Name: The Mad Scene
Duration: P00H04M12S
Description: "Awhirl in a vortex of somnambulant delirium," the singer recounts — at times wistfully — the recurring dream of meeting the other for the first time and watching the entirety of their life together flash before his/her eyes.

The Mad Scene

from The White Album by Mark Kilstofte

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"Awhirl in a vortex of somnambulant delirium," the singer recounts — at times wistfully — the recurring dream of meeting the other for the first time and watching the entirety of their life together flash before his/her eyes.

lyrics

THE MAD SCENE

Again last night I dreamed the dream called Laundry.
In it, the sheets and towels of a life we were going to share,
The milk-stiff bibs, the shroud, each rag to be ever
Trampled or soiled, bled on or groped for blindly,
Came swooning out of an enormous willow hamper
Onto moon-marbly boards. We had just met. I watched
From outer darkness. I had dressed myself in clothes
Of a new fiber that never stains or wrinkles, never
Wears thin. The opera house sparkled with tiers
And tiers of eyes, like mine enlarged by belladonna,
Trained inward. There I saw the cloud-clot, gust by gust,
Form, and the lightning bite, and the roan mane unloosen.
Fingers were running in panic over the flute’s nine gates.
Why did I flinch? I loved you. And in the downpour laughed
To have us wrung white, gnarled together, one
Topmost mordent of wisteria,
As the lean tree burst into grief.

James Merrill
(1926-1995)

“The Mad Scene” © 2008 by James Merrill, used with permission of The Wylie Agency LLC. All rights reserved.

credits

from The White Album, released December 16, 2021

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about

Mark Kilstofte

Mark Kilstofte is admired as a composer of lyrical line, expert text setting and keen sensitivity to sound, shape and event – qualities stemming in part from his many years of vocal study. Winner of the Rome Prize, his honors also include ASCAP’s Rudolf Nissim Award, the Copland House Residency Award and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. ... more

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