Song Before Dying

from Death Waits I: Music And Fine Arts by Art Schop

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$1 USD or more
Buy the Full Digital Album

about

We don’t have any record of Sappho’s music, only fragments of the words she sang. But according to Stobaeus’s Florilegium, Solon once asked his nephew to teach him a song of Sappho's that the boy had just sung him. When asked why, Solon responded "So that I may learn it, then die."
In the lyric fragment, Sappho 31, as Sappho sings to newly-weds in their nuptial chamber, her words betray her feelings toward the bride. Song Before Dying refers to Sappho 31 and adheres to the form of the Sapphic stanza.

lyrics

"Sing your song, then die," may be words to live by. All else yields to death, like the blood of sunset. Yet I linger here, to be near my torment; watching you watch him.

Laugh, you laugh, and the leaves shake upon the locust, rattling like my heart in the stir of autumn. Lost inside my throat are the words I'd sing you – withered and wasted.

Failed, I failed to sound that you'd hear my heart song. Sweat pours down me now, and I'm seized by trembling. Pale as pale and close to the death I'd welcome; so might I lose you.

Years from now, a heart may be more substantial, wise and true in love, be it unrequited; like the poor girl's song that rang pure and wretched, sung before dying.

credits

from Death Waits I: Music And Fine Arts, released November 13, 2015

license

about

Art Schop Brooklyn, New York

Contemporary rock that's "a mixture of Murder Ballads, Songs from a Room, and Hunky Dory."

contact / help

Contact Art Schop

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Art Schop, you may also like:

Sit Down for Dinner
by Blonde Redhead

Thirty years into their career, the group continue to excel at melodic dream pop balladry. Bandcamp Album of the Day Sep 26, 2023
go to album
Lost Themes IV: Noir
by John Carpenter

The latest installment of John Carpenter’s celebrated “Lost Themes” is now available for pre-order. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 6, 2024
go to album
I Wish You Could See Yourself Right Now
by Gentle Organisms

The aptly named Gentle Organisms specialize in quietly radiant songs centered on tender melodies. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 2, 2023
go to album
Hertz
by Carla Geneve

Carla Geneve returns with a record of jittery alt-rock, topped with lyrics that are both wry and introspective. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 29, 2023
go to album
Death is Nothing to Us
by Fiddlehead

Boston band featuring members of Have Heart and Basement take their earnest, motivational post-hardcore to thrilling new heights. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 23, 2023
go to album
a2b
by Junk Harmony

Aussie "mid-fi" band temper jagged, jangling power chords with slackened tempos, hitting the sweet spot between toughness and tenderness. Bandcamp New & Notable May 24, 2023
go to album
The Nightmare Gosifur pt 3
by Adrian Sood

In Adrian Snood’s songs, soulful vocals and slow-moving alt-pop swirl together to create something distinctly moving. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 1, 2023
go to album