I Want to Die While You Love Me

• For alto and piano; secular text: poem by Georgia Douglas Johnson
• Length: 1:30
• Difficulty rating (1-5): 3

Listen to a performance by Susan Brinker, alto, on Soundcloud.

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• View a PDF score excerpt.
• Purchase, request full review copy or more information, etc.
• Score: $3 (reproduction rights for two scores; additional charge for hard copies)

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This passionate, languorous work sets a text by Georgia Douglas Johnson, one of the leading women of the Harlem Renaissance. It was composed for and premiered by alto Susan Brinker.
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I Want to Die While You Love Me
I want to die while you love me,
While yet you hold me fair,
While laughter lies upon my lips
And lights are in my hair.

I want to die while you love me
And bear to that still bed
Your kisses—turbulent, unspent,
To warm me when I'm dead.
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I want to die while you love me
Oh, who would care to live,
'Til love has nothing more to ask
And nothing more to give.

—Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880–1966)