4. Unwilling Participants: 'Trepak' by M. Mussorgsky

From our Wheatstone Ministries Recital 2017 at Biola University. Kate Gremillion (soprano), Randall Gremillion (baritone) and David Clemenson (piano) in a Recital on Dying (and Living) Well

“Trepak” from Songs and Dances of Death by Modest Mussorgsky
Forest and glades, no one is around.
A snow-storm is crying and groaning,
It seems as if in the gloom of the night
The Evil One is burying someone;
Look, there he is! In the darkness
Death is hugging and caressing an old man,
Death is dancing a trepak with this drunkard
While singing a song into his ear:
"Oh, my little wretched man,
You got drunk and stumbled along the road,
But this witch of a blizzard has risen furiously,
And driven you from the glade into the dense forest.
You are tortured with anguish and need,
So lie down, curl up and fall asleep, my dear!
I'll warm you up with snow, my darling,
And stir up a great game around you.
Make up the bed, you blizzard-swan!
Hey, get going, you weather, start chanting
A fairytale that lasts all night,
So that the drunkard falls asleep soundly!
Hey you, forests, skies and clouds,
Gloom, wind and fleeting snow,
Wreathe into a shroud, snowy and fluffy;
With it I'll cover our old man, like a baby...
Sleep, my little friend, happy wretch,
The summer has come and blossomed!
Above the fields the sun is laughing and sickles roam,
The song hovers around; the doves are flying about..."