Leonard Bernstein — X. Credo - 4. Trope: “World Without End”

[STREET Chorus] (interrupting pre-recorded Tape) Non erit finis … World without end … [MEZZO-SOPRANO SOLO] Whispers of living, echoes of warning Phantoms of laughter on the edges of Morning World without end spins endlessly on Only the men who lived here are gone Gone on a permanent vacation Gone to await the next creation World without end at the end of the world Lord, don’t you know it’s the end of the World? Lord, don’t you care if it all ends today? Sometimes I’d swеar that you planned it This way … Dark are the citiеs, dead is the ocean Silent and sickly are the remnants of Motion World without end turns mindlessly round Never a sentry, never a sound No one to prophesy disaster No one to help it happen faster No one to expedite the fall No one to soil the breeze No one to oil the seas No one to anything No one to anything No one to anything at all (Recording interrupts.) (Tape Eight.) [CHOIR] Et in Spiritum Sanctum Dominum et vivificantem: Qui ex Patre Filioque procedit Qui cum Patre, et Filio simul adoratur, et Conglorificatur: Qui locutus est per Prophetas Et unam sanctam catholicam et Apostolicam Ecclesiam Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem Peccatorum Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum Et vitam venturi saeculi Amen [THREE SOLOS] You chose … Hurry and come again … You rose … World without end, end of the world! A man! Bags packed, wings sewn … End of the world! A man! Wings sewn Lord, don’t you care? You chose! Hurry! Lord, don’t you care? You rose! Hurry!