[Intro] [room tone, one candle, distant chandelier chime] [solo upright piano, felt hammers, very close] [Verse 1] [hushed contralto, intimate, almost spoken] I set one plate and I poured one glass I lit the wick and I watched it pass The chairs are out because I pushed them wide I took the seat with the wall in front of my eyes [Verse 1b] [same voice, a little more air] The portrait watches from the papered dark The good glass holds what the candle sparks A little gold that nobody else will see There is a table set and it is set for me [Pre-Chorus] [bowed cello enters low, harmonium breath underneath] Nobody knocks in a house like this Nobody rings and nobody is missed So I laid my hands on the linen flat And I asked the room for the sound it had [Chorus] [wordless choir swells behind the lead, open vowels, no words] Sing to me Every one of you at once Every open throat I ever loved Sing to me Fill the plaster, fill the frame I would rather hear you howling than hear no one say my name [Post-Chorus] [choir sustains alone, lead drops out] [wordless choir, open vowel, no consonants] [Verse 2] [contralto, restrained, pitched lower] Grandmother's mouth in the flowered vine Uncle's jaw where the candlelight climbs Forty faces in the paper gold Not one of them cold, not one of them cold [Verse 2b] [same voice, steady] They came up out of the wall like bread They came up singing the words I said And the only quiet thing left in this room Is the woman who called them and made them a home [Pre-Chorus 2] [strings tighten, harmonium presses] You think I am frightened. I am fed. You think this is haunting. It is a bed. I have been alone in an empty hall And I promise you that empty is worse than all [Chorus] [full choir, wider, lead cuts through] Sing to me Every one of you at once Every open throat I ever loved Sing to me Fill the plaster, fill the frame I would rather hear you howling than hear no one say my name [Bridge] [everything drops away, piano and one voice] [bare, unaccompanied] There is a kind of company that costs you everything And there is a kind of silence that costs you more [Bridge 2] [choir returns one voice at a time, layering] So keep going Keep going Do not stop until the candle does [Final Chorus] [choir at full, lead soaring, never shouting] Sing to me All of you at once Every open throat I ever loved Sing to me Fill the plaster, fill the frame I would rather hear you howling than hear no one say my name [Outro] [choir decays, piano last, one candle room tone returns] [whispered contralto, final line] Goodnight. Same time tomorrow. [End]
