"Love is the Key" [Johan Franco]

"Love is the Key" [Johan Franco]

First line of lyrics: Love is the key of life and death

Part of: "Two Christmas Carols"

Franco, Johan; music (American, born in Holland, 1908-1988)

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

1954 [publication] [copyright]; 1970 [publication]

New York: Saint Mary's Press [1954]; Cincinnati: World Library of Sacred Music, Inc. [1970]

genre: Christmas music|carol|sacred music|choral music|song cycle|song

solo: soprano

chorus: SATB chorus

instrumentation: organ|carillon

initial sharps/flats: no sharps or flats

initial time signature: 4/4

origin: United States

male composer

English

Rossetti poem(s): "A Song for the Least of all Saints"

Place in the larger work: The first song of two in the song cycle called “Two Christmas Carols” which includes 1. "Awake, glad heart" [Henry Vaughan, misattributed to Christina Rossetti]; 2. "Love is the Key" [Christina Rossetti]

Tempo markings: quarter note = c. 100 [marked in pencil]

Performance instructions: For "SATB & organ or Carillon"

Notes: Manuscript score with typed element, including lyricists and copyright statement, and tempo marking in pencil. Gooch and Thatcher (4797) specifies that the score was reissued by WLSM, Cinncinati, 1970.

Format 1: musical score

6 pages (pp. 7-12); performance time approx. 8 minutes, complete song cycle performance 14 minutes

In reference to the published works below: Gooch and Thatcher 4797

Reference: Gooch, Bryan N.S. and David S. Thatcher. Musical Settings of Early and Mid-Victorian Literature: A Catalogue. New York: Garland, 1979.

Other data reference(s): "Two Christmas Carols." American Composers Alliance, https://composers.com/composers/johan-franco/two-christmas-carols. Accessed 11 May 2023.

Cataloguer: Roxanne Lafleur, University of Ottawa

Musical score: Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester

Record: CRM-songfortheleast-franco

"COPYRIGHT 1954 by SAINT MARY'S PRESS | Made in U.S.A."

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