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Catalog: Song Information: Page 47 of 83Please keep this site alive by contributing song listings and other information to the catalog. See the bottom of every catalog page for how. "O Me! O Life!"Song 3 (extractable) from set Three by the Roadside
This entry contributed by G&K around 6/20/98 Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: Powerful and accessible song. Never very dissonant, and even briefly neo-classical. Fastish. several meter changes. Stirring finale. Text Comments: Apparently a combination of two poems, the first of which wails about life's miseries, fools, and evils and questions life's purpose among such sad, recurring problems. The second poem responds "That you are here--that life exists, and identity. That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse." Very accessible, stirring. Recordings: none? This entry contributed by G&K around 6/20/98. The contributor(s) looked over the song. "O tan-faced prairie boy"Song 1 (not extractable) from set Drum Taps
This entry contributed by G&K around 12/9/98 Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: to be annotated by composer Text Comments: Full text: O tan-faced prairie boy, Before you came to camp came many a welcome gift, Praises and presents came and nourishing food, till at last among the recruits You came taciturn with nothing to give--we but look'd on each other when lo! more than all the gifts of the world you gave me. This entry contributed by G&K around 12/9/98. The contributor(s) looked over the song. "O, For Such a Dream"
This entry contributed by ECS Publishing around 12/29/98
Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: Allegretto, simply. Very touching. Continues from previous song. Text Comments: I dreamed last night that you were home. I was outdoors and went to the door and called you out to look at something. It was cold weather and moonlight, You had on a large saque coat, You opened it and put it 'round me and we walked together but I don't know how far we went. O, for such a dream to come to pass. Will it, can it ever be? If I could only feel in reality the real security which I felt in that dream, but alas it was only a dream and has fled to leave the reality of absence still continued and to be endured yet a year. And now there are to be thousands more dragged from their homes. See Songs by Daron Hagen (Recordings) This entry contributed by G&K around 12/29/98. The contributor(s) looked over the song. "October"
This entry contributed by G&K around 11/1/99
Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: Slow, quarter=56. A spare piano setting and restrained vocal line build gradually to a sweet, lyrical plea to slow the coming of winter so that October's beauty can be cherished. Text Comments: O hushed October morning mild, Thy leaves have ripened to the fall; Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild, should waste them all should waste them all. The crows above the forest call; Tomorrow they may form and go. O hushed October morning mild, Brgin the hours of this day slow. Make the day seem to us less brief. Hearts not averse to being beguiled, Beguile us in the way you know. Release one leaf at break of day; At noon release another leaf; One from our trees, one far away; Retard the sun with gentle mist; Enchant the land with amethyst. Slow, slow! Slow, slow! For the grapes' sake, if they were all, whose leaves are already burnt with frost, whose clustered fruit must else be lost For the grapes' sake along the wall. This entry contributed by G&K around 11/1/99. The contributor(s) heard the song. Music Comments: John Frantzen's "Three Frost Songs" exemplify the expressive potential of American art song by epitomizing the blend of American freshness and European style that makes this genre unique. The originality, honesty, and frankness of these settings evokes the idealized innocence and simplicity of American life and lends to them that touch of nostalgia which is the hallmark of so much great American music. At the same time, elements of Romantic intimacy and Impressionist tone-painting underscore the straightforward American sincerity of the music in a way that fits Frost's poetry exceptionally well. The natural flow and setting of the text is made all the more poignant by the subtle sophistication of the accompaniment, which finds a perfect balance between sentimentalism and intellectualism. Text, melody, and accompaniment are beautifully interwoven so that the music unfolds both naturally and inevitably. The result is a captivating and highly evocative song cycle that gently embraces the listener in its pure, uncomplicated expressiveness. These are truly moving songs. This entry contributed by Nick Wild around 11/7/99. The contributor(s) looked over the song. "Ode to a Star (Arioso di camera)"Song 3 (extractable) from set A Sarah Binks Songbook (The Sweet Songstress of Saskatchewan)
This entry contributed by G&K around 11/1/99 Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments:
Lento triste. Quiet and "sad".
Text Comments:
(Sarah Binks, a fictional character, is the supposed author or this poem. The character and her poems lightly and gently satirize the "academic" mind and approach to life...as well as many other things, I'm sure) Me thought I heard the tinkling of a star. My heart did wilt within, and wiltering weeped, and sniv'lling tears did splash the little stones, and muffled sobs did make and sobbing peeped--With red-rimmed eyes, and through this moist, damp weep, I glanced aloft and hush--no more descried, the tinkling star, its tinkling it had ceased. Me though I heard the tinkling of a star, I glanced aloft, and hush, no star I descried. Resoundingly I blew my nose, I blew my nose and sighed.
This entry contributed by G&K around 11/1/99. The contributor(s) looked over the song. "Of Composts"
This entry contributed by Andy Vores around 11/21/98
Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: Duration 1:00 Keeps cadencing, has a pronounced, vaguely hornpipe-ish, 19th-century feel. Text Comments: Of composts shall the Muse descend to sing, Nor soil her heavenly plumes? The sacred Muse Naught sordid deems, but what is base; naught fair Unless true Virtue stamp it with her seal. Then, planter, wouldst thou double thy estate Never, ah, never, be asham'd to tread Thy dung-heaps. This entry contributed by Andy Vores around 11/21/98. The contributor(s) composed the song. "Of Equality"Song 4 (extractable) from set Four Thoughts by the Roadside
This entry contributed by G&K around 3/27/99 Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: sempre mf. alternating 2/4 and 6/4 with repeating (minimalistic?) waves in the piano. Hangs high. Text Comments: --as if it harm'd me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself--as if it were not indispensable to my own rights that others posses the same. This entry contributed by G&K around 3/27/99. The contributor(s) looked over the song. "Of Justice"Song 3 (extractable) from set Four Thoughts by the Roadside
This entry contributed by G&K around 3/27/99
Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: optional final Bb4 brings the high note of the song to F5. A spare song; 6/8, dotted quarter = 108. Ends powerfully. Text Comments: --as if justice could be anything but the same ample law, expounded by natural judges and saviors, As if it might be this thing or that, according to decisions. This entry contributed by G&K around 3/27/99. The contributor(s) looked over the song. Please contribute to the catalog
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