Purcell – Stript of their Green

Song Information

Title: Stript of their Green

Composer: Henry Purcell (1659-1695)

Author: Peter Anthony Motteux (1663-1718)

Sheet Music

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Song Text

Stript of their green our Groves appear,
Our vales lie buried deep in snow;
The blowing north controls the dire,
A nipping cold chills all below.
The frost has glaz’d our deepest streams,
Phoebus withdraws his kindly beams.
Yet winter blest be thy return,
Thou’st brought the swain
For whom I us’d to mourn;
And in thy ice with pleasing flames we burn.
Too soon the sun’s reviving heat,
Will thaw thy ice and melt thy snow,
Trumpets will sound, and drums will beat,
And tell me the dear, dear youth must go;
Then must my weak unwilling arms,
Resign him up to stronger charms;
What flowers, what sweets, what beauteous thing,
When Damon’s gone, can ease or pleasure bring?
Winter brings Damon, winter is my spring.

Resources

  • Recmusic.org has the text.
  • Here is a pdf of the song for voice and figured bass as it appeared in “Orpheus Brittanicus” published after Purcell’s death: Stript of their Green

Stanford (arr.) – My love’s an arbutus

Song Information

Title: My love’s an arbutus

Music: Traditional, arranged by Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)

Text: Alfred Perceval Graves (1846-1931)

Sheet Music

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My love’s an arbutus
By the borders of Lene,
So slender and shapely
In her girdle of green.
And I measure the pleasure
Of her eye’s sapphire sheen
By the blue skies that sparkle
Through the soft branching screen.

But though ruddy the berry
And snowy the flower
That brighten together
The arbutus bower,
Perfuming and blooming
Through sunshine and shower,
Give me her bright lips
And her laugh’s pearly dower.

Alas, fruit and blossom
Shall lie dead on the lea,
And Time’s jealous fingers
Dim your young charms, Machree.
But unranging, unchanging,
You’ll still cling to me,
Like the evergreen leaf
To the arbutus tree.

Resources

Gastaldon – Musica Proibita

Song Information

Title: Musica Proibita

Music: Stanislao Gastaldon (1861-1939)

Words:

  • Attributed to the obviously fictitious “Flick-Flock”
  • The lyrics are apparently by Gastaldon himself.

Sheet Music

Note: Much has been made of the similarity between this song and De Koven’s O Promise Me. However, beyond the opening melodic notes and sentimental spirit, the two songs share little in common.

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Song Text

Ogni sera di sotto al mio balcone
Sento cantar una canzone d’amore,
Più volte la ripete un bel garzone
E battere mi sento forte il core.

Oh quanto è dolce quella melodia!
Oh com’ è bella, quanto m’ è gradita!
Ch’io la canti non vuol la mamma mia
Vorrei saper perché me l’ha proibita?

Ella non c’è ed io la vo’ cantare
La frase che m’ha fatto palpitare:

“Vorrei baciare i toui capelli neri
Le labbra tue e gli occhi tuoi severi;
Vorrei morir con te angel di Dio,
O bella innamorata, tesor mio.”

Quí sotto il vidi ieri a passeggiare
E lo sentiva al solito cantar:

“Vorrei baciare i toui capelli neri
Le labbra tue e gli occhi tuoi severi;
Stringimi, o cara, stringimi al tuo core
Fammi provar l’ebbrezza dell’amor.”

Resources

Lang – Ghosts

Song Information

Title: Ghosts

Music: Margaret Ruthven Lang (1867-1972)

Text: Richard Kendall Munkittrick (1853-1911)

Note: this song is very short, but was much praised by Lang’s contemporaries.

Sheet Music

Free at Art Song Central:

  • PDF: Ghosts
    • Key: A♭ Major
    • Range: F4 – F5

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  • Available here thanks to Project Gutenberg: Ghosts

Song Text

Out in the misty moonlight, the first snow flakes I see,
As they frolic among the leafless boughs of the appletree.

Faintly they seem to whisper, as round the boughs they wing;
“We are the ghosts of the flowers who died in the early spring.”

Resources

Lang – Irish Love Song

Song Information

Title: Irish Love Song (Op. 22)

Music: Margaret Ruthven Lang (1867-1972)

Text: Margaret Ruthven Lang (1867-1972)?

Sheet Music

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Song Text

O the time is long, Mavourneen,
Till I come again, O Mavourneen;
An’ the months are slow to pass, Mavourneen,
Till I hold thee in my arms, O Mavourneen!

Shall I see thine eyes, Mavourneen,
Like the hazel buds, O Mavournen;
Shall I touch thy dusky hair, Mavourneen,
With its shim’rin glint o’ gold, O Mavourneen?

O my love for thee, Mavourneen,
Is a bitter pain, O Mavourneen;
Keep thy heart aye true to me, Mavourneen,
I should die but for thy love, O Mavourneen!

Resources

Quilter – The Answer

Song Information

Title: The Answer

Music: Roger Quilter (1877-1953)

Text: Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

Sheet Music

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Song Text

Ask me not, dear, what thing it is
That makes me love you so;
What graces, what sweet qualities,
That from your spirit flow:
For I have but this old reply,
That you are you, that I am I.

My heart leaps when you look on me,
And thrills to hear your voice;
Lies, then, in these the mystery
That makes my soul rejoice?
I only know I love you true,
Since I am I, and you are you.

Resources

Quilter – Slumber Song

Song Information

Title: Slumber Song (from “Where the Rainbow Ends”)

Music: Roger Quilter (1877-1953)

Text: Clifford Mills

Sheet Music

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Song Text

Rock-a-bye slumber comes soft from the West,
Mother is calling her babes to their nest,
Far flying birdies sail home on tired wing,
When all the world’s mothers their cradle song sing.-
Rock-a-bye, rock-a-bye, shoo!

Rock-a-bye slumber brings dreams from afar,
Woven for Earth in the first evening star;
Down through a cloudway of sunset she flies,
And with her soft kisses gives sleep to tired eyes.-
Rock-a-bye, rock-a-bye, shoo!

Resources

Paladilhe – Psyché

Song Information

Title: Psyché

Music: Émile Paladilhe (1844-1926)

Text: Pierre Corneille (1606-1684)

Sheet Music

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Je suis jaloux, Psyché, de toute la nature!
Les rayons du soleil vous baisent troup souvent,
Vos cheveux souffrent trop les caresses du vent.
Quand il les flatte, j’en murmure!
L’air même que vous respirez
Avec trop de plaisir passe sur votre bouche.
Votre habit de trop près vous touche!
Et sitôt que vous soupirez
Je ne sais quoi qui m’effarouche
Craint, parmi vos soupirs, des soupirs égarés!

Resources

Beach – With Violets

Song Information

Title: With Violets

Music: Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944)

Text: Letitia Katherine “Kate” Vannah (1855–1933)

Sheet Music

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Song Text

The violets that I send to you
Will close their blue eyes on your breast.
I shall not be there, Sweet, to see,
Yet do I know my flowers will rest
Within that chaste, white nest.

O little flowers, she’ll welcome you
So tenderly, so warmly! Go:
I know where you will die to-night,
But you can never, never know
The bliss of dying so!

If you could speak! Yet she will know
What made your faces wet, although
I fain would follow you and tell her.
There, go, and die, yet never know
To what a heaven you go!

Resources

Cadman – From The Land of the Sky-blue Water

Song Information

Title: From The Land of the Sky-blue Water (from Four American Indian Songs)

Music: Charles Wakefield Cadman (1881-1946)

Text: Nelle Richmond Eberhart (1871-1944)

Sheet Music

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Song Text

From the Land of the Sky-blue Water
They brought a captive maid;
And her eyes they are lit with lightnings
Her heart is not afraid!

But I steal to her lodge at dawning,
I woo her with my flute;
She is sick for the Sky-blue Water,
The captive maid is mute.

Resources

Cadman – At Dawning

Song Information

Title: At Dawning (I Love You)

Music: Charles Wakefield Cadman (1881-1946)

Text: Nelle Richmond Eberhart (1871-1944)

Sheet Music

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Song Text

When the dawn flames in the sky,
I love you;
When the birdlings wake and cry,
I love you;
When the swaying blades of corn
Whisper soft at breaking morn
Love anew to me is born,
I love you.

Dawn and dew proclaim my dream,
I love you;
Chant the birds one thrilling theme,
I love you;
All the sounds of morning meet,
Break in yearning at your feet,
Come and answer, come, my sweet,
I love you.

Resources

Duparc – Au pays où se fait la guerre

Song Information

Title: Au pays où se fait la guerre

Music: Henri Duparc (1848-1933)

Text: Théophile Gautier (1811-1872)

Sheet Music

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  • PDF available at IMSLP
    • Key: F Minor
    • Range: C4 – A♭5

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Song Text

Text:

Au pays où se fait la guerre
Mon bel ami s’en est allé.
Il semble à mon coeur désolé
Qu’il ne reste que moi sur terre.
En partant au baiser d’adieu,
Il m’a pris mon âme à ma bouche…
Qui le tient si longtemps, mon Dieu?
Voilà le soleil qui se chouche,
Et moi toute seule en ma tour
J’attends encore son retour.

Les pigeons sur le toit roucoulent,
Roucoulent amoureusement,
Avec un son triste et charmant;
Les eaux sous les grands saules coulent…
Je me sens tout près de pleurer,
Mon coeur comme un lys plein s’épanche,
Et je n’ose plus espérer,
Voici briller la lune blanche,
Et moi toute seule en ma tour
J’attends encore son retour…

Quelqu’un monte à grands pas la rampe…
Serait-ce lui, mon doux amant?
Ce n’est pas lui, mais seulement
Mon petit page avec ma lampe…
Vents du soir, volez, dites-lui
Qu’il est ma pensée et mon rêve,
Toute ma joie et mon ennui.
Voici que l’aurore se lève,
Et moi toute seule en ma tour
J’attends encore son retour.

Resources

Chaminade – Si j’étais jardinier

Song Information

Title: Si j’étais jardinier

Music: Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944)

Text: Léon Roger-Milès (1859-1928)

Sheet Music

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Song Text

Si j’étais jardinier des cieux
Je te cueillerais des étoiles!
Quels joyaux raviraient tes yeux
Si j’étais jardinier des cieux!

Dans la nuit pâle sous ses voiles
Ton éclat serait radieux.
Si j’étais jardinier des cieux,
Je te cueillerais des étoiles!

Si j’étais jardinier d’amour
Je te cueillerais des caresses,
Je te fêterais tout le jour
Si j’étais jardinier d’amour!

En leurs inédites tendresses
Mes bouquets te feraient la cour.
Si j’étais jardinier d’amour
Je te cueillerais des caresses!

Mais mon jardin n’est que chansons,
Et tu peux y cueillir toi-même,
Dieu pour les nids fit les buissons
Et mon jardin n’est que chansons.

Viens-là rêver si ton coeur m’aime
Et mon coeur aura des frissons.
Mais mon jardin n’est que chansons,
Et tu peux y cueillir toi-même.

IPA Transcription:

IPA for Si j’étais jardinier.

Resources

  • Recmusic.org has the text.

d’Hardelot – Sans Toi

Song Information

Title: Sans Toi

Music: Guy d’Hardelot (1858-1936) (pseudonym for Helen Rhodes)

Text: Victor-Marie Hugo (1802-1885) (from Contemplations)

Sheet Music

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  • PDF: Sans Toi
    • Key: B♭ Major
    • Range: C4 – A♭5
    • Source: World’s Best Music ©1904

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Song Text

De quoi puis-je avoir envie,
De quoi puis-je avoir effroi,
Que ferai-je de la vie
Si tu n’es plus près de moi?

Que veux-tu que je devienne
Si je n’ entends plus ton pas?
Est-ce ta vie ou la mienne
Qui s’ en va? Je ne sais pas.

Tu portes dans la lumière,
Tu portes dans les buissons,
Sur une aile ma prière,
Et sur l’ autre mes chansons.

De quoi puis-je avoir envie,
De quoi puis-je avoir effroi,
Que ferai-je de la vie
Si tu n’es plus près de moi?

Que ferai-je, seul, farouche,
Sans toi, du jour et des cieux,
De mes baisers, sans ta bouche,
Et de mes pleurs, sans tes yeux!

Resources

Holmès – En Chemin

Song Information

Title: En Chemin

Music: Augusta Mary Anne Holmès (1847-1903)

Text: Augusta Mary Anne Holmès (1847-1903)?

Sheet Music

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O voyageur qui si tristement
Chemines dans la nuit brune,
Livre ton coeur à l’enchantement
Du rêve et du clair de lune.
Vois! les Elfes autour de toi,
Fleurissent la clairière;
Prends ce Lys de lumière:
C’est ton sceptre de roi!
Non! je ne veux rien, rien au monde
Que les cheveux d’or de ma blonde!

O voyageur entends ces accords
Qui mêlent en des rafales,
La voix magique et tendre des cors
Et les harpes triomphales.
Celle qui t’apparait làbas,
De frais glaïeuls coiffée,
C’est Morgana la fée!
Ouvre lui tes deux bras!
Non! je ne veux rien, rien au monde
Que les yeux profonds de ma blonde!

O voyageur, un fleuve d’azur,
Où nagent des formes blanches
Sous les clartés du ciel sombre et pur
Scintille à travers les branches.
Sur la rive où le flot pali
En murmurant dèferle,
Dans des coupes de perle
Bois la paix et l’oubli!
Non! je ne veux rien, rien au monde
Que les chers baisers de ma blonde!

Resources

Holmès – L’Appel du Printemps

Song Information

Title: L’Appel du Printemps

Music: Augusta Mary Anne Holmès (1847-1903)

Text: Augusta Mary Anne Holmès (1847-1903)?

Sheet Music

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Amoureux, amoureuses,
Suivez moi dans les bois retentissants!
Imitez les accents
Des colombes heureuses!
O Bergers, à genoux!
Bergères, Attendrissez-vous,
Livrez aux baisers timides et doux
Vos gazes légères!

Car l’Amour n’a qu’un jour,
La rose n’a qu’une heure,
Et l’ennui demeure,
Et l’hiver, on pleure l’étè,
Et la Beaute!
O Bergers, à genoux!
Bergères, Attendrissez-vous,
Livrez aux baisers timides et doux
Vos gazes légères!

Amoureux, amoureuses,
Je ramene les fleurs et les Désirs!
Saisissez les Plaisirs
par leurs ailes heureuses!
O Bergers, parlez bas!
Bergères, Ne rèsistez pas!
L’Amour suppliant vous montre la-bas
Les mousses légères!

Ah, cédez! Accordez l’extase que votre âme
En secret réclame!
Une lèvre en flamme, En fleurs,
Sèche les pleurs!
O Bergers, parlez bas!
Bergères, Ne rèsistez pas!
L’Amour suppliant vous montre la-bas
Les mousses légères
L’Amour triomphant vous ouvre les bras!
Cedez, Ô Bergères!

Resources

Holmès – Noël d’Irlande

Song Information

Title: Noël d’Irlande (Irish Noël)

Music: Augusta Mary Anne Holmès (1847-1903)

Text: Augusta Mary Anne Holmès (1847-1903)

Sheet Music

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  • Available in D Major (low) and G Major (high) in Modern French Songs which can be downloaded from Google Books

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Song Text

Rêvez, rêvez, enfants d’Irlande.
Que le divin Noël vous apporte du pain!
Rêvez, rêvez, que sur la lande
Vous chauffez vos pieds nus aux flammes du sapin!

Rêvez, rêvez, chanteurs d’Irlande,
Que les temps reviendront des Héros et des Rois!
Rêvez, rêvez, que Dieu commande,
Et qu’il vous rend la Harpe et le Trèfle, et la Croix.

Rêvez, rêvez, Martyrs d’Irlande,
Que le jour est venu de gloire et d’équité!
Rêvez! Et que Noël vous rende
La force des aïeux avec la Liberté!

Resources

Beach – The Year’s at the Spring

Song Information

Title: The Year’s at the Spring

Music: Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944)

Text: Robert Browning (1812-1889)

Sheet Music

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The year’s at the spring,
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hill-side’s dew-pearl’d;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in His heaven–
All’s right with the world!

Resources

  • Recmusic.org has the text.

d’Hardelot – Because

Song Information

Title: Because (Lorsque j’entends ton pas)

Music: Guy d’Hardelot (1858-1936) (pseudonym for Helen Rhodes)

Text:

Sheet Music

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Song Text

French:

Lorsque j’entends ton pas, comme en un rêve
Le fol espoir de te revoir s’élève,
Et vainement vers toi je tends les bras,
Quand j’entends ton pas.

Et quand divinement ta voix m’enchaîne,
Je vois s’évanouir toute ma peine,
Et tout ton être chante, et vibre en moi,
Quand j’entends ta voix.

Et puis tu viens à moi et je frissonne,
Tu prends ma main, et tout mon coeur se donne
A toi en un baiser brûlant d’émoi,
Car tu viens à moi!

English:

Because, you come to me, with naught save love,
and hold my hand and lift mine eyes above,
a wider world of hope and joy I see,
because you come to me!

Because you speak to me in accent sweet,
I find the roses waking round my feet,
and I am led through tears and joy to thee,
because you speak to me!

Because God made thee mine, I’ll cherish thee,
through light and darkness through all time to be,
and pray His love may make our love divine,
because God made thee mine!

Resources

  • Recmusic.org has the English text.

Beach – The Rainy Day

Song Information

Title: The Rainy Day

Music: Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944)

Text: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Sheet Music

Note: This appears to be Amy Beach’s first published song, written in 1880 when she was just 13. She was 16 when this was published.

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  • Available in unedited pages at the Library of Congress. (Note that the name on the cover page and the catalog entry are spelled incorrectly.)

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Song Text

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldr’ng wall,
But at ev’ry gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary.
My thoughts still cling to the mould’ring Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart, and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

Resources

  • Recmusic.org has the text.