The World Will End In Fire
Poetry by Regina Ceragioli
Commissioned by Regina Ceragioli
The World Will End In Fire
by Regina Ceragioli
i. Supernovae
Far away, the sun gives birth to a trillion bursts of flame.
Leap through the galaxy.
Taste the Milky Way
Stars join in fiery exultation as planets are swallowed whole,
And the atmosphere dances to the silent music of the end.
ii.
iii. Jubilation
Feel the tremors building beneath your feet
Hear the thunder as lava is thrust from the ground.
Rivers of fire blindly taste the earth’s face
Poison fills the air like a noxious perfume
All the while,
Ashes float from the sky
Like discolored snowflakes
In an endless effort
To bury the land below
The World Will End In Fire was commissioned by soprano Regina Ceragioli. The idea was to take a series of poems she was constructing and fashion them into a set of art songs. However, the second poem could not seem to be written. So instead, I decided to string the outer movements together with a piano solo acting as the blank second, a kind of palate cleanser. The piece stands as this, three separate ideas connected by motif and mood.