"When I am dead, my dearest" [Karl Reden]
First line of lyrics: When I am dead, my dearest
Rossetti poem(s): "Song" ("When I am dead, my dearest")
Reden, Karl; music (American, a.k.a. Charles Crozat Converse, 1832-1918)
Rossetti, Christina Georgina; text (English, 1830-1894)
Other data reference(s): "Charles C. Converse." Hymnary.org, https://hymnary.org/person/Converse_Charles. Accessed 6 January 2020.
Cataloguer: Emily McConkey, University of Ottawa
musical score: New York Public Library, New York
The Christina Rossetti in Music project website is hosted in Canada at the University of Ottawa Library, and we aim to comply with Canadian copyright laws. If you believe we have violated Canadian copyright law, please contact us at christinarossettimusic@uottawa.ca. The Christina Rossetti in Music project is strictly not for profit and intended for research and educational purposes only.
Place in the larger work: The third song of three in the song cycle called "Twilight," settings of Christina Rossetti poems. The songs include 1. "A Birthday"; 2. "Mirage"; 3. "Song".
Composition history: The song cycle was "Commissioned by Karen Eckenroth and Otterbein College."
Tempo markings: "Andante espressivo"; dotted half note = 46
Recordings: "Twilight." Experience, performance by Natalie Mann, soprano, Jeff Panko, piano, Albany, 2013. Spotify, https://open.spotify.com/album/7567isSvYmpPQXrDqVinhK. Accessed 9 Jul. 2021.
Thomas, Richard Pearson; music (American, born 1957)
Other data reference(s): Carman, Judith. "TWILIGHT. Three Songs on Poems of Christina Rossetti for High Voice." Journal of Singing, vol. 67, no. 3, 2011, pp. 370-371, ProQuest, https://search.proquest.com/docview/874155748?accountid=14701.
Cataloguer: Madeline Paiva, University of Ottawa
musical score: New England Conservatory of Music, Boston
"©2007 R. Pearson Thomas | Portage Press Publishing"
8 pages (pp. 15-22); performance time approx. 4 minutes; complete song cycle performance time approx. 11 minutes
First line of lyrics: The hope I dreamed of was a dream
Place in the larger work: The second song of three in the song cycle called "Twilight," settings of Christina Rossetti poems. The songs include 1. "A Birthday"; 2. "Mirage"; 3. "Song".
Performance instructions: "Mysteriously, evenly"
7 pages (pp. 8-14); performance time approx. 5 minutes; complete song cycle performance time approx. 11 minutes
First line of lyrics: My heart is like a singing bird
Place in the larger work: The first song of three in the song cycle called "Twilight," settings of Christina Rossetti poems. The songs include 1. "A Birthday"; 2. "Mirage"; 3. "Song".
Notes about the text: Thomas substitutes "like a water'd shoot" for "in a water'd shoot" and "on a halcyon sea" for "in a halcyon sea." The first line of the poem "my heart is like a singing bird" is repeated at the end of the song.
Tempo markings: "Allegro"; half note = 92
Cataloguer: Sarah Pennington, University of Ottawa
6 pages (pp. 2-7); performance time approx. 2 minutes; complete song cycle performance time approx. 11 minutes
initial sharps/flats: no sharps or flats
Lucas, Clarence; music (Canadian, 1866-1947)
"When I am dead" [Eleanor Everest Freer]
other version 1 - instrumentation: piano
Dedication: "To Mildred Marsh Henderson"
Freer, Eleanor Everest; music (American, 1864-1942)
"Copyright, MCMIX, by W.H. Willis & Co."
Tempo markings: "Lento ed intimissimo"; quarter note = 50
Clough-Leighter, Henry; music (American, 1874-1956)
Boston, Leipzig, New York: Arthur P. Schmidt
"Copyright 1911 by Arthur P. Schmidt. International Copyright Secured. Public Performance Permitted."
Record: CRM-songwheniamdead-clough-leighter
File(s): CRM-songwheniamdead-clough-leighter.pdf
"When I am Dead, My Dearest" [Louisa H. Grant]
other version 1 - instrumentation: violin
Performance instructions: "with Violin obbligato" (Record for "When...") (Ives DM82)
Dedication: "Dedicated to Henry C. Lunn, Esq. R. A. M"
Notes: This setting was "reviewed in the Athenaeum (21 August 1886): 250." (Ives DM82).
Grant, Louisa H.; music (English, active 1885)
In reference to the published works below: Ives DM82
Reference: Ives, Maura. Christina Rossetti: A Descriptive Bibliography. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2011.
Other data reference(s): Record for "When I am dead, my dearest. Song, [with Violin obbligato,] words by C. Rossetti." British Library, http://explore.bl.uk/BLVU1:LSCOP-ALL:BLL01004374321. Accessed 20 Jul. 2021.
Cataloguer: Van A. Mantha-Ware and Emily Lapen, University of Ottawa
musical score: The British Library, London
Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, Dundee, Ayr: Paterson & Sons
Tempo markings: "Andante"; quarter note = 72
Notes: Included in the song collection "Three songs," which includes three settings of Rossetti poems: 1. "The Rainbow"; 2. "A Birthday"; 3. "Song."
Campo, Frank; music (American, born 1927)
musical score: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
"Performance Rights ASCAP One Lincoln Plaza New York, NY 10023"
Composition history: A composer's note alongside the score explains that Raphael "endeavored to translate the words of the poets into music" which she was inspired to do after hearing James Stephens chant the verses of "Fifteen Acres." She was "strongly impressed [. . .] by the close interrelationship of the cadence, rhythm, tone, and accent in his chanting, and in the music which the words had suggested." In her other settings since, she has kept "the melody as closely as possible in consonance with the spirit and metrical form of the verses." She goes on to write, "For example, the poem 'Up-hill' consists of eight questions and eight answers. The questions, in a minor tone, modulate successively upward, one half-step - a frantic quest for the solution of the eternal query - whither? The answers are treated in a major key, mysterious, confident, final." (Raphael, xi)
Performance instructions: In the Author's Note, Raphael writes "The music has been done only as a setting for the words - sung or chanted. To those who love poetry, and love to hear it read, chanted, or sung, this book is offered." (Raphael, xii)
Notes: The second song of seventeen in the song collection called "Madrigal and minstrelsy," which includes 1. "Laughing song" (William Blake); 2. "Song" (Christina Rossetti); 3. "The fifteen acres" (James Stephens); 4. "A woman's last word" (Robert Browning); 5. "Music, when soft voices die" (Percy Shelley); 6. "Home they brought her warrior dead" (Alfred, Lord Tennyson;) 7. "Matin song" (Thomas Heywood); 8. "Little lamb" (William Blake); 9. "Sonnet XXIX" (William Shakespeare); 10. "Song no. 2" (Stephens); 11. "The fiddler of Dooney" (William Butler Yeats); 12. "Arab love song" (Francis Thompson); 13. "Night" (William Blake); 14. "Give a man a horse he can ride" (James Thomson); 15. "Up-hill" (Christina Rossetti); 16. "Nurse's song" (William Blake); 17. "When you are old" (William Butler Yeats). Each setting is accompanied by an illustration by Marc Harchberger (American, 1900-1975), who also illustrated the cover of the collection.
Other data reference(s): Raphael, Juliet. Madrigal and Minstrelsy. Albert & Charles Boni, 1927.
musical score: Raphael, Juliet. Madrigal and Minstrelsy. Albert & Charles Boni, 1927. Mary Mellish Archibald Memorial Library, Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick
File(s): CRM-songwheniamdead-raphael.pdf
"When I am dead, my dearest" [Roger Ascham]
Composition history: Composed at Port Elizabeth, Dec. 18. 1898.
Dedication: To my friend, Mrs Arthur Dent.
Ascham, Roger; music (British, 1864-1934)
Reference: IMSLP Petrucci Music Library, http://imslp.org/
Other data reference(s): https://imslp.org/wiki/12_Songs%2C_Op.22_(Ascham%2C_Roger) http://composers-classical-music.com/a/AschamRoger.htm https://musopen.org/music/composer/roger-ascham/
Cataloguer: Pamela Cisneros, University of Ottawa
musical score: "Song: When I Am Dead, My Dearest." Twelve Songs, Charles Vincent; Oliver Ditson Company, 1898, pp. 9-10. IMSLP Petrucci Music Library, https://imslp.org/wiki/12_Songs%2C_Op.22_(Ascham%2C_Roger). Accessed September 16, 2019.
London: Charles Vincent; U.S America: Oliver Ditson Company
1898 December 18 [composition]; 1901 [publication]
First line of lyrics: Come to me in the silence of the night
Place in the larger work: The third song of three in the song cycle called "Three Songs of Memory," settings of Rossetti poems. The songs include 1. "Song"; 2. "Remember"; 3. "Echo."
Dedication: "Dedicated to the 2008-2009 Drake University Choir Dr. Aimee Beckmann-Collier, conductor"
King, Philip; music (American, born 1987)
Other data reference(s): "Three Songs of Memory - Echo (Philip King)." ChoralWiki, http://www0.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Three_Songs_of_Memory_-_Echo_(Philip_King). Accessed 22 July 2019.
musical score: ChoralWiki, http://www0.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Three_Songs_of_Memory_-_Echo_(Philip_King). Accessed 22 July 2019.
First line of lyrics: Remember me when I am gone away
Place in the larger work: The second song of three in the song cycle called "Three Songs of Memory," settings of Rossetti poems. The songs include 1. "Song"; 2. "Remember"; 3. "Echo."
Tempo markings: "Adagietto"; quarter note = 69
Other data reference(s): "Three Songs of Memory - Remember (Philip King)." ChoralWiki, http://www2.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Three_Songs_of_Memory_-_Remember_(Philip_King). Accessed 22 July 2019.
musical score: Choral Wiki, http://www2.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Three_Songs_of_Memory_-_Remember_(Philip_King). Accessed 22 July 2019.
Place in the larger work: The first song of three in the song cycle called "Three Songs of Memory," settings of Rossetti poems. The songs include 1. "Song"; 2. "Remember"; 3. "Echo."
Tempo markings: "Andante con moto"; quarter note = 92
Other data reference(s): "Three Songs of Memory - Song (Philip King)." ChoralWiki, http://www2.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Three_Songs_of_Memory_-_Song_(Philip_King). Accessed 22 July 2019.
musical score: ChoralWiki, http://www2.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Three_Songs_of_Memory_-_Song_(Philip_King). Accessed 22 July 2019.
Part of: "Christina Rossetti song cycle: advanced solos for mezzo soprano and piano"
Place in the larger work: The fourth song of four in the song cycle called "Christina Rossetti song cycle: advanced solos for mezzo soprano and piano," settings of Christina Rossetti poems, which includes 1. "Sleeping at Last"; 2. "No thank you John!"; 3. "No sad songs"; 4. "My secret."
Rumancik, Maryanne N.; music (Canadian, born 1960)
Other data reference(s): "Biography of Maryanne N. Rumancik." Prairie Sky Music, http://www.prairieskymusic.com/bio.html. Accessed 21 June 2019. McFarlane-Burton, Joy. "Reviews." Prairie Sky Music, http://www.prairieskymusic.com/reviews.html#anchor_rossetti_review. Accessed 21 June 2019. Record for "Christina Rossetti song cycle : advanced solos for mezzo soprano and piano." WorldCat, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1055458595. Accessed 21 June 2019.
Place in the larger work: The third song of four in the song cycle called "Christina Rossetti song cycle: advanced solos for mezzo soprano and piano," settings of Christina Rossetti poems, which includes 1. "Sleeping at Last"; 2. "No thank you John!"; 3. "No sad songs"; 4. "My secret."
Notes: A review of the song cycle by Joy McFarlane-Burton is featured on the composer's website: "This is an interesting work for mezzo-soprano and piano suitable for the advanced soloist. The Song Cycle of four songs is based on the poetry of Christina Rossetti. The texts are beautifully and sensitively set. The first song "Sleeping at Last" is a combination of leider and Spechstimme styles. "No Thank You John" is more argumentative, again incorporating the Sprechstimme but with more humour. The chromatic texture of "No Sad Songs" is very appealing. The final song, "My Secret", is a playful song full of clever surprises" (McFarlane-Burton).
"No thank you John!" [Maryanne N. Rumancik]
Place in the larger work: The second song of four in the song cycle called "Christina Rossetti song cycle: advanced solos for mezzo soprano and piano," settings of Christina Rossetti poems, which includes 1. "Sleeping at Last"; 2. "No thank you John!"; 3. "No sad songs"; 4. "My secret."
"Sleeping at Last" [Maryanna N. Rumancik]
Place in the larger work: The first song of four in the song cycle called "Christina Rossetti song cycle: advanced solos for mezzo soprano and piano," settings of Christina Rossetti poems, which includes 1. "Sleeping at Last"; 2. "No thank you John!"; 3. "No sad songs"; 4. "My secret."
"When I am dead, my dearest" [Sidney Svedrofsky]
Other data reference(s): Record for "When I am dead, my dearest." WorldCat, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/63552691. Accessed 21 June 2019.
Marian Anderson Collection of Music Manuscripts
First line of lyrics: Do not go gentle into that good night...
Rossetti poem(s): "Remember"|"Song" ("When I am dead, my dearest")
Work contains multiple Christina Rossetti texts
Notes about the text: The words of "The silent land" are taken from the Latin Requiem Mass, the poems "Remember" and "Song (When I am dead)" by Christina Rossetti and Dylan Thomas' couplet "Do not go gentle into that good night... / Rage, rage against the dying of the light".
Composition history: "'The silent land' was commissioned by Phyllis Lee for Clare College, Cambridge, for performance by Clare College choir (considerable augmented) under its musical director, Tim Brown. [...] Phyllis had recently lost her second husband, Hardy Lee, and I decided to write a piece in his memory. For some time I had been thinking of writing a version of the requiem - a version which omitted the idea of punishment and reward, and concentrated on loss and the acceptance of loss. I had also been intrigued for years by the technical challenge of writing for a 40-part choir - I see Tallis' "Spem in alium" as a perpetual challenge, and have long planned to write a piece of similar forces. The idea of using the cello came out of the Requiem words: the cello is the dead person's soul; the semichorus is the bereaved family; the 32 other parts are the grieving community."
Tempo markings: "Slow" quarter note = 72
Performance instructions: "The eight choirs should be spaced out somewhat, to create separation; the ideal would be a wide semicircle. The semichorus should stand downstage of the main choirs; each soloist positioned in front of the choir of which he/she is a part; this should form a smaller semicircle within the larger one. The solo cello and the conductor should be placed at the center of the whole." There are also lengthy technical notes on properly performing the score in the preface.
Dedication: "To Phyllis Lee, in memory of Hardy"
Notes: "The silent land" is scored for solo cello and choir in 40 real parts. The voices are divided into eight five-part choirs (2 SSATB choirs, 2 SAATB choirs, 2 SATTB choirs and 2 SATBB choirs). Each of the choirs has an extra voice, creating an 8 part semichorus of 2 sopranos, 2 altos, 2 tenors, and 2 basses which should be given to solo voices.
Swayne, Giles; music (English, born 1946)
Cataloguer: Emma-Catherine Wilson, University of Ottawa
This score is copyright protected. A score can be consulted here: "The Silent Land". Alexander Street, https://search-alexanderstreet-com./view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cscore%7C2194790#page/1/mode/1. Accessed 31 of May 2019. This source maybe restricted except to subscribing institutions or individuals.
"Copyright 1996 Novello & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved"
"When I Am Dead, My Dearest" [Brian Blyth Daubney]
Daubney, Brian Blyth; music (English, born 1929)
This score is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. The score appears on the website by kind permission of Brian Blyth Daubney.
File(s): CRM-songwheniamdead-daubney-03.pdf
"Remembrance (When I am dead, my dearest)" [Brian Blyth Daubney]
File(s): CRM-songwheniamdead-daubney-02.pdf
Place in the larger work: The twelfth song of 12 in the song cycle of Rossetti poem settings called "An End" which includes 1. "Summer"; 2. "Somewhere or other"; 3. "A Birthday"; 4. "Song 1"; 5."From Metastasio"; 6. "Song 2"; 7. "Song 3"; 8. "Remember"; 9. "An end." 10. "Lines - circa 1875"; 11. "Uphill"; 12. "Sleeping at last." The three stanzas of Christina Rossetti's poem "Passing and Glassing" are interspersed throughout the song cycle, with the first stanza at the beginning of the cycle, the second between songs 6 and 7, and the third at the end of the song cycle.
Tempo markings: "Larghetto." quarter note = 60
Performance instructions: A note written by the composer at the end of the score explains "Though the songs are intended to be sung in the cycle-form here presented, they can be sung separately, and each is self contained. All metronome markings are suggestions only, as are Pedal marks and fingering."
Notes: A note on the first page of the score indicates that the song cycle is an "Hommage a Benjamin Britten."
Keane, Robert; music (Australian, born 1948)
musical score: University of New South Wales, Australia
Broadway, New South Wales: Australian Music Centre
First line of lyrics: Love strong as death is dead
Place in the larger work: The ninth song of 12 in the song cycle of Rossetti poem settings called "An End" which includes 1. "Summer"; 2. "Somewhere or other"; 3. "A Birthday"; 4. "Song 1"; 5."From Metastasio"; 6. "Song 2"; 7. "Song 3"; 8. "Remember"; 9. "An end." 10. "Lines - circa 1875"; 11. "Uphill"; 12. "Sleeping at last." The three stanzas of Christina Rossetti's poem "Passing and Glassing" are interspersed throughout the song cycle, with the first stanza at the beginning of the cycle, the second between songs 6 and 7, and the third at the end of the song cycle.
Tempo markings: "Andante"; quarter note = 76