A piper in the streets today
set up, and tuned, and started to play,
And away, away, away on the tide
of his music we started; on ev'ry side
Doors and windows were opened wide,
[And men left down their work and came,]1
And women with petticoats coloured [like]2 flame.
And little bare feet that were blue with cold 
went dancing back to the age of gold,
And all the world went gay, went gay
For half an hour in the [street]3 today.

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¹ omitted by Gurney.
² Gurney: "with"
³ Gurney: "streets"

Text Authorship:

• by Seumas O'Sullivan (1879 - 1958), "A piper", appears in Verses Sacred and Profane, first published 1908 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Arthur Benjamin (1893 - 1960), "The piper", published 1924 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Paul Frederic Bowles (1910 - 1999), "The piper" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Gwyneth L. Brown , "A piper", 1962 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Peter Charles Crossley-Holland (1916 - 2001), "A piper", published 1956 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927), "A piper", 1949 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Woods Duke (1899 - 1984), "A piper", 1946 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Harold Walter Greenhill (1902 - ?), "A piper", published 1936 [ SS chorus or SA chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "A piper", published 1959 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Colin Hand (1929 - 2015), "A piper", published 1957 [ unison chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Michael (Dewar) Head (1900 - 1976), "A piper", 1923, published 1923 [ voice, piano, and flute obbligato ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by George Norman Peterkin (1886 - 1982), "A piper", published <<1940 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "A piper", 1925, published 1925 [ medium voice and optional piano ], from Two Poems by Seumas O'Sullivan, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
• by William (Southcombe) Lloyd Webber (1914 - 1982), "A piper", published <<1951 [ three-part women's chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 11
Word count: 83