All summer long, we boys dreamed 'bout big circus joys! Down Main street, comes the band, Oh! "Aint it a grand and glorious noise!" Horses are prancing, knights advancing; Helmets gleaming, pennants streaming, Cleopatra's on her throne! That golden hair is all her own. Where is the lady all in pink? Last year she waved to me I think, Can she have died? Can! that! rot! She is passing but she sees me not.
The Circus Band and Other Delights
Song Cycle by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947)
1. The Circus Band  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by Charles Edward Ives (1874 - 1954)
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- SPA Spanish (Español) (Alfredo García) , "La banda del circo", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
2. The see'r  [sung text checked 1 time]
An old man with a straw in his mouth sat all day long before the village grocery store; he liked to watch the funny things a going, going, going by!
Authorship:
- by Charles Edward Ives (1874 - 1954)
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]3. The cage  [sung text checked 1 time]
A leopard went around his cage from one side back to the other side; he stopped only when the keeper came around with meat; A boy who had been there three hours began to wonder, "Is life anything like that?"
Authorship:
- by Charles Edward Ives (1874 - 1954)
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]4. The Side Show  [sung text checked 1 time]
"Is that Mister Riley, who keeps the hotel?" is the tune that accomp'nies the trotting-track bell; An old horse unsound, turns the merry-go-round, making poor Mister Riley look a bit like a Russian dance, some speak of so highly, as they do of Riley!
Authorship:
- by Charles Edward Ives (1874 - 1954) [an adaptation]
Based on:
- a text in English by P. Rooney [text unavailable]
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- SPA Spanish (Español) (Alfredo García) , "El puesto de la feria", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
5. Waltz  [sung text checked 1 time]
Round and round the old dance ground, Went the whirling throng, Moved with wine and song; Little Annie Rooney, (now Mrs. Mooney,) Was as gay as birds in May, s'her Wedding Day. Far and wide's the fame of the bride, Also of her beau, Every one knows it's "Joe;" Little Annie Rooney, (now J. P. Mooney,) All that day, held full sway o'er Av'nue A! "An old sweetheart!"
Authorship:
- by Charles Edward Ives (1874 - 1954)
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]6. 1, 2, 3  [sung text checked 1 time]
Why doesn't one, two, three seem to appeal to a Yankee as much as one, two!
Authorship:
- by Charles Edward Ives (1874 - 1954)
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]