"A birthday" [Thomas Oboe Lee]

"A birthday" [Thomas Oboe Lee]

First line of lyrics: My heart is like a singing bird

Part of: "Love Songs"

Lee, Thomas Oboe; music (American, born in China, born 1945)

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

1998 December 10 [composition] [copyright]

Cambridge, Mass.: Departed Feathers Music

genre: song|song cycle

solo: medium voice

instrumentation: piano

initial sharps/flats: two sharps

initial time signature: 2/2

origin: United States

male composer

English

Rossetti poem(s): "A Birthday"

Place in the larger work: The third song of four in the song cycle "Love Songs" which includes 1. "[This] Face" (Arthur Gorges); 2. "Love Thou Art High" (Emily Dickinson); 3. "A Birthday" (Christina Rossetti); 4. "Pairs" (Philip Booth).

Composition history: "Commissioned by Peter Papesch for his wife, Barbara"

Tempo markings: "Lazy groove..."; quarter note = 120

Recordings: "A Birthday...Christina Rossetti (1830​-​1894)." Performance by Peggo Horstmann Hodes, soprano, Calvin Herst, piano, Antonio Oliart, audio engineer and editor, at Fraser Studio at WGBH, May 25, 2017. Bandcamp, https://thomasoboelee.bandcamp.com/track/a-birthday-christina-rossetti-1830-1894. Accessed 15 Sep. 2021.

Format 1: musical score

9 pages (pp. 13-21); performance time 3 minutes and 45 seconds, complete song cycle performance time 16 minutes and 45 seconds.

Other data reference(s): Record for "Love songs : poems by Gorges, Dickinson, Rossetti and Booth (1998) / Thomas Oboe Lee." Lewis Music Library, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, http://library.mit.edu/item/001028209. Accessed 1 Apr. 2019.
"Thomas Oboe Lee: Love Songs and Summer Lilies (1998 & 2000, rev. 2016) - full score, opuses 78 & 86." YouTube, uploaded by Thomas Oboe Lee, 15 Oct. 2017, https://youtu.be/7n0B0XQkJy8

Cataloguer: Sarah Pennington, University of Ottawa

musical score: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Library, Massachusetts

This score is copyright protected. A score can be consulted here: "Thomas Oboe Lee: Love Songs and Summer Lilies (1998 & 2000, rev. 2016) - full score, opuses 78 & 86." YouTube, uploaded by Thomas Oboe Lee, 15 Oct. 2017, https://youtu.be/7n0B0XQkJy8

Opus: 78, number 3

Record: CRM-birthday-lee

"Copyright Departed Feathers Music, BMI - 1998"

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.