Jake Runestad: A Silence Haunts Me

Live performance from "Beethoven's Silence" on May 2, 2023. With Joshua Tamayo, pianist. Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, Toronto.
A Silence Haunts Me
adapted from a letter by
Ludwig van Beethoven
Hear me, brothers -
I’ve a confession painful to make.
Six years I have endured a curse
that deepens every day. They say
that soon I’ll cease to hear the very
music of my soul. What should be
the sense most perfect in me
fails me, shames me, taunts me.
A silence haunts me.
They ask me -
Do you hear the shepherd singing
far-off soft? - Do you hear a distant
fluting dancing joyously aloft?
- No. - I think so? - No. - I
think so? - No.
God, am I Prometheus? - exiled
in chains for gifting humakind
my fire? Take my feeling -
take my sight - take my wings
midflight but let me hear the
searing roar of air before I score
the ground!
Why? - Silence is God’s reply
- and so I beg me take my life -
when lo - I hear a grace and feel
a ringing in me after all -
so now as leaves of autumn fall, I
make my mark and sign my name
and turn again to touch my flame
of music to the world, a broken
man, as best I can,
As ever,
Faithfully yours,
(- A bell? - A bell?)
Hear me,
and be well.

[@danielecolla5767]

Hi Elaine great concert. and this performance of Beethoven 's Silence was just superb and very moving. 👏