texts child eng

Michael Tippett
A Child of Our Time

PART I

Chorus The world turns on its dark side.

It is winter.

THE ARGUMENT

Alto Solo Man has measured the heavens with a telescope,

driven the gods from their thrones.

But the soul, watching the chaotic mirror, knows that the gods return.

Truly, the living god consumes within and turns the flesh to cancer.

SCENA

Chorus & Alto Solo

Chorus Is evil then good?

Is reason untrue?

Alto Reason is true to itself;

But pity breaks open the heart.

Chorus We are lost.

We are as seed before the wind.

We are carried to a great slaughter.

The Narrator:

Bass solo Now in each nation there were sorne cast out by authority and tormented, made to suffer for the general wrong.

Pogroms in the east, lynching in the west;

Europe brooding on a war of starvation,

And a great cry went up from the people.

Cborus of the Oppressed

When shall the usurers city cease,

And famine depart from the fruitful land?

Tenor Solo I have no money for my bread; I have no gift for my love.

I am caught between my desires and their frustration as between the hammerand the anvil.

How can I grow to a mans stature?

Soprano Solo How can I cherish my man in such days,

or become a mother in a world of destruction?

How shall I feed my children on so small a wage?

How can I comfort them when I am dead?

Chorus & Soli

Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus;

Steal away, stea! away home— I han't got long to stay here.

My Lord, He calls me, He calls me by the thunder,

The trumpet sounds within-a my soul,

I han't got long to stay here.

Green trees a-bending, poor sinner stand a-trembling,

The trumpet sounds within-a my soul,

I han't got long to stay here.

Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus;

Steal away, steal away home— I han't got long to stay here.

PART II

Chorus A star rises in mid-winter.

Behold the man! The scape-goat!

The child of our time.

The Narrator:

Bass solo And a time came when in the continual persecution

one race stood for all.

Double Chorus of Persecutors and Persecuted

Away with them!

Curse them! Kill them!

They infect the state.

Where? How? Why?

We have no refuge.

The Narrator:

Bass Solo Where they could, they fled from the terror,

And among them a boy escaped secretly, and was kept in hiding in a great city.

Chorus of the Self-righteous

We cannot have them in our Empire.

They shall not work, nor beg a dole.

Let them starve in No-Mans-Land!

The Narrator:

Bass Solo And the boys mother wrote a letter, saying:

Solo Quartet

Mother

(Soprano) O my son! In the dread terror they have brought me near to death.

Boy

(Tenor) Mother! Mother!

Though men hunt me like an animal, I will defy the world to reach you.

Aunt

(Alto) Have patience.

Throw not your life away in futile sacrifice.

Uncle

(Bass) You are as one against all.

Accept the impotence of your humanity.

Boy No! I must save her.

A SPIRITUAL

Chorus & Soli:

Nobody knows the trouble I see, Lord,

Nobody knows like Jesus.

O brothers, pray for me,

And help me to drive Old Satan away.

O mothers, pray for me,

And help me to drive Old Satan away.

Nobody knows the trouble I see, Lord,

Nobody knows like Jesus.

SCENA

Duet—Bass & Alto Soli

Narrator:

Bass The boy becomes desperate in his agony.

Alto A curse is born.

The dark forces threaten him.

Narrator He goes to authority.

He is met with hostility.

Alto His other self rises in him, demonic and destructive.

Narrator He shoots the official—

Alto But he shoots only his dark brother—

And see—he is dead.

The Narrator:

Bass Solo They took a terrible vengeance.

Chorus Burn down their homes! Beat in their heads!

Break them in pieces on the wheel!

The Narrator:

Bass Solo Men were ashamed ofwhat was done.

There was bitterness and horror.

A SPIRITUAL OF ANGER

Chorus & Bass Solo

Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt land;

Tell old Pharaoh, to let my people go.

When Israel was in Egypt's land,

Let my people go.

Oppressed so hard they could not stand,

Let my people go.

"Thus spake the Lord, bold Moses said,

Let my people go.

"If not, I'll smite your first-born dead,

Let my people go.

Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt land;

Tell old Pharaoh, to let my people go.

The boy sings in his Prison

Tenor Solo My dreams are all shattered in a ghastly reality.

The wild beating of my heart is stilled: day by day.

Earth and sky are not for those in prison.

Mother! Mother!

The Mother:
Soprano Solo

What have I done to you, my son?

What will become of us now?

The springs of hope are dried up.

My heart aches in unending pain.

Alto Solo The dark forces rise like a flood.

Men's hearts are heavy: they cry for peace.

A SPIRITUAL

Chorus & Soprano Solo

O, by and by,by and by,

I'm going to lay down my heavy load.

I know my robe's going to fit me well,

I tried it on at the gates of hell.

O, hell is deep and a dark despair,

O, stop, poor sinner, and don t go there!

O, byand by,byand by,

I'm going to lay down my heavy load.

PART III

Chorus The cold deepens.

The world descends into the icy waters where lies the jewel of great price.

Alto The soul of man is impassioned like a woman.

She is old as the earth, beyond good and evil,

the sensual garments.

Her face will be illumined like the sun.

Then is the time of his deiiverance.

SCENA

Bass The words of wisdom are these:

Winter cold means inner warmth, the secret nursery of the seed.

Chorus How shalt we have patience for the consummation of the mystery?

Who will comfort us in the going through?

Bass Patience is born in the tension of loneliness.

The garden lies beyond the desert.

Chorus Is the man of destiny master of us all?

Shall those cast out be unavenged?

Bass The man of destiny is cut off from fellowship.

Healing springs from the womb of time.

The simple-hearted shall exult in the end.

Chorus What of the boy, then? What of him?

He, too, is outcast, his manhood broken in the clash of powers.

God overpowered him—the child of our time.

GENERAL ENSEMBLE

Chorus & Soli

Tenor I would know my shadow and my light,

so shall I at last be whole.

Bass Then courage, brother, dare the grave passage.

Soprano Here is no final grieving, but an abiding hope.

Alto The moving waters renew the earth.

It is spring.

Chorus repeats the words of the soloists.

A SPIRITUAL

Chorus & Soli

Deep river, my home is over Jordan,

Deep river, Lord, I want to cross over into camp-ground.

O chillun! O don't you want to go,

To that gospel feast,

That promised land,

That land where all is peace?

Walk into heaven, and take my seat,

And cast down my crown at Jesus' feet.

Deep river, my home is over Jordan,

I want to cross over into camp-ground, Lord!