Yes, thanks, Reinhard. Listening closely to the recording, the singer, despite being 83 at the time uses some inventive structural variations, and pauses, and is very confident. I imagine he was an exemplary singer when he was younger. RVW was not noted for taking his singers seriously as performers, and sometimes would not bother with their names. In the case of this song, he noted in the FSJ that 'The rest of the words were not worth publication'. I think this is a gem of a recording and there is a lot to learn from the performance.