Halcyon Song
Text by the composer
Halcyon Song
Words and Music by Larry Bell
In a warm, clear day in November,
While our hope was still fresh in the air,
In a day we always remember,
In a moment that we’ve come to share.
Love does not die In my heart and my mind.
The soul lives now And forever in time.
In a warm clear day in September,
We awoke to see smoke in the skies,
No one knew the ultimate reason,
Why the innocent would lose their lives.
Love does not die In my heart and my mind.
The soul lives on
And forever in time.
Ah! Love does not die.
Ah! Ah! The soul lives on. Ah!
In a cold clear night in December,
A great poet was slain in the street.
We all cried that our dream was over,
Never dancing again to his beat.
Love does not die
In my heart and my mind.
The soul lives now
And forever in time.
Oct. 21, 2021 YouTube; Jessica Bowers-soprano, Suzannah Chapman, cellist, Larry Bell, pianist
Halcyon Song, for soprano, cello, and piano (2019) is based on words by the composer. It was commissioned by Save the Music in memory of Rosalie Calabrese. The first performance was streamed on October 21, 2021, via a YouTube premiere and performed by Jessica Bowers, Susannah Chapman, and Bell as the pianist. It was recorded on January 6 for commercial release in the fall of 2022.
More Vocal and Choral Works
The Prism of the Lyre, Opus 197 1
Seven Principles for SATB chorus acapella No. 7, Opus 193 2
In Common Things for soprano and piano, Opus 190 no. 2 4
Music when soft voices die, no. 1, Opus 190 no. 1 5
The Shadows Fall So Gently, Opus 181 6
Parables of Love and Death, Opus 173 8
A Hymnbook for Congregational Singing, Opus 169 9
The Harp at Nature's Advent, Opus 167 10
Thou God of Love, Thou Ever Blessed, Opus 164 11
Blest Are the Sons of Peace, Opus 16 12
O God our Help in Ages Past, Opus 162 13
Awake our Souls, Away our Fears, Opus 160 15
Domenica a Filicudi, Opus 158 16
The Lone Wild Bird, Opus 154 17
Once to Every Soul and Nation, Opus 144 20
Arrangements of Congregational Music for Thanksgiving, Opus 142 21
I'm Just A Poor Wayfaring Stranger, Opus 131 24
And Am I Born to Die?, Opus 129 25
Now Shall My Inward Joy Arise, Opus 128 26
The Book of Blues, Opus 119 29
Fancies, a cycle of five songs for Tenor and Piano, Opus 117 30
Revels, A cycle of ten songs for Baritone Voice and Piano, Opus 114 31
The Echolocations of Cellos, Opus 108 33
The Seasons, A Cantata, Opus 101 38
Summer: The Fragrant Pathway of Eternity, Opus 100 39
Spring: In the Pendulum of My Body, Opus 99 40
Duet from Holy Ghosts, Opus 93 41
Winter: Exaltations of Snowy Stars, Opus 929 42
Unchanging Love, a hymn based on a text by Romulus Linney, Opus 87 43
Fall: Autumnal Raptures, a song cycle for Tenor and Harp, Opus 86 45
Dream within a Dream, Opus 79 46
Songs of Time and Eternity, Opus 64 47
Shakespeare Sonnets, Opus 58 48
Ten Poems of William Blake, Opus 53 49
“The Immortal Beloved”, Opus 50 50
A Cry Against the Twilight, Opus 42 52
“Four Sacred Songs”, Opus 20 53
“Prologue” and “The End of the World”, Opus 14 55
Poems of Our Climate, Opus 9 56
Reality Is an Activity of the Most August Imagination, Opus 8 57