The Sun Is Love - Gwyneth Walker

I. Circling the Sun

II. Quietness

III. Flirtation: Light and Wine and Pomegranate Flowers

IV. The Sunrise Ruby

V. Dualities
a. insomnias
b. meetings
c. mirrors
d. stones

VI. A Waterbird

Widely performed throughout the country, the music of American composer Gwyneth Walker is beloved by performers and audiences alike for its energy, beauty, reverence, drama, and humor. Dr. Gwyneth Walker (b. 1947) is a graduate of Brown University and the Hartt School of Music. She holds B.A., M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in Music Composition. A former faculty member of the Oberlin College Conservatory, she resigned from academic employment in 1982 in order to pursue a career as a full-time composer.
The poetry of Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273) is seamless. Some poems are lengthy, with images spinning out into many directions. Other poems are fragments, joining together to offer varying views of love. And thus, The Sun is Love is a flowing set of songs intended to be presented as a whole. The language of Rumi (brilliantly translated by Coleman Barks) may enfold the listener as the course of the songs progresses.
The opening song, "Circling the Sun," introduces the title phrase of "the sun is love," along with the image of the lover as a "speck circling the sun." This song is intended to draw the listener into the world of romance which is central to Rumi's writings. Sacredness and love.
"Quietness" is a brief reflection of the letting go (dying) of the self in surrender to love, and to the new self which begins "on the other side."
"Light and Wine and Pomegranate Flowers" is a set of short flirtation songs. She entices her lover to the orchard in Spring, their souls dance. She tells him of the mysteries of life, and then chastises him when he falls asleep as she sings (!).
The musical settings of these three songs endeavor to capture the simplicity and variety of the Rumi style: the joyful circling of the sun, the passionate surrender to love and the bouncy flirtatiousness. The occasional strumming of the strings inside the piano is intended as caresses. Each song has a different character.
"The Sunrise Ruby," is a passionate song. She asks "Do you love me or yourself more?" He answers "There's nothing left of me...I'm like a ruby held up to the sunlight." As he surrenders to love, the piano expresses the warmth of the ruby. The interval of the second, which opens and closes the song, symbolizes the closeness of the two lovers.
"Dualities" is a lighthearted group of song-fragments, each expressing a contradictory set of aspects of love. She has insomnia when her lover is present (staying up all night together) and when he is absent (distraction). Looking outward for love, and looking within. Love as pain, and the sweet cold water that cures the pain. Holding the lover close like a lute, or tossing stones (teasingly) at the beloved. In keeping with the dualities topic of the lyrics, each song employs opposing musical elements: high and low ranges of the piano, alternations between two chords, or gentle strumming (lute) vs. scampering intervals (tossing stones).
"A Waterbird" is a pure love song, without teasing or flirtation. The lover seeks the other ("What I want is to see your face") and seeks a union with love ("to swim like a huge fish in ocean water," and "I want to sing like birds sing..."). The final surrender comes with the phrase "I am a waterbird flying into the sun." With this, the piano accompaniment rises to the end of the keyboard, and the singer stands with arms outstretched to the sun.
~The Sun Is Love notes by Gwyneth Walker