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Chamber Music Book I

Song Cycle by Barry Seaman (b. 1946)

1. My dove, my beautiful one   [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
My dove, my beautiful one, 
  Arise, arise! 
  The night-dew lies 
Upon my lips and eyes. 

The odorous winds are weaving 
  A music of sighs: 
  Arise, arise, 
My dove, my beautiful one! 

I wait by the cedar tree, 
  My sister, my love. 
  White breast of the dove, 
My breast shall be your bed. 

The pale dew lies 
  Like a veil on my head. 
  My fair one, my fair dove, 
Arise, arise!1

Text Authorship:

  • by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), appears in Chamber Music, no. 14, first published 1907

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Szymanowski adds "My dove, my beautiful one!"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2. At that hour when all things have repose   [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
At that hour when all things have repose,
    O lonely watcher of the skies, 
    Do you hear the night wind and the sighs 
Of harps playing unto Love to unclose
    The pale gates of sunrise?

When all things repose, do you alone
    Awake to hear the sweet harps play 
    To Love before him on his way, 
And the night wind answering in antiphon
    Till night is overgone?

Play on, invisible harps, unto Love,
    Whose way in heaven is aglow 
    At that hour when soft lights come and go, 
Soft sweet music in the air above
    And in the earth below.

Text Authorship:

  • by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), no title, appears in Chamber Music, no. 3, first published 1907

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

3. Love came to us in time gone by  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Love came to us in time gone by
    When one at twilight shyly played 
And one in fear was standing nigh -- -
    For Love at first is all afraid.

We were grave lovers. Love is past
    That had his sweet hours many a one; 
Welcome to us now at the last
    The ways that we shall go upon.

Text Authorship:

  • by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), no title, appears in Chamber Music, no. 30, first published 1907

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Beate Binnig) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

4. Rain has fallen all the day  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Rain has fallen all the day.
O come among the laden trees:
The leaves lie thick upon the way
Of [mem'ries.]1

Staying a little by the way
Of [mem'ries]1 shall we depart.
Come, my beloved, where I may
Speak to your heart.

Text Authorship:

  • by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), appears in Chamber Music, no. 32, first published 1907

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Walter Riemer) , "Es hat geregnet", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • SPA Spanish (Español) (Sol Crespo) , copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Szymanowski: "memories"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

5. Bid adieu  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Bid adieu, adieu, adieu, 
  Bid adieu to girlish days, 
Happy love is come to woo 
  Thee and woo thy girlish ways - 
The zone that doth become thee fair, 
The snood upon thy yellow hair. 

When thou hast heard his name upon 
  The bugles of the cherubim 
Begin thou softly to unzone 
  Thy girlish bosom unto him 
And softly to undo the snood 
That is the sign of maidenhood.

Text Authorship:

  • by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), no title, appears in Chamber Music, no. 11, first published 1907

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

6. The last song  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Strings in the earth and air 
  Make music sweet; 
Strings by the river where 
  The willows meet. 

There's music along the river 
  [For Love wanders there,]1
Pale [flowers]2 on his mantle, 
  Dark leaves on his hair. 

All softly playing, 
  With head to [the]3 music bent, 
And fingers straying 
  Upon an instrument.

Text Authorship:

  • by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), appears in Chamber Music, no. 1, first published 1907

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

View original text (without footnotes)
1 omitted by Berio
2 Coulthard: "flow'rs"
3 omitted by Coulthard

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 394
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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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