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The splendour falls on castle walls And snowy summits old in story: The long [light]1 shakes across the lakes, And the wild cataract leaps in glory: Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, [Blow, bugle]2; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. O hark, O hear how thin and clear, And thinner, clearer, farther going! O sweet and far from cliff and scar The horns of Elfland faintly blowing! Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying: [Blow, bugle;]2 answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. O love, they die in yon rich sky, They faint on hill or field or river: Our echoes roll from soul to soul And grow for ever and for ever. Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, [And]2 [answer, echoes]3, dying, dying, dying.
F. Delius sets stanzas 1-2
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)1 Britten: "night"
2 Britten: "Bugle, blow"; Holst: "Blow, bugle, blow"
3 Holst: "echoes, answer"
Text Authorship:
- by Alfred Tennyson, Lord (1809 - 1892), no title, appears in The Princess, first published 1850 [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 Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, Sir (1883 - 1953), "The splendour falls", 1917, orchestrated 1934 [ voice and piano or orchestra ], from Three Songs for Soprano and Orchestra, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), "Nocturne", op. 31 no. 2 (1943), published 1944, first performed 1943 [ tenor, horn, and strings or piano ], from Serenade for tenor, horn and strings, no. 2, London : Boosey & Hawkes [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Benjamin Burrows (1891 - 1966), "The splendour falls", c1912, published 1917 [ voice and piano ], from Three Songs, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Frederick Delius (1862 - 1934), "The splendour falls on castle walls", stanzas 1-2 [ SATB chorus ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Malcolm Forsyth (b. 1936), "Blow, bugle, blow", 2000, first performed 2000 [ SATB chorus and brass ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889 - 1960), "The splendour falls", 1943, published 1944 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Robert Goldbeck (1839 - 1908), "The splendour falls on castle walls ", 1866 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gustav Holst (1874 - 1934), "The splendour falls", op. 20a no. 2, H. 80 no. 2 [ chorus ], from Songs from The Princess, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Dorothy Pilling (1910 - 1998), "The splendour falls" [ voice and piano ], confirmed with a score [sung text checked 1 time]
- by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Blow, bugle, blow", op. 68 (1945) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "The splendour falls", c1905, published 1905 [ voice and piano ], first published in the May 1905 Vocalist, and later reissued in 1914 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Richard Henry Walthew (1872 - 1951), "The splendour falls" [sung text not yet checked]
- by Charles Wood (1866 - 1926), "The splendour falls", published 1927 [ high voice and piano ], from Five Songs for High Voice, no. 1, London: Boosey & Hawkes [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Adolf Strodtmann (1829 - 1879) , no title, appears in Lieder- und Balladenbuch amerikanischer und englischer Dichter der Gegenwart, in Lieder aus "Die Prinzessin", no. 5, first published 1862 ; composed by Heinrich Zöllner.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2021, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (Jean-Pierre Granger) , "Nocturne", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- NYN Norwegian (Nynorsk) (Are Frode Søholt) , "Nattstemning", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- SPA Spanish (Español) (Pablo Sabat) , "Nocturno"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 133
La splendeur s'abat sur la muraille du château Et les antiques sommets enneigés. La longue nuit frémit au-dessus des lacs, Et la cascade furieuse jaillit dans la gloire. Sonne, clairon, sonne, répend les échos sauvages, Clairon, sonne ! Échos, répondez, en mourant, en mourant. Écoute, oh écoute comme ils sont ténus et clairs ; Et plus ténus et plus clairs encore à mesure qu'ils s'en vont ! Oh doux et lointains, de rocher en falaise, Les cors du pays des Elfes résonnent faiblement ! Sonne, écoutons la réponse des pourpres vallons : Clairon, sonne ; répondez, échos, répondez en mourant, en mourant. Oh Amour, ils meurent dans le ciel éclatant là-bas, Ils s'éteignent sur la colline ou sur la prairie ou sur la rivière, Nos échos vont en roulant d'âme en âme, Et grandissent toujours et à jamais. Sonne, clairon, sonne, répend les échos sauvages ; Et répondez, échos, en mourant, en mourant.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2010 by Jean-Pierre Granger.
This author's work falls under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license.
Jean-Pierre Granger. We have no current contact information for the copyright-holder.
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in English by Alfred Tennyson, Lord (1809 - 1892), no title, appears in The Princess, first published 1850
This text was added to the website: 2010-11-11
Line count: 18
Word count: 146