city's whirling dust,A city's alley-wall;
Without, a bleak, pale strip of sky.
Within, high festival.
Without, no greeting on the street,
From the hurrying crowd no smile.
Within, my heart's bold pageant moves
In glorious solemn file.
Chorus: Noel, noel, noel, noel...
There was no call for revel. Day,
Who summons us each morn,
Came forth in dreariest garb and blew
No gala herald-horn.
But slave of day I am not -- nay,
Her mistress still, I wield
The crystal sceptre of my mood,
Bearing my dream's white shield.
Exultant, rapture-flooded, mad
With mystic inner mirth,
My heart holds her strange carnival
Unseen of all the earth.
Chorus: Noel, noel, noel, noel...
Adapted by Abbie Betinis from "Heart's Holiday" by Grace Fallow Norton. (From Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. January 1914.) The poem is in the public domain and may be reprinted from this webpage with proper attribution to the author(s).
Performed by:
MPR Carolers
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