Stephen Brown: Compositions

A witty and loving six song cycle for baritone and piano using text by the composer written in 2012.

Six songs for baritone and piano
Duration 16:00

Swan House Victoria SJB 1372
Score: $25.00

Bedtime Stories

1. Goose and Gander
You are a goose and I am a gander. We are both very fine geese. We are healthy and plump with starkly white feathers. We waddle as we court. A gander has a penis, somewhere under those fine feathers, and he must insert it in the goose, his goose, my goose, my Sally goose, to make goose love. I mount you and hold you with my big webbed feet, flapping my fine wings to stay on top of you. You are still. Waiting. I insert my gander penis in my Sally goose. You are goosed, so to speak. Goose and gander, gander and goose, we are both very fine geese.

2. Older Than Me
You are older than me. You are old but you are still beautiful. You have aged well. You hair is white but it is silky. Your skin has wrinkles but it is soft. Your face is lined but it is lovely. You are noble. You are graceful. You are intelligent. You are still very sexy. I want you.

3. Tarzan and Jane
We are going to be married. We have been living together for a while. It is not important but it is important. I am a man, you are a woman. It is basic. I am the provider, you are the nurturer. It is basic. We are formalizing these two aspects of man and woman through marriage. Also, Tómas, who is a man, wants to protect Sally, who is a woman. Marriage is a legal contract that will help Sally if anything happens to Tómas. Some people might think this old fashioned. Some people think Tarzan and Jane are old fashioned. Nevertheless, as the saying goes, Me Tarzan, you Jane. Me Tómas, you Sally. It is basic. But, if you like, you can be the man and I can be the woman. Or we could both be two women. Or two men. I dunno. Maybe one of us needs to be an ostrich.

4. Laying On the Grass
We are laying on the grass in a high mountain meadow. It is warm and the sky is clear and richly blue except for a few fair weather cumulus clouds slowly passing like floating cotton. We are holding hands. Our minds are loving for each other. Our hands are extensions of all we are to each other. Our hands are lightly pulsating.

5. My Birthday
Today is my birthday and I am going to be a layabout. A layabout male lion. That is what male lions do. I am a Leo and this suits me fine. Also, I am going to be a fucking male lion as this is what lions do best. By the way, they don't do much else except for the digestive track stuff. You are my female lion. We have all kinds of little lions (my cubs) running about (my pride of lions) because I have been a fucking male lion ever since we have been together. I like being a fucking male lion. You, my female lion, my lioness, are industrious. You do most of the work. You hunt, though I dominate the kill once you have succeeded, and you look after the multitudinous cubs. I fuck you when I please and I do it a lot because it gives me great pleasure. You are fine with all of the above. I think this is swell. And I think this is a very nice gig for me to have on my birthday, don't you?

6. When We Are Alone
We have been close in our minds but not our bodies for over three weeks. Tomorrow we will see each other. Tomorrow I will touch you. I will lightly rub my hand along your arm. You will do the same to me. We will kiss moderately but sensitively, after all, we may be under observation by the relatives. Our kiss will contain all that we are to each other. Later, maybe not tomorrow, may the day after, when we are alone, we will make love. Sally and Tómas will come together, as one. Minds, souls, spirits united in flesh. I can't wait!

Stephen Brown
© Stephen Brown 2012