2013

Must All Then Amount To But This

Text by Walt Whitman
"Must All Then Amount To But This" is a musical setting of Walt Whitman's original poem "As the Time Draws Nigh" by Jonathan Bailey Holland. The setting, which is scored for medium voice and piano, was published in 2013.

Listen

“Must All Then Amount to But This?”
Ann Marie McPhail, soprano; Gwynne Kuhner Brown, piano3:03

Jonathan Bailey Holland

Composer

Walt Whitman

Poet(s)/Writer(s)

2022

Date

Irvine, California

Location

This recording was part of a 3pm concert ("Soul & Reconciliation") on Friday, October 14, 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

AS the time draws nigh glooming a cloud,
A dread beyond of I know not what darkens me.
I shall go forth,
I shall traverse the States awhile, but I cannot tell whither or how
long,
Perhaps soon some day or night while I am singing my voice will
suddenly cease.
O book, O chants! must all then amount to but this?
Must we barely arrive at this beginning of us?—and yet it is
enough, O soul;
O soul, we have positively appear’d—that is enough.