We Wear the Mask - Tenor (Baritone) and Piano

We Wear the Mask Words: Paul Laurence Dunbar | Music: Adapted for Tenor/Lyric Baritone & Piano Solo Voice & Piano | Art Song | Approx. 34 minutes | Grade 56 About: We Wear the Mask is a poignant art song adaptation of Paul Laurence Dunbar's powerful poem, arranged for tenor or lyric baritone with piano accompaniment. This intimate performance delivers deep emotional impact through its nuanced text setting, expressive vocal line, and supportive piano harmonies. About the Poem: Dunbar's poem begins by stating that people often wear a "mask" that smiles outwardly while concealing pain, frustration, and sorrow underneath. The mask is a symbol of survival, a facade of happiness and composure maintained to cope with a society that does not allow vulnerability or truthespecially for marginalized people. Lyrics (Poem): We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes, This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties. Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while We wear the mask. We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask! Copyright Credit: Paul Laurence. Dunbar, ""We Wear the Mask."" from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar. (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, )