"A Birthday" [Robert Keane]
Title
"A Birthday" [Robert Keane]
First line of lyrics: My heart is like a singing bird
Part of: "An End"
Creator
Keane, Robert; music (Australian, born 1948)
Rossetti, Christina Georgina; text (English, 1830-1894)
Date
1984 January 1 [composition]
Publisher
Broadway, New South Wales: Australian Music Centre
Subject
genre: song|song cycle
solo: soprano
instrumentation: piano
initial sharps/flats: six sharps
initial time signature: 7/8
origin: Australia
male composer
Language
English
Description
Rossetti poem(s): "A Birthday"
Place in the larger work: The third 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.
Notes about the text: The composer adds an extra line of lyrics at the end: "My love has come to me."
Tempo markings: "Allegro giocoso"; quarter note = approx. 160; "40-42 bars per minute"
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."
Dedication: "For Janet Dowd"
Notes: A note on the first page of the score indicates that the song cycle is an "Hommage a Benjamin Britten."
Format
Format 1: musical score
8 pages (pp. 12-19)
Source
Cataloguer: Sarah Pennington, University of Ottawa
musical score: University of New South Wales, Australia
Identifier
Record: CRM-birthday-keane
Rights
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.
Files
Collection
Citation
Keane, Robert; music (Australian, born 1948) and Rossetti, Christina Georgina; text (English, 1830-1894), “"A Birthday" [Robert Keane],” Christina Rossetti In Music, accessed September 20, 2024, http://omeka.uottawa.ca/christinarossettiinmusic/items/show/2063.
Item Relations
| This Item | is part of a larger work that also includes | Item: "Song 1" [Robert Keane] |
| This Item | is part of a larger work that also includes | Item: "From Metastasio" [Robert Keane] |
| This Item | is part of a larger work that also includes | Item: "Song 2" [Robert Keane] |
| This Item | is part of a larger work that also includes | Item: "Song 3" [Robert Keane] |
| This Item | is part of a larger work that also includes | Item: "Remember" [Robert Keane] |
| This Item | is part of a larger work that also includes | Item: "An End" [Robert Keane] |
| This Item | is part of a larger work that also includes | Item: "Uphill" [Robert Keane] |
| This Item | is part of a larger work that also includes | Item: Sleeping at Last" [Robert Keane] |
| Item: "Summer" [Robert Keane] | is part of a larger work that also includes | This Item |
| Item: "Somewhere or other" [Robert Keane] | is part of a larger work that also includes | This Item |