2020

Hyacinth

Composed by Margaret Bonds

Six Songs on Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay Song Collection

"Hyacinth" is an art song composed by Margaret Bonds with the text derived from a poem of the same name by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The piece is from the art song cycle Six Songs on Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Audio

Hyacinth
Daveda Karanas, mezzo-soprano; Michael Ippolito, piano3:02

Margaret Bonds

Composer

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Poet(s)/Writer(s)

2022

Date

University of California, Irvine, Winifred Smith Hall

Location

This recording was part of a 5:30pm concert ("A Salute to Margaret Bonds (1913-1972)") on Saturday, October 15, 2022 during the 25th Anniversary African American Art Song Alliance Conference. The concert venue was Winifred Smith Hall at the University of California, Irvine.

Text

I am in love with him to whom a hyacinth is dearer
Than I shall ever be dear.
At night* when the field-mice are abroad he cannot sleep:
He hears their narrow teeth at the bulbs of his hyacinths.
But the gnawing at my heart he does not hear.

*The original poem by Millay reads “Of nights when field mice are abroad he cannot sleep”.

Related Information

African Diaspora Music Project

africandiasporamusicproject.org/song/margaret-bonds/hyacinth

Sheet Music

Rediscovering Margaret Bonds: Art Songs, Spirituals, Musical Theater and Popular Songs

Margaret Bonds
Buy via Classical Vocal Reprints