"When I am Dead" [Donald Swann]

"When I am Dead" [Donald Swann]

First line of lyrics: When I am dead, dearest

Part of: "The Poetic Image"

Swann, Donald; music (Welsh, 1923-1994)

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

1991 [copyright]

London: Albert House Press

genre: song|song cycle

solo: voice

instrumentation: piano

initial sharps/flats: two sharps

initial time signature: 4/4

male composer

English

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

Place in the larger work: The fifth song of eleven in a song cycle called "The Poetic Image," which includes 1. "In Memoriam CXXIII" (Alfred Tennyson); 2. "In Memoriam L" (Alfred Tennyson); 3. "In Memoriam LIV" (Alfred Tennyson); 4. "In Memoriam LV" (Alfred Tennyson); 5. "Song" (Christina Rossetti); 6. "A Better Resurrection" (Christina Rossetti); 7. "The Harlot's House" (Oscar Wilde); 8. "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" (Oscar Wilde); 9. "An Invite to Eternity" (John Clare); 10. "Thoughts of Phena (at the news of her death)" (Thomas Hardy); 11. "Before Life and After" (Thomas Hardy).

Composition history: In the foreword to the song cycle, Donald Swann and Alison Smith, who created images for the work, write about the two Christina Rossetti settings: "Christina Rossetti's two poems seem to me like a balm, an anodyne. She accepts brokenness yet points affirmatively through this acceptance to the beyond. Nature and faith which Tennyson cannot reconcile are joined in her poetry" (Swann).

Tempo markings: "Gently"; half note = 80

Format 1: musical score

2 pages (pp. 32-33)

Cataloguer: Claudia Laugalys, University of Ottawa

musical score: University of Texas Library, Austin

Record: CRM-songwheniamdead-swann

This work is protected by copyright.

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.