by Langston Hughes (1901 - 1967)
The low beating of the tom‑toms
Language: English
The low beating of the tom-toms, The slow beating of the tom-toms, Low... slow Slow... low - Stirs your blood. Dance! A night-veiled girl Whirls softly into a Circle of light. Whirls softly... slowly, Like a wisp of smoke around the fire - And the tom-toms beat, And the tom-toms beat, And the low beating of the tom-toms Stirs your blood.
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Text Authorship:
- by Langston Hughes (1901 - 1967), "Danse Africaine", appears in The Weary Blues, first published 1926 [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 Jessie Nzinga Montgomery (b. 1981), "Danse Africaine", copyright © 2015 [ ssaa chorus ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Joyce Solomon Moorman (b. 1946), "Danse Africaine", copyright © 1992 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Clarence Muse (1889 - 1979) and by Connie Bemis , "African Dance", published 1939 [ voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Wesley Work, III (1901 - 1967), "Danse Africaine", published 1951 [ soprano, SATB chorus, piano, and percussion ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Wesley Work, III (1901 - 1967), "Danse Africaine", published 1955 [ tenor, TTBB chorus, piano, and percussion ] [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Josef Luitpold Stern (1886 - 1966) ; composed by Alexander Zemlinsky.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2003-11-04
Line count: 15
Word count: 59