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by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)

Solemnly, mournfully
Language: English 
Solemnly, mournfully,
  Dealing its dole,
The Curfew Bell
  Is beginning to toll.
Cover the embers,
  And put out the light;
Toil comes with the morning,
  And rest with the night.
Dark grow the windows,
  And quenched is the fire;
Sound fades into silence,--
  All footsteps retire.
No voice in the chambers,
  No sound in the hall!
Sleep and oblivion
  Reign over all!

The book is completed,
  And closed, like the day;
And the hand that has written it
  Lays it away.
Dim grow its fancies;
  Forgotten they lie;
Like coals in the ashes,
  They darken and die.
Song sinks into silence,
  The story is told,
The windows are darkened,
  The hearth-stone is cold.
Darker and darker
  The black shadows fall;
Sleep and oblivion
  Reign over all.

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   R. Stöhr 

R. Stöhr sets stanza 1

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View text with all available footnotes

Text Authorship:

  • by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882), "Curfew", appears in The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems, first published 1845 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Thomas Anderton (1836 - 1903), "Curfew" [ satb chorus and piano ], partsong [sung text not yet checked]
  • by W. H. Bentley , "Curfew", op. 2 (Six songs) no. 6 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Francesco Berger (1834 - 1933), "Curfew" [ boys' chorus or girls' chorus and piano ], from Two-Part Songs [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Beta , "Curfew", from Gems of Longfellow [sung text not yet checked]
  • by John Blockley (1800 - 1882), "Curfew", published >>1854 [ voice (or vocal duet) and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by George Whitefield Chadwick (1854 - 1931), "The curfew", published 1914 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Giuseppe Dinelli , "Curfew" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Theodore Distin (1823 - 1893), "No sound in the hall" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by E. J. Finck , "Curfew", published >>1867 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Harvey Bartlett Gaul (1881 - 1945), "Curfew", published 1934 [ mixed chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by William Wallace Gilchrist (1846 - 1916), "The curfew" [ SSA chorus a cappella? ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Stephen Ralph Glover (1812 - 1870), "The curfew bell", published >>1880 [ duet ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by George Coleman Gow (1860 - 1938), "Curfew", op. 2 (Five songs) no. 4, published 1888 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by George Coleman Gow (1860 - 1938), "Curfew", published 1896 [ voice and piano ], from A Group of Songs [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Allis Gower , "The curfew bell", published 188-? [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Pasquale D. Guglielmo (1810 - 1873), "The curfew bell" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by John Liptrot Hatton (1809 - 1886), "Curfew", published 1869 [ contralto or baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Arthur William Marchant (1850 - ?), "Curfew" [ women's chorus and piano ], partsong [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Klaus Miehling (b. 1963), "Curfew", op. 150 no. 3 (2008) [ baritone and piano ], from Elf Lieder nach Henry W. Longfellow, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Joseph Edward Newell , "The curfew bell" [ 2-part chorus and piano ], partsong [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Henry Perabeau , "Curfew bell", published 1844-7 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by John Francis Holcombe Read (b. 1821), "Curfew" [ contralto or baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Theodore Frelinghuysen Seward (1835 - 1902), "The curfew", published 1862 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Edward Silas (1827 - 1909), "The curfew", published 186-? [ baritone or contralto and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Henry Thomas Smart (1813 - 1879), "Curfew" [ satb chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Richard Stöhr (1874 - 1967), "Curfew", op. 91 (Twelve Songs) no. 6 (1943-1944), stanza 1 [ voice and piano ], unpublished; manuscript at Saint Michael's College Archives and available in scanned form at the Petrucci Music Library [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Simon Waley Waley (1827 - 1875), "Curfew" [ bass or baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Ernst Eckstein (1845 - 1900) , "Die Nachtglocke", subtitle: "(Nach dem Englischen von H.W. Longfellow.)", appears in In Moll und Dur, in 3. Dritte Abtheilung ; composed by Georg Vierling.
    • Go to the text.

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Johann Winkler

This text was added to the website: 2008-06-08
Line count: 32
Word count: 129

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