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A widow bird sate mourning for her love Upon a wintry bough, The frozen wind crept on above; The freezing stream below. There was no leaf upon the forest bare, No [flower]1 upon the ground And little motion in the air, Except the mill-wheel's sound.
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)Some settings use the modernized spelling "sat" instead of "sate"
1 Treharne: "flowers".
Text Authorship:
- by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), no title, appears in Charles the First [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 Creighton Allen (1900 - 1969), "Winter song", published 1954, from Shelley Songs, Cycle of Ten Songs, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by George Benjamin Arnold , "A widow bird" [ duet for 2 sopranos ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Harold Ashe (b. 1938), "A widow bird", published 1947 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Frederick Cook Atkinson (1841 - 1897), "A widow bird", published 1876, from Six songs, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Judith Margaret Bailey , "A widow bird", 1969 [ baritone and piano ], from Three Settings of Poems by Shelley [sung text not yet checked]
- by Henry Charles Banister (1831 - 1897), "A widow bird", op. 20 no. 2, published 1870, from Two Winter Songs, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Granville Ransome Bantock, Sir (1868 - 1946), "A widow bird", 1921, published 1923 [ voice and piano ], from Songs of Shelley, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Carol Barratt , "Song", published 1997, from Six "Songs" for Singing, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, Sir (1883 - 1953), "A widow bird", 1900 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Arthur Henry Behrend (1853 - 1935), "A widow bird", published 1908 [ unison chorus and piano ], from Through the Year. A Cantata for Ladies' Voices, no. 8 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Richard Rodney Bennett (1936 - 2012), "The widow bird", published 1966 [ voice or unison chorus and piano ], from The Aviary, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, Sir (1891 - 1975), "A widow bird", published 1968, from Three Songs for Girls' or Boys' Voices: nursery rhymes by Percy Bysshe Shelley and anonymous, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by H. L. Brainard , "A widow bird", published 1906 [sung text not yet checked]
- by A. (Alfred or Arthur?) Herbert Brewer (1865 - 1928), "A widow bird sat", published 1924 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Margaret Marie Dare (1902 - 1976), "A Widow Bird Sate Mourning", subtitle: "partsong" [ chorus ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Peggy Glanville-Hicks (1912 - 1990), "A widow bird", <<1932 [ voice and piano ], unpublished [sung text not yet checked]
- by Juliana Hall (b. 1958), "A song", 1989, copyright © 2017, first performed 1990 [ baritone and piano ], from Winter Windows -- 7 songs for Baritone and Piano, no. 3, E. C. Schirmer Music Company, Inc., a division of ECS Publishing Group [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Herbert Norman Howells (1892 - 1983), "The widow bird", op. 22 (Four Songs) no. 3 (1915), published 1919 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Frederick Septimus Kelly (1881 - 1916), "The widow bird", 1899 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Liza Lehmann (1862 - 1918), "A widow bird sat mourning" [sung text not yet checked]
- by Bertram Luard-Selby (1853 - 1918), "A widow bird sat mourning" [sung text not yet checked]
- by Elizabeth Maconchy (1907 - 1994), "A widow-bird sate mourning", 1973-4, published 1976 [ voice and harp ], from Three Songs for Voice and Harp, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Humphrey Procter-Gregg (1895 - 1980), "The widow bird" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Marie Cornélie Cathérine Reynvaan (1854 - 1934), "Song", published 1907 [ voice and piano ], from Shelley-liederen, no. 1, Amsterdam : Alsbach  [sung text not yet checked]
- by Edmund Duncan Rubbra (1901 - 1986), "A widow bird sate mourning", op. 28 (1930), published 1931 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Evelyn Hope Squire (1878 - 1936), "A Widow Bird Sate Mourning", published 1938 [ voice and piano ], Stainer and Bell [sung text not yet checked]
- by Bryceson Treharne (1879 - 1948), "A widow bird" [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Maude Valérie White (1855 - 1937), "A widow bird sate mourning", published 1888 [ voice and piano ], London: Pitt and Hatzfeld [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in Dutch (Nederlands), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Marie Cornélie Cathérine Reynvaan.
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
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- Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Konstantin Dmitrevich Bal'mont (1867 - 1942) , "Песня" ; composed by Fyodor Stepanovich Akimenko, Boris Lvovich Levinson, Sofya Aleksandrovna Zybina.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Píseň"
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Un passero solitario il suo amore lamenta", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 45
Un passero solitario il suo amore lamenta sopra un ramo invernale, Striscia in alto una gelida tormenta, sotto scorre una fredda corrente. Non una foglia copre la foresta nuda, non ci sono fiori sul prato e nell'aria nessun altro moto, soltanto, nel mulino, gira la mola.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to Italian (Italiano) copyright © 2009 by Ferdinando Albeggiani, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in English by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), no title, appears in Charles the First
This text was added to the website: 2009-10-21
Line count: 8
Word count: 46