Ask Me Why I Love You
Solo Baritone + Piano
Duration: ~4:00
$30
Patrick Sheeley - voice, Mark De Zwaan - piano
Program Note
Set to the beautiful words of Walter Everette Hawkins, Ask Me Why I Love You guides the listener through the mind of a hopeless romantic. The sincerity, hope, desperation, and yearning of the text is reflected in both the voice and accompaniment with their textures, harmonies, and intricacies. Each stanza of text is met with a short interlude from the accompaniment, allowing for both parts to contemplate and resonate with the love story being told.
Ask me why I love you, dear,
and I will ask the rose
Why it loves the dews of Spring
At the Winter’s close;
Why the blossoms’ nectared sweets
Loved by questing bee,—
I will gladly answer you,
If they answer me.
Ask me why I love you, dear,
And I will ask the flower
Why it loves the Summer sun,
Or the Summer shower;
I will ask the lover’s heart
Why it loves the moon,
Or the star-besprinkled skies
In a night in June.
Ask me why I love you, dear,
I will ask the vine
Why its tendrils trustingly
Round the oak entwine;
Why you love the mignonette
Better than the rue,—
If you will but answer me,
I will answer you.
Ask me why I love you, dear,
Let the lark reply,
Why his heart is full of song
When the twilight’s nigh;
Why the lover heaves a sigh
When her heart is true;
If you will but answer me,
I will answer you.