CROCUS AND LAVENDER

In 2019, I composed a melody for this 13th century North African piyyut (liturgical poem) as part of a course at the Jewish Theological Seminary. The text, written by a mysterious author named Nahum, draws on natural imagery from Song of Songs to paint a beautiful picture of the onset of springtime. "Crocus and lavender have sprouted in my garden," the poem reads, and "all the trees of paradise have changed from their widows' garb and budded."