Texts

The Passion of St. Cecilia - (Text by Charles Anthony Silvestri - Music by Mark Buller)

I. The Roman air is bathed in golden light,

A day as beautiful as ever was;

And yet, my heart is heavy, so I sing...

For I must take the gift I meant for Thee

And cast it all away to be defiled,

My body, pure and holy; so I sing...

For Thee, O Lord, for Thee alone I saved

Myself, of which my heart alone remains;

So, in the silence of my broken heart,

I sing.

II. I shall not wed,

As property passed

From one man to another.

I will it not!

The song in my heart

Reaches out for

The only freedom

I can ever know.

An angel appears!

Under the wings

Of thy protection

I can be free!

So, if trapped I must be,

Then let my anguish

Be turned into gladness,

And win one more soul for Thee!

III. Long ages passed, and now we sing to you

In this our time of tribulation dire.

We echo in our hearts your song of hope,

And seek the spark of your immortal fire.

If ever singers needed you, our Muse,

We need you more than e’er we did before.

We ask of you, translate to us the peace

That greeted you upon that distant shore.

For glorious is transformed that fateful hour

When once you sang inside your silent heart;

For now, Cecilia, now you sing through us

An endless song, inspiring all our art.

Overboard- (Words by Leah Lax - Music by Mark Buller)

1. THE SEA WINS

Fifty-caliber, five-inch, eight-inch, one-point-ones,

yellow lights dancing on the sea.

Ahells fly like blackbirds. Shells fly like blackbirds.

We couldn’t see. Enemy starboard, enemy port, enemy dead ahead.

Water walls, flash and fire, look at that trail of foam –

It’s beautiful. It’s beautiful. No time for fear.

Torpedo to the engine room melts brick melts steel.

All around, bodies, glass, grease, and blood.

We were cogs in a machine,

brothers in brotherhood.

When the Houston rolled over,

she took our shoes.

He died on my lap

on a raft on the sea

I eased him overboard.

2. AFTER THE CAMPS

They drank their tea extremely hot,

And didn’t care for rice.

Slept better on the floor than in a bed,

Yelled at ghosts in their sleep and never talked.

And never talked. Harry ate lettuce by the head.

Fillings in their teeth were made of tree sap,

And they held up just fine.

Drink hard, work hard, run, don’t sit still.

Drive hard, work hard, try, and try

Not to look behind you. Keep your eyes ahead.

3. ELEGY WITHOUT END

Adams, Bailey, Calloway, Day

Edwards, Fuller, Gallagher, Hill

Ingram, Johnson, Kilby, Luck

Mills, Nelson, Ogilvie, Payne

Rooks. Captain Rooks.

Sadowski, Templeman, Usher, Vaughn

Wallace, Young, Zimmerman

I don’t know, I don’t know

If I’m the survivor

Or the fallen.

Mass in Exile - (Words by Leah Lax - Music by Mark Buller)

I. FOR WANT OF REFUGE (Miserere)

Mercy! They cry, mercy.

Have mercy! Hear the cry.

They cry from the deep.

Where, oh where is home?

When the children come home,

When they come, only then,

I am home.

II. CREDO IN EXILE

Pray.

Pray, child. Pray.

BARITONE

I tried, but I was a child.

CHORUS

Pray, child.

BARITONE

My God,

You were my Master, Taskmaster

CHORUS

Pray, child.

Lift your eyes and pray.

Pray you won’t fall.

BARITONE

My black deepest well.

My God and my Hell.

Your Eyes ever watching –

I stood on the edge.

Oh, my sins...

CHORUS

The Lord God is merciful, full of grace,

Patient, true, and kind.

Forgiving.

BARITONE

They buried me in words without song.

Words they made me love - words without song.

I couldn’t see, and always the promise

of indemnity.

Now to find promise

in questions that remain.

CHORUS

God is questions.

God is nothingness.

God is song

without words.

III. PEACEABLE KINGDOM GLORIA

Oh, scent my bed with cinnamon,

Taste the honey, drink the wine.

I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.

My desert olive silver and strong

I drink your sweet oil. I lie in your shade.

Our love is flame and fire, fierce as death.

Hold my hand, my love. I hear your song.

Don’t fade, my love – I hear your song.

Oh, scent my bed with cinnamon,

Taste the honey, drink the wine.

I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.

Now arise, arise from the desert, and run away.

IV. AS WATER FLOWS AWAY (prayer for the government)

Do you think you speak justice? Do you dare to judge?

May your bullets of greed melt may they fall

as a stolen child who never sees the day.

May you vanish as we vanish,

as water flows away

into the wreck of the world.

V. MERCY (Kyrie)

If I have no mercy, what am I?

Without your mercy, who am I?

If not now, then ay-mah- tie?

If not now, then when?

VI. EARTH SANCTUS: BODY AND BLOOD

Kadosh

Holy

Water.

Oh, sky of breath, oh holy earth,

Where hides our peace, poor broken earth,

Our earth of life, of love, of breath unfinished. Death.

So holy.

Kadosh.

VII. WHEN ALL ELSE FALLS AWAY (Benedictus)

CHORUS

Kadosh. Kadosh.

BARITONE

When world and words fall away,

I will follow the question:

How to find mercy?

CHORUS

When world and words fall away,

I will follow the question:

How to find mercy

Now to find mercy

How to find mercy

In the wreck of this unfinished song.

Holy.

Let peace be without words.

“Let it come

like wildflowers,

suddenly, because the field

must have it: wildpeace.”

-- poet Yehudah Amichai