When All That's Left of Me Is Love

Songs for the Journey was originally commissioned as a companion piece to the Fauré Requiem. I have long admired Fauré’s Requiem for its personal tone, and the way in which Fauré emphasized the beauty and intimacy of the traditional Latin Requiem texts. In assembling the movements of Songs for the Journey, I chose texts with uniquely personal stories and connections. For example, “More Love,” a song I had written for my wife when we were expecting our first child, is positioned as the third and central movement. The second movement, “When All That’s Left of Me Is Love,” is based on an anonymous adaptation of the poem “Epitaph” by Merrit Malloy that beautifully expresses the enduring nature of love. Together, the five movements of Songs for the Journey explore similar themes as the traditional requiem—love, faith, and mortality—but in a non-liturgical framework, with poems and texts drawn from a variety of sources.

When I die,
if you need to weep,
cry for someone
walking in the streets beside you.
And when you need me,
put your arms around others
and give them
what you need to give me.

You can love me most by letting
hands touch hands
and souls touch souls.

You can love me most by
sharing your joys
and multiplying your generosity to others.

You can love me most
by letting me live in your eyes
and not just in your mind.

Love doesn’t die,
people do.
So when all that’s left of me is love,
give me away.