Seafarer Press | Elizabeth Alexander, composer

A Love Like That (Hafiz, rendered by poet Daniel Ladinsky)
voice and piano

Daniel Ladinsky's elegant modern renderings of the works of Hafiz have introduced countless readers to this ancient Sufi poet's powerful philosophy of gratitude, openness and joy.  This generosity of spirit is captured in this warm and expansive setting.

Composer's Note:  As a scholar, I am inclined to carefully scrutinize the texts I set to music, making sure they are authentic, accurate and properly attributed.  My years of university training lead me to research sources, question assertions, and take great care with my facts.  However, as a composer and musician, my behavior is more apt to lean towards that of a eager lover or bright-eyed magpie.  I say this with neither pride nor shame, but instead with self-knowledge, for artists are well known to love shiny things: beauty, delight, patterns, color, intoxicating sounds, musical turns of phrase, and ideas which open the mind and heart.

It was with both minds that I approached the lyrical and engaging work of poet Daniel Ladinsky.  Neither a purist nor an academic, Ladinsky's popular Hafiz-inspired renderings have inspired passionate debate among poetry lovers, Sufi scholars, and Farsi speakers, all trying to ascertain to what extent these poems are translations, as opposed to original poems.  For this reason, I waited a long time before setting a Hafiz/Ladinsky poem to music, but in the end, the magpie in me won out.  Spontaneous gratitude knows no restraint:  I composed this song as a simple offering to the power of limitless generosity, in honor of my parents' 50th wedding anniversary.

A Love Like That is also a movement from Go Out! - A Musical Celebration of Liberal Religion and Freedom of Thought