"When I am Dead My Dearest" [Francis Hueffer]

"When I am Dead My Dearest" [Francis Hueffer]

First line of lyrics: When I am dead my dearest

Hueffer, Francis; music (English, born in Germany as Franz Hüffer, 1845-1889)

Rossetti, Christina Georgina; text (English, 1830-1894)

1872 [publication]; 1873 [publication]

London: Stanley Lucas, Weher & Co.

genre: song

solo: voice

instrumentation: piano

initial sharps/flats: two flats

initial time signature: 4/4

origin: United Kingdom

male composer

English

Rossetti poem(s): "Song" ("When I am dead, my dearest")

Composition history: The 1873 score features a preface written by the composer.

Tempo markings: "Adagio"

Performance history: Ives notes: "Francis Hueffer became music critic of the London Times in 1878. WMR attended a performance of the setting on December 15, 1870: 'Dined at Brown's--partly in order to hear Hueffer's music, which I like much, to Christina's song, 'When I am dead, my dearest' (Diary 36). In 1872, he noted 'Hueffer called with Brown, and asked Christina's authority for setting to music, and so publishing, two of her poems-- 'When I am dead' and another. Christina of course consented' (Diary 163). Presumably the other song was 'Twist me a Crown of Wind-Flowers'; both appear in Hueffer's collection, Seven Songs (1873)" (DM21).

Notes: The 1973 version is included in Seven Songs, which also includes Rossetti's "Windflowers" (DM24). The first song of seven in a song collection called "Seven Songs," consisting of settings of Pre-Raphaelite poetry. Ives notes that the collection was "Reviewed (negatively) in the Examiner (8 November 1873: 1127-1128) and the Musical Times (1 December 1873: 329)" (DM23-24).

Format 1: musical score

5 pages

In reference to the published works below: Ives DM23

Reference: Ives, Maura. Christina Rossetti: A Descriptive Bibliography. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2011.

Cataloguer: Stephanie Malette, University of Ottawa

musical score: Hueffer, Francis. "When I am Dead, My Dearest." Seven Songs, Stanley Lucas, Weher & Co., 1873, pp. 1-5. Bibliothek der Universitat der Kunste, Germany.

Record: CRM-songwheniamdead-hueffer

File(s): CRM-songwheniamdead-hueffer.pdf

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