by Robert Seymour Bridges (1844 - 1930)
Beautiful must be the mountains whence...
Language: English
Beautiful must be the mountains whence ye come,
And bright in the fruitful valleys the streams, wherefrom
Ye learn your song:
Where are those starry woods? O might I wander there,
Among the flowers, which in that heavenly air
Bloom the year long!
[Nay,]1 barren are those mountains and spent the streams:
Our song is the voice of desire, that haunts our dreams,
A throe of the heart,
Whose pining visions dim, forbidden hopes profound,
No dying cadence nor long sigh can sound,
For all our art.
Alone, aloud in the raptured ear of men
We pour our dark nocturnal secret; and then,
As night is withdrawn
[From these sweet-springing meads and bursting boughs of May,]1
Dream, while the innumerable choir of day
Welcome the dawn.
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View original text (without footnotes)1 omitted by Weir.
Text Authorship:
- by Robert Seymour Bridges (1844 - 1930), "Nightingales", appears in The Shorter Poems of Robert Bridges, in 5. Book V, first published 1893 [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 Edward Toner Cone (b. 1917), "Nightingales" [ soprano, flute, viola, piano ], from Philomela -- Three Nightingale Songs, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Peter Charles Crossley-Holland (1916 - 2001), "The nightingales" [ voice and piano ], confirmed with a score [sung text checked 1 time]
- by David Campbell Dorward (b. 1933), "Beautiful must be the mountains whence ye come" [ soprano or tenor and piano ], from Three Songs for High Voice and Piano [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gerald Finzi (1901 - 1956), "Nightingales", op. 17 no. 5 (1934-7) [ SSATB chorus a cappella ], from Seven Unaccompanied Part Songs, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Fritz Bennicke Hart (1874 - 1949), "Nightingales", 1917 [ vocal trio of female voices a cappella? ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Kenneth V. Jones (b. 1924), "Nightingales" [ SSA chorus and piano or harpsichord ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Edward C. Mattila (b. 1927), "Nightingales" [ satb chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Nightingales", op. 16 (1943) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Reginald Chauncey Robbins (1871 - 1955), "Nightingales", published c1922 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Louis Victor Franz Saar (1868 - 1937), "The nightingales", published 1932 [ tenor, SSA chorus, and piano with oboe or flute or violin obbligato ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Charles Sacco (1905 - 1987), "Nightingales", published 1974 [ satb chorus, woodwinds, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Howard Swanson (1907 - 1978), "The nightingales", published 1952 [ TTBB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Judith Weir (b. 1954), "The voice of desire", 2003 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from The Voice of Desire, no. 1, Chester Music Ltd [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-01-08
Line count: 18
Word count: 126