Tithes of Beauty,
Music by Danaë Xanthe Vlasse
Lyrics by Charles Anthony Silvestri
Special commission from David Brunt, 2019.
Performed by STERLING ENSEMBLE (Director, Michelle Jensen)
May 20th 2023, St Mark's Episcopal Church in Glendale CA.

Program Notes:
Imagine what a wise grandfather might say to his beloved grand-daughter about cherishing each moment in life; he may show her a blooming rose and ask her to understand transience through observing the fading flower.

TITHES OF BEAUTY
(Lyrics by Charles Anthony Silvestri)

Little one, let’s go see the rose;
See what she’ll say, what she’ll disclose.
See if her robe of deepest red,
Which opened in the morning sun,
Has, by the hour when day is done,
Withered and faded, in her bed.

See! How the rose has lost her bloom,
My dear, she gathers into gloom,
See! See! that doom which none escape!
O cruel Time, whom each of us must pay,
Tithes to purchase sweet decay,
Clocks unwinding youthful shape!

So, little one, seize the day, the hour,
Before your Spring, now in flower,
With age and care and duty
Fades, fades away as the glow of twilight,
And like this our rose, disappearing quite,
Becomes but a shadow of beauty!