Four Rooms in Music’s Mansion
1
_The maestro grasps a complex score,
conducts his orchestra without reserve.
Connoisseurs praise him; audiences adore
_his aura of command, his verve.
Spacious chords swell; musicians fill the stage,
__laboring to outpour
luxurious works of our Romantic age.
2
_Five players in a chamber group
commune together in an elfin space.
Each instrument descants, a subtle loop
_of intimate entwined embrace.
Devotees sit enrapt as at a séance,
__secretively snoop,
aspiring to decrypt each artful nuance.
3
_Baroque salon, glossed Steinway grand—
a solemn pianist plays ornate scales.
A blonde sings lieder, set in fairyland,
_ill-fated lovers’ woeful tales.
From gilded chairs, reflective murmurs float,
__all listeners astrand
on islands paradisal and remote.
4
_Where sounds the music of the spheres
hummed in supernal realms, heard by each soul?
Robed monks have chanted psalms through countless years:
_our Lord, their melodies extol.
Quiescent a cappella voices weave
__a cope of sacred tears.
Christ showers grace that skeptics can’t conceive.
lieder: German art songs mostly from the 19th century
Mary Jane Myers resides in Springfield, Illinois. She is a retired JD/CPA tax specialist. Her debut short story collection Curious Affairs was published by Paul Dry Books in 2018.
A very distinctive scheme for rhyme and meter here–nice to see a change from familiar regularity. Your 1st 3 stanzas bring to mind various musical works; the 4th specifically Lasso’s swan song, Lagrime di San Pietro.