"Rachmaninoff: Vocalise"

"Rachmaninoff: Vocalise"

by:

Alessandria Venice R. De leon

I
You are the melody I live my life by
It is you who fills in the blanks
And the one who completes my phrases
You’re the music that penetrates the lonely silence of life
You give this plain world its colors


II
You are the peaceful resolve after a long day
And yet you are the tension
You give me no ease
It’s a feeling worse than stage fright
It’s a crashing fall, a dangerous tide
A low rumbling deep inside
It’s something akin to a grand crescendo
And yet I still crave for more


III
My heart soars when I hear that ever beautiful sound
Untainted and clear as day
Unrestrained and as free as a galloping horse
It resonates and sings from within
Your violin or your voice
It does not matter, it is you I want to hear


IV
I would gladly live my life on this stage
If only to stay with you for eternity
Making music as we do
For there is no sweeter sound
Than the sound of us two
Every duet echoes deeply in my soul
And stays forever.


V
While my fingers grace these ivory keys
And yours dance across that ebony board
We look to each other
For a split second I know you understand
You hear all that I desire to say
The hidden meaning in between the notes,
The frightened question I hope you’d answer,
And most of all,
You hear the love I could never say in words.



AUTHOR’S NOTE: Hello, dear reader! I know it’s been a while, but you can blame my fickle muse for that. As you can see above, the title is a piece of classical music by Sergei Rachmaninoff. I highly recommend you give it a listen. I’ve found myself quite interested in classical music, its history, and music theory as of late. In fact, I’m even studying violin by myself :)

The whole idea of writing a poem to read while listening to a piece was greatly inspired by Antonio Vivaldi. You may know him for composing The Four Seasons.

In Amsterdam in 1725, Vivaldi’s pieces were accompanied by poems describing exactly what feature of a season he wanted to capture in a musical way. I’ve taken a cue from the Italian composer by creating story poems based solely on the emotion a piece gives me when I listen to it. This means that the stories I assign to certain pieces may not be the original story the composer intended to tell. They are my own.


If you like this type of content from me, then don’t worry! I fully intend on making this a series :)