Vespertide
for Voice and Piano
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This cycle of three songs captures three distinct impressions of evening. The first movement is almost dreamlike in painting an evening scene; the poem depicts almost no action, but rather an impression of a vision. The piano provides rolling, wavelike arpeggios that pivot and shift abruptly, like elements of a dream that refuse to be pinned down. The middle movement is a dialogue between two characters, and paints an image of the evening as bringing forth regret. The final movement is similar to the first, but more glassy and transparent, like the clear water of a pool. The evening here is seen as almost magical, with the speaker watching the goldfish and nenuphars (anemones) migle with the reflected heavens.
The recording here is the arrangement for baritone. The piece is also available for Tenor or Soprano, and I'm happy to make additional arrangements if you'd like the piece in another key, just send me an email at WalkerWilliamsMusic@gmail.com.
A Ship, an isle, a sickle moon-
With few but with how splendid stars
The mirrors of the sea are strewn
Between their silver bars!
An isle beside an isle she lay,
The pale ship anchored in the bay,
While in the young moon's port of gold
A star-ship-as the mirrors told-
Put forth its great and lonely light
to the unreflecting Ocean, Night.
And still, a ship upon her seas,
The isle and the island cypresses
Went sailing on without the gale:
And still there moved the moon so pale,
A crescent ship without a sail!
- James Elroy Flecker
“O lonely workman, standing there
In a dream, why do you stare and stare
At her grave, as no other grave there were?
“If your great gaunt eyes so importune
Her soul by the shine of this corpse-cold moon,
Maybe you’ll raise her phantom soon!”
“Why, fool, it is what I would rather see
Than all the living folk there be;
But alas, there is no such joy for me!”
“Ah—she was one you loved, no doubt,
Through good and evil, through rain and drought,
And when she passed, all your sun went out?”
“Nay: she was the woman I did not love,
Whom all the others were ranked above,
Whom during her life I thought nothing of.”
- Thomas Hardy
Soft is the collied night, and cool
The wind about the garden pool.
Here will I dip my burning hand
And move an inch of drowsy sand,
And pray the dark reflected skies
To fasten with their seal mine eyes.
A million million leagues away
Among the stars the goldfish play,
And high above the shadowed stars
Wave and float the nenuphars.
- James Elroy Flecker
for information on obtaining sheet music, please contact me at WalkerWilliamsMusic@gmail.com
for Voice and Piano
PDF Preview
This cycle of three songs captures three distinct impressions of evening. The first movement is almost dreamlike in painting an evening scene; the poem depicts almost no action, but rather an impression of a vision. The piano provides rolling, wavelike arpeggios that pivot and shift abruptly, like elements of a dream that refuse to be pinned down. The middle movement is a dialogue between two characters, and paints an image of the evening as bringing forth regret. The final movement is similar to the first, but more glassy and transparent, like the clear water of a pool. The evening here is seen as almost magical, with the speaker watching the goldfish and nenuphars (anemones) migle with the reflected heavens.
The recording here is the arrangement for baritone. The piece is also available for Tenor or Soprano, and I'm happy to make additional arrangements if you'd like the piece in another key, just send me an email at WalkerWilliamsMusic@gmail.com.
A Ship, an isle, a sickle moon-
With few but with how splendid stars
The mirrors of the sea are strewn
Between their silver bars!
An isle beside an isle she lay,
The pale ship anchored in the bay,
While in the young moon's port of gold
A star-ship-as the mirrors told-
Put forth its great and lonely light
to the unreflecting Ocean, Night.
And still, a ship upon her seas,
The isle and the island cypresses
Went sailing on without the gale:
And still there moved the moon so pale,
A crescent ship without a sail!
- James Elroy Flecker
“O lonely workman, standing there
In a dream, why do you stare and stare
At her grave, as no other grave there were?
“If your great gaunt eyes so importune
Her soul by the shine of this corpse-cold moon,
Maybe you’ll raise her phantom soon!”
“Why, fool, it is what I would rather see
Than all the living folk there be;
But alas, there is no such joy for me!”
“Ah—she was one you loved, no doubt,
Through good and evil, through rain and drought,
And when she passed, all your sun went out?”
“Nay: she was the woman I did not love,
Whom all the others were ranked above,
Whom during her life I thought nothing of.”
- Thomas Hardy
Soft is the collied night, and cool
The wind about the garden pool.
Here will I dip my burning hand
And move an inch of drowsy sand,
And pray the dark reflected skies
To fasten with their seal mine eyes.
A million million leagues away
Among the stars the goldfish play,
And high above the shadowed stars
Wave and float the nenuphars.
- James Elroy Flecker
for information on obtaining sheet music, please contact me at WalkerWilliamsMusic@gmail.com