Lieder – index:
1. A child asleep
2. A Song of Autumn
3. A Song of Flight, op. 31 no. 2
4. After, op. 31 no. 1
5. Arabian Serenade
6. In Moonlight
7. Is she not Passing Fair?
8. Modest and Fair
9. My Old Tunes
10. Oh, Soft was the Song, op. 59 no. 3
11. Pleading, op. 48 no. 1
12. Queen Mary's Song
13. Rondel, op. 16 no. 3
14. Still to be neat
15. The Blue-Eyes Fairy
16. The Poet's Life
17. The River, op. 60 no. 2
18. The Shepherd's Song
19. The Torch, op. 60 no. 1
20. There are seven that pull the thread
21. Through the Long Days, op. 16 no. 2
22. To the Children
23. Twilight, op. 59 no. 6
24. Was it some Golden Star?, op. 59 no. 5
1. "A
child asleep"
Text by Elizabeth Barret Browning (1806-1861)
Music by Edward Elgar
How he sleepeth! Vision unto vision calleth,
While the young child dreameth on.
Fair, O dreamer, thee befalleth
With the glory thou hast won!
Darker wert thou in the garden,
Yestermorn, by summer sun.
We should see the spirits rising
Round thee, - were the clouds away.
'Tis the child-heart draws them, singing
In the silent-seeming clay -
Singing! - Stars that seem the mutest,
Go in music, music all the day.
Softly! softly! make no noises!
Now he lieth still and dumb -
Now he hears the angels' voices
Folding silence in the room -
Now he muses deep the meaning
Of the Heav'nwords as they come.
He is harmless - we are sinful,
We are troubled - he at ease:
From his slumber, virtue winful
Floweth outward with increase -
Dare not bless him! but be blesséd by his peace
And go in peace, go in peace.
2. "A
Song of Autumn"
Text by Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833-1870)
Music by Edward Elgar
"Where shall we go for our garlands glad
At the falling of the year,
When the burnt-up banks are yellow and sad
When the boughs are yellow and sere?
Where are the old ones that once we had,
And where are the new ones near?
What shall we do for our garlands glad
At the falling of the year?"
"Child! can I tell where the garlands go?
Can I say where the lost leaves veer?
On the brown-burnt banks, when the wild winds blow,
When they drift through the dead-wood drear?"
3. "A
Song of Flight"
Text by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
Music by Edward Elgar, op. 31 no. 2
While we slumber and sleep
The sun leaps up from the deep.
Daylight born at the leap!
Rapid, dominant, free,
A thirst to bathe in the uttermost sea.
While we linger at play,
If the year would stand at May!
Winds are up and away
Over land, over sea,
To their goal wherever their goal may be.
It is time to arise
To race for the promised prize.
The sun flies, the wind flies.
We are strong, we are free,
And home lies beyond the stars and sea.
4.
"After"
Text by Philip Bourke Marston (1850-1887)
Music by Edward Elgar, op. 31 no. 1
A little time for laughter,
A little time to sing,
A little time to kiss and cling,
And no more kissing after.
A littlw while for scheming
Love's unperfected schemes;
A little time for golden dreams,
Then no more any dreaming.
A little while 'twas given
To me to have thy love;
Now, like a ghost, alone I move
About a ruined heaven.
A little time for speaking
Things sweet to say and hear;
A time to seek, and find thee near,
Then no more any seeking.
A little time for saying
Words the heart breaks to say;
A short, sharp time wherein to pray,
Then no more need for praying;
But long, long years to weep in,
And comprehend the whole
Great grief that desolates the soul,
And eternity to sleep in.
5.
"Arabian Serenade"
Text by Margery Lawrence
Music by Edward Elgar
The silver silence of the night has spun
A web of glamour o'er the purple sea.
The Watcher of the Sky has lit his lamp.
Waken, my white one; come thou forth with me.
We will go softly through the shining meadows,
Setting our faces to the distant moon;
Drenching our feet in pureness, and our souls
Drenched in the sweetness of the bulbul's tune.
Come forth, O Maid, the Feast is well prepared.
Between the dim wood and the purple sea
The world hangs breathless and the stars look down.
Waken, Zareiba; come forth with me!
6. "As
the moon's soft splendor..."
Text by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
Music by Edward Elgar, "In Moonlight", stanzas 1 and 3
See also:
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944), op. 1 no. 4,
"Ariette"
As the moon's soft splendor
O'er the faint, cold starlight of heaven
Is thrown,
So thy voice most tender
To the strings without soul has given
Its own.
The stars will awaken,
Though the moon sleep a full hour later
Tonight:
No leaf will be shaken
Whilst the dews of thy melody scatter
Delight.
Though the sound overpowers,
Sing again,
With thy sweet voice revealing
A tone of some world far from ours,
Where music and moonlight and feeling
Are one.
7. "Is
she not Passing Fair?"
Text by Louisa Stuart Costello, after Charles, Duc d'Orléans (1394-1465)
Music by Edward Elgar
Is she not passing fair,
She whom I love so well?
On earth, in sea, or air,
Where may her equal dwell?
Oh, tell me, ye who dare
To brave her beauty's spell,
Is she not passing fair,
She whom I love so well?
Whether she speak or sing,
Be jocund or serene,
Alike in ev'rything,
Is she not beauty's queen?
Then let the world declare,
Let all who see her tell,
That she is passing fair,
She whom I love so well!
8.
"Modest and Fair"
Text by Ben Jonson (1572-1637)
Music by Edward Elgar, from the unfinished opera The Spanish Lady
Modest and fair, for fair and good are near
Neighbours, howe'er,
No noble virtue ever was alone,
But two in one.
Thus, when I praise sweet modesty,
I praise bright beauty's rays;
And having praised both beauty and modesty,
I have praised thee.
9. "My
Old Tunes"
Text by Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951)
Music by Edward Elgar, one of the Organ Grinder's songs from The Starlight Express
My old tunes are rather broken,
And they come from far away,
Bringing just a little token
Of a long-forgotten day;
When the children came to listen,
T'other side the garden fence,
And my heart leapt out of prison,
At the gift of seven-pence!
Just beyond the haystack's shadow,
Long ago that leafy June,
How they danced about the meadow
At the risin' of the moon!
While from out a railway carriage,
Standing ready and alight,
Stepped their guests as to a marriage
Asked to dine and stay the night!
Sweep, and Laughter danced together,
And a man who had a lamp
Capered lightly as a feather
With a lazy-looking tramp;
When a voice disturbed the Lancers:
"Children, come, it's time for bed"
Railway carriages, Sprites and Dancers
Flew up to the stars instead!
Now I am a Constellation,
Free from ev'ry earthly care,
Playing nightly at my station
For the Big and Little Bear.
But my tunes are still entrancing
As that night in leafy June,
When I caught the children dancing
With the Sprites beneath the moon!
Still the children come to hear me
In the lane or dingy street;
Still the heavy pavement near me
Flutters to their happy feet;
For my tunes are ne'er forgotten,
And they bring the scent of musk:
Grown up folk may call 'em rotten,
But I'm looked for when it's dusk!
10. "Oh,
Soft was the Song"
Text by Gilbert Parker (1862-1932)
Music by Edward Elgar, op. 59 no. 3
Oh, soft was the song in my soul, and soft beyond thought were thy lips,
And thou wert mine own, and Eden reconquered was mine:
And the way that I go is the way of thy feet,
And the breath that I breathe
It hath being from thee, and life from the life that is thine.
11.
"Pleading"
Text by Arthur Leslie Salmon (b. 1865)
Music by Edward Elgar, op. 48 no. 1
Will you come homeward from the hills of Dreamland,
Home in the dusk, and speak to me again?
Tell me the stories that I am forgetting,
Quicken my hope, and recompense my pain?
Will you come homeward from the hills of Dreamland?
I have grown weary, though I wait you yet;
Watching the fallen leaf, the faith grown fainter,
The mem'ry smoulder'd to a dull regret.
Shall the remembrance die in dim forgetting
All the fond light that glorified my way?
Will you come homeward from the hills of Dreamland,
Home in the dusk, and turn my night to day?
12.
"Hapless doom of woman happy in betrothing"
Text by Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)
Music by Edward Elgar, "Queen Mary's Song"
See also:
Horatio Parker (1863-1919), "Lute-Song", from
Two Songs from Tennyson's "Queen Mary", published 1904
Hapless doom of woman happy in betrothing,
Beauty passes like a breath and love is lost in loathing;
Low! my lute: speak low, but say the world is nothing.
Low! lute, low!
Love will hover round the flowers when they first awaken;
Love will fly the fallen leaf, and not be overtaken;
Low, my lute! O low, my lute! we fade and are forsaken.
Low, dear lute, low!
13.
"Rondel"
Text by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), from a rondel by Jean Froissart
(1333?-1404?)
Music by Edward Elgar, op.16 no. 3
Love, love, what wilt thou with this heart of mine?
Nought see I or sure fixed in thee!
I do not know thee, nor what deeds are thine:
Love, what wilt thou with this heart of mine?
Nought see I fixed or sure in thee!
Shall I be mute, or vows with prayers combine?
Ye who are blessed in loving, tell it me:
Love, what wilt thou with this heart of mine?
Nought see I permanent or sure in thee!
14.
"Still to be neat"
Text by Ben Jonson (1572-1637)
Music by Edward Elgar, from the unfinished opera The Spanish Lady
Still to be neat, still to be drest,
As you were going to a feast;
Still to be powder'd, still perfum'd:
Lady, Lady, it is to be presum'd:
Though art's hid causes are not found,
All is not sweet, all is not sound.
Give me a look, give me a face,
That makes simplicity a grace;
Robes loosely flowing, hair is free;
Such sweet neglect more taketh me
Than all th'adulteries of art;
They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.
15. "The
Blue-Eyes Fairy"
Text by Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951)
Music by Edward Elgar, one of the Organ Grinder's songs from The Starlight Express
There's a fairy that hides in the beautiful eyes
Of the children who treat her well;
In the little round hole where the eyeball lies
She weaves her magical spell.
She is awfully tiny and shy to the sight,
But her magic's past believing,
For she fills you with light and with laughter,
It's the spell of her own sweet weaving.
But! - the eyes must be blue,
And the heart must be true,
And the child must be better than gold!
And then if you let her,
The quicker the better,
She'll make you forget that you're old.
So if such a child you should chance to see,
Or with such a child to play,
No matter how tired or dull you be,
Nor how many tons you weigh,
You will suddenly find that you're young again,
And your movements light and airy,
And you'll try to be solemn and stiff in vain
It's the spell of the Blue-Eyes fairy!
16. "The
Poet's Life"
Text by Ellen Burroughs
Music by Edward Elgar
A poet sang, so light of heart was he,
A song that thrilled with joy in ev'ry word:
It quiver'd with ecstatic melody;
It laughed as sunshine laughs upon the sea;
It caught a measure from each lilting bird;
But, though the song rang out exultantly,
The world pass'd by, with heavy step and loud,
None heeding, save that, parted from the crowd,
Two lovers heard.
There fell a day when sudden sorrow smote
The poet's life. Unheralded it came,
Blotting the sun-touch'd page whereon he wrote
His golden song. Ah! then, from all remote,
He sang the grief that had nor hope nor name
In God's ear only; but one sobbing note
Reached the world's heart, and swiftly, in the wake
Of bitterness and passionate heart-break,
There follow'd fame.
17. "The
River"
Text by Pietro d'Alba, from an Eastern European folksong
Music by Edward Elgar, op.60 no.2
River, mother of fighting men,
(Rustula!)
Sternest barrier of our land,
(Rustula!)
From thy bosom we drew life:
Ancient, honoured, mighty, grand!
Rustula!
Oh! what worship had been thine,
(Rustula!)
Hadst thou held the foe-men, drowned;
(Rustula!)
Flood, more precious far than wine,
Victress, saviour, world-renowned!
Rustula!
Rustula!
Like a girl before her lover,
(Rustula!)
How thou falterdst, - like a slave;
(Rustula!)
Sank and fainted, low and lower,
When thy mission was to save.
Coward, traitress, shameless!
Rustula!
On thy narrowed, niggard strand,
(Rustula!)
Despairing, now the tyrant's hand
(Rustula!)
Grips the last remnant of our land,
Wounded and alone I stand,
Tricked, derided, impotent!
Rustula!
18. "The
Shepherd's Song"
Text by Barry Pain (1864-1928)
Music by Edward Elgar
Down the dusty road together
Homeward pass the hurrying sheep,
Stupid with the summer weather,
Too much grass and too much sleep,
I, their shepherd, sing to thee
That summer is a joy to me.
Down the shore rolled waves all creamy
With the flecked surf yesternight;
I swam far out in starlight dreamy,
In moving waters cool and bright,
I, the shepherd, sing to thee
I love the strong life of the sea.
And upon the hillside growing
Where the fat sheep dozed in shade,
Bright red poppies I found blowing,
Drowsy, tall and loosely made,
I, the shepherd, sing to thee
How fair the bright red poppies be.
To the red-tiled homestead bending
Winds the road, so white and long
Day and work are near their ending
Sleep and dreams will end my song,
I, the shepherd, sing to thee:
In the dreamtime answer me.
19. "The
Torch"
Text by Pietro d'Alba, from an Eastern European folksong
Music by Edward Elgar, op.60 no. 1
Come,
O my love!
Come, fly to me;
All my soul
Cries out for thee:
Haste to thy home,
I long for thee,
Faint for thee,
Worship thee only, - but
Come!
Dark is the wood,
The track's ever lonely and gray:
But joyous the blaze
That welcomes and shows thee the way.
Come,
O my love!
Come, fly to me;
All my soul
Cries out for thee:
Haste to thy rest,
I long for thee,
Sigh for thee,
Faint for thee;
Come to my breast.
Cold is the stream,
The ford is a danger to thee:
My heart is a flame,
As the beacon that lights thee to me.
Come,
O my love!
Come, fly to me;
All my soul
Cries out for thee:
Haste to thy home,
I long for thee,
Faint for thee,
Worship thee only; - but
Come!
20.
"There are seven that pull the thread"
Text by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
Music by Edward Elgar, from Grania and Diarmid
There are seven that pull the thread -
There is one under the waves,
There is one where the winds are wove,
There is one in the old grey house
Where the dew is made before dawn.
One lives in the house of the sun,
And one in the house of the moon,
And one lies under the boughs
Of the golden apple tree,
And one spinner is lost.
Holiest, holiest seven
Put all your pow'r on the thread
That I've spun in the house tonight.
21.
"Through the Long Days"
Text by Col. John Hay (1838-1905)
Music by Edward Elgar, op. 16 no. 2
Through the long days and years
What will my lov'd one be,
Parted from me?
Through the long days and years.
Always as then she was
Loveliest, brightest, best,
Blessing and blest,
Always as then she was.
Never on earth again
Shall I before her stand,
Touch lip or hand
Never on earth again.
But, while my darling lives,
Peaceful I journey
Not quite alone,
Not while my darling lives.
22. "To
the Children"
Text by Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951)
Music by Edward Elgar, one of the Organ Grinder's songs from The Starlight Express
O children, open your arms to me,
Let your hair fall over my eyes;
Let me sleep a moment - and then awake
In your garden of sweet surprise!
For the grown up folk are a wearisome folk,
And they laugh all my fancies to scorn.
O children, open your hearts to me,
And tell me your wonder-thoughts.
Who lives in the palace inside your brain?
Who plays in its outer courts?
Who hides in the hours tomorrow holds?
Who sleeps in your yesterdays?
Who tiptoes along past the curtained folds
Of the shadow that twilight lays?
O children, open your eyes to me,
And tell me your visions too;
Who squeezes the sponge when the salt tears flow
To dim their magical blue?
Who brushes the fringe of their lace-veined lids?
Who trims their innocent light?
Who draws up the blinds when the sun peeps in?
Who fastens them down at night?
O children, I pray you speak low to me,
And cover my eyes with your hands.
O kiss me again till I sleep and dream
That I'm lost in your Fairylands;
For the grown up folk are a troublesome folk,
And the book of their childhood is torn!
Is blotted, and crumpled, and torn!
23.
"Twilight"
Text by Gilbert Parker (1862-1932)
Music by Edward Elgar, op. 59 no. 6
Adieu! and the sun goes awearily down,
The mist creeps up o'er the sleepy town,
The white sails bend to the shudd'ring mere,
And the reapers have reaped, and the night is here.
Adieu! and the years are a broken song,
The right grows weak in the strife with wrong,
The lilies of love have a crimson stain,
And the old days never will come again.
Adieu! Some time shall the veil between
The things that are, and that might have been
Be folded back for our eyes to see,
And the meaning of all be clear to me.
24. "Was
it some Golden Star?"
Text by Gilbert Parker (1862-1932)
Music by Edward Elgar, op. 59 no. 5
Once in another land,
Ages ago,
You were a queen, and
I loved you so:
Where was it that we loved
Ah, do you know?
Was it some golden star
Hot with romance?
Was it in Malabar,
Italy, France?
Did we know Charlemagne,
Dido, perchance?
But you were a queen, and I
Fought for you then:
How did you honour me
More than all men!
Kissed me upon the lips;
Kiss me again.
Have you forgotten it,
All that we said?
I still remember though
Ages have fled.
Whisper the word of life,
"Love is not dead."
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