‘Drowning’ by Rhett Griffiths

Libretto for vocal ensemble (for 5 voices: soprano, mezzo, alto, tenor, bass)

In collaboration with composer Giel Vleggaar

Woman:

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1. Ghost ship

Clear skies

Beautiful day

Blue day

I’m underway

Glass in hand, without a care

Sailing out, who knows where?

Nice weather for a swim?

Quite quiet here

Sssshhhhhhhhh

Where is everyone? Anyone?

Am I missing all the fun?

Another drink already madam

I’m not drunk young man

Hold your tongue and pour me more champagne

Rising bubbles lift me up

And make the voices stop

Let’s drink to happy days

To happy daze

To absent friends and loved ones, present and past

Ouch, the toast to cast

Me adrift

Alone

All one

All at sea

All at sea

Fill me up please

Round and round ship, looking for someone,

Once again, back where I was undone

Only at the edge that you can see

Where you are and have been

And what will be, will be

Jump or fall it’s just the same

Dreaming of normality

I delegate to gravity

She’s falling in the drink

Remember the ABC’s of first aid: Airway,

Breathing, Circulation, Always, Being, Children.

2. Descent into Limbo

Silent ocean other world welcome

Touched, held, supported,

Like any daughter might hope for

Blood is thicker than holy water

Deep dark bed of tears let me sleep

Lose her, Deliver her to evil, Magnify her sins

Beyond salvation

Burning lungs

Suffocating watery kiss

Can’t take much more of this

Is it my time?

Is this it? The end of the line?

Aaaaghhggggchchhhhkkkkkkkyyyuuuuurgrghhhghh

Aaaaghhggggchchhhhkkkkkkkyyyuuuuurgrghhhghh

To save a drowning person first remove the glass from their hand.

3. Hide & Seek

Bluuuurrrrgggghhhhhhhh……………Hhhbbllllurrghhh….

Bluuuurrrrgggghhhhhhhh……………Hhhbbllllurrghhh….

Where am I?

Bed, my bed, good, thank god

Sanctuary

Waking, wet from hellish dreams,

These are not ordinary stains,

Only me

I’m alive. Still.

Still life more like

I hear those ghosts who will not be drowned

Voices from the past, pulling me down

But I was loved, once, for a time

And live on through those I leave behind

You in turn will haunt their minds

Am I what’s left when these voices stop?

You are nothing without us

Is that me in the silent ‘I’ of the storm?

How can I drink my sorrows dry?

How can I turn back time and tide?

Once more, down the hatch

To save an alcoholic, erase their memories.

4.  Anaerobic Exorcise

He that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me,

Should be drowned in the depths of the sea’

Drunken nightmare, drowning again

In deep water, bitter sweet pain

Down, deader, down

Near the point of no return

Priestly form from blackness looms

Unwelcome hands on open wounds

Children without voices scream

More real than reality, but deeper than dream

I swallow this holy spirit wholly

Confirmation, the end of my journey

Lost and found in an anonymous sea

No one is drowning, just me.