This edition was prepared by Mick Swithinbank — free to download, print, rehearse and perform.
After death
Staff Notation • Sacred, Art songs
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After death by Mick Swithinbank — Lyrics
(Seneca, translated by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester)
After Death nothing is and nothing Death,
The utmost limits of a gasp of breath.
Let th’ambitious zealot lay aside
his hopes of Heav’n (whose Faith is but his pride).
Let slavish souls lay by their fear,
nor be concern’d which way or where
after this life they shall be hurl’d.
Dead, we become the lumber of the world
And to that mass of matter shall be swept
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About After death
Mick Swithinbank sets a translation of Seneca, rendered into English by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. The text, presented as a solo for soprano and tenor, directly confronts the ancient philosophical question of what lies beyond death. It dismisses notions of heavenly reward and hellish punishment, asserting that after death, existence ceases and all become part of a undifferentiated material mass. Swithinbank's art song explores this stark, existential perspective, treating the composer's translation of Seneca's thoughts as a subject for musical contemplation.
