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26 Aug 00 - 09:46 AM (#285589) Subject: Sing Me To Sleep From: Giac This is a sappy love song, and I love it. I have no idea who wrote it, or when, except that it likely was prior to 1945. The only place I've ever heard it was on a scratchy 78 rpm record that was done at a college in eastern Arkansas in the mid-late 40s. A neighbor, now long gone, had recorded it with a friend and the quality was poor at best, but the song has haunted me for years. Any help would be appreciated.
It starts: I have to leave now, but will check when I come back. Thanks in advance for any and all help. Giac |
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26 Aug 00 - 02:26 PM (#285665) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep From: Joe Offer Hi, Giac - click here for the sheet music, which I found at the The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music. If you search Levy, you'll find at least two sets of sheet music for the song, which was apparently published in 1902. Now, if somebody would like to transcribe the song and post it in this thread, we'd be grateful. -Joe Offer- |
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26 Aug 00 - 02:45 PM (#285684) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep From: Pene Azul I'll get the English lyrics. Jeff |
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26 Aug 00 - 02:54 PM (#285690) Subject: Lyr Add: SING ME TO SLEEP^^ From: Pene Azul SING ME TO SLEEP (English words by Clifton Bingham, Music by Edwin Greene) Sing me to sleep, the shadows fall Let me forget the world and all Tired is my heart, the day is long Would it were to come evensong Sing me to sleep, your hand in mine Our fingers as in prayer entwine Only your voice love, let me hear Singing to tell me you are near Love I am lonely, years are so long I want you only, you and your song Dark is life's shore, love, night is so deep Leave me no more, love, sing me to sleep Sing me to sleep, love, you alone Seem to be left me for my own Haply my heart will know no pain When I awake froim sleep again Sing me to sleep and let me rest Of all the world I love you best Nothing is faithful, nothing true In Heav'n or earth, but God and you ^^ |
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26 Aug 00 - 03:25 PM (#285706) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep From: Pene Azul In the interest of thoroughness, I'll transcribe the German lyrics too, if I can read all of them. Jeff |
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26 Aug 00 - 03:52 PM (#285716) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep From: Joe Offer I give up all claim to any speed records I may have held in the past. Pene is fast, and there's no way I could dream of keeping up with him. I'll let Jeri fight him for the championship. I give up. Thanks, Jeff! -Joe Offer- |
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26 Aug 00 - 03:56 PM (#285717) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep From: Pene Azul Well, I still have to count on King Joe to edit this. This was hard to read and I don't speak German. Jeff |
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26 Aug 00 - 03:57 PM (#285718) Subject: Lyr Add: SING MIR DEIN LIED From: Pene Azul SING MIR DEIN LIED (German words by Frida Wilhelmi, Music by Edwin Greene) Sing mir dein Lied im Dämershein gieb mir Vergessen aller Pein Lang ist der Tag, Mein herz so schwer wollt, dess mein Leid vurüberwär Sing mir dein Lied, reich mir die Hand und führ' mich sunft ins Tränmeland Wenn auch mein Auge dich nicht sieht Lieb du bist nah, ich hür' dien Lied Nichts ist geblieben, Nacht ist so lang lass mir dein Lieben und deinen Sang Wund ist mein Herz, Lieb, schwer mein Gemüt bleib du bei mir, Lieb, sing mir dein Lied Sing mir dein Lied, von allem Glück bliebst du mir, Lieb, allein zurück Schliesst der Schinf die Augen zu bringt er der müden Seele Rub Sing mir dein Lied, ich lieb allein von Alen dich nur sing mich ein Falsch ist und trüg'risch Alles heir Gott nur und du sind treu zu mir Nichts ist geblieben, Nacht ist so lang lass mir dein Lieben und deinen Sang Wund ist mein Herz, Lieb, schwer mein Gemüt bleib du bei mir, Lieb, sing mir dein Lied |
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26 Aug 00 - 07:45 PM (#285815) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep From: Giac Wow! Joe and PA, what a treasure. I leave for an afternoon and come back to sheet music, English AND German versions. Thanks, guys, I really appreciate it. I heard it done a capella (it was a church-affiliated college, of a sect that did not use instrumental accompaniment for the most part), as I said on a very poor quality 78 record, and I was never really sure of some of the words. This is great! I can terrorize the dogs and nieghbors trying to manage the song's range. Giac (who bows to your superior search capabilities) |
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26 Aug 00 - 08:26 PM (#285837) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep From: Sorcha und wer is Wolfgang or Joerg ven ve need dem? Giac, sprechen Deutch? Is the translation good? (apology next, for the bad dialect?) *BG* |
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26 Aug 00 - 09:14 PM (#285857) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep From: Night Owl but...but...hey....Joe....don't give up.....where's the link to the tune?? (BG) |
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26 Aug 00 - 10:58 PM (#285910) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep From: Giac No, Sorcha, I don't speak German, but it's too cool to have it. Maybe I can find a tutor and learn to at least pronounce these words. LOL. It is a lovely tune, although out of my limited range. The sheet music, which Joe linked in his first post, is quite readable, at least to remind me of the notes in parts where my memory failed. |
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26 Mar 09 - 01:04 PM (#2597871) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep From: GUEST,kjb My dear aunt had an unusually beautiful high soprano voice and sang this at her husbands funeral when she was in her early 90s. I fell in love with it then and got a copy from the Boston Music Co. via Schirmer, Inc in NY. What I'd like to know is the story behind the song. Was it written by the composer for a particular occasion, event, or as part of a "light opera" ? I have learned it and want to perform it, but like sharing something about a song before I sing it to give it some context. Anybody know? |
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26 Mar 09 - 06:23 PM (#2598126) Subject: Lyr Add: SING ME TO SLEEP (British Army parody) From: Lighter British Army parody from World War I: Sing me to sleep where bullets fall, Let me forget the war and all; Damp is my dug-out, cold my feet, Nothing but bully and biscuits to eat. Over the sandbags helmets you'll find Corpses in front and corpses behind. CHORUS: Far, far from Ypres I long to be, Where German snipers can't get at me, Think of me crouching where the worms creep, Waiting for the sergeant to sing me to sleep. Sing me to sleep in some old shed, The rats all running around my head, Stretched out upon my waterproof, Dodging the raindrops through the roof, Dreaming of home and nights in the West, Somebody's overseas boots on my chest. Patrick McGill published this in his "Soldier Songs" (1917). He ascribed authorship to Anonymous. Other, briefer versions exist. |
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12 May 10 - 03:38 PM (#2905498) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep From: GUEST,Charlotte My mother used to sing this to me as a lullaby. She wrote the words done for me but it wasn't all the verses, so great to see them here. Very fond memories |
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01 Oct 10 - 08:57 AM (#2997482) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep From: GUEST,linda green - One Accord Does the First world war parady with the Far far from Wipers chorus use the same tune? I tried to search on the Levy site but couldn't find the sheet music. Can anyone help? |
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09 Oct 10 - 06:57 PM (#3003476) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep / Sing Mir Dein Lied From: GUEST The WWI army parody was, I believe, written by one of the highlanders in the Canadian Scottish Regiment based in Vancouver, Canada. I have the newspaper clipping from around 1916 that simply states "The following poem was written by one of the Vancouver boys at the front." |
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28 Oct 10 - 10:44 PM (#3018208) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep / Sing Mir Dein Lied From: Crowhugger Linda Green, if you scroll up, wayyyy up almost to the top of this thread, the 2nd posting has a blue-clicky-link to the sheet music at the Levy collection. Click on the link called "click here" to go directly to the sheet music that Joe found. Enjoy! |
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06 Mar 11 - 05:01 PM (#3108372) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep / Sing Mir Dein Lied From: GUEST,Peter The sheet music is available at Alpha Publishing at: www.LDSMusicAndBooks.com with a few midified words. |
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07 Mar 11 - 09:53 AM (#3108907) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep / Sing Mir Dein Lied From: GUEST,leeneia Here's a nice video of the piece sing mir The pianist is better than I am. He plays it fast enough so that the dissonances of the intro turn into the poignant twinkling of the true waltz. The piece is in the 'song and dance' format. The first part (the song) is in 6/8, then it turns to 3/4 for a more dancey, waltz part. I've often noticed that with old songs of this type, we remember only the dance part. Thanks for bringing this nice piece to my attention. |
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19 Apr 11 - 12:38 PM (#3138296) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep / Sing Mir Dein Lied From: GUEST,Linda Green Crowhugger Thanks for your help - I found it. |
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25 Jan 12 - 02:34 PM (#3296153) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep / Sing Mir Dein Lied From: Q (Frank Staplin) Sing Me to Sleep, sheet music 1902, German and English words, by Edwin Greene and Clifton Bingham. Published by Boston Music Company. A badly used copy on sale for 5.27 pounds, from a company in Oregon. See abebooks,co.uk for details. |
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25 Jan 12 - 03:22 PM (#3296186) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep / Sing Mir Dein Lied From: Q (Frank Staplin) Sheet music with both German and English words here: https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/26003 Johns Hopkins University, Levy Sheet Music Collection. Arrangement for piano and voice, violin. |
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27 Jan 12 - 03:35 AM (#3297044) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep / Sing Mir Dein Lied From: Genie Sheet music for "Sing Mir Dein Lied" and "Sing Me To Sleep" from Johns Hopkins University, Levy Sheet Music Collection. |
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27 Jan 12 - 04:52 AM (#3297070) Subject: Sing Mir Dein Lied (w English translation) From: Genie The German lyrics posted by Pene Azul have several typos. Those, plus the absence of punctuation, made it harder for me to understand the lyrics in places. I've compared the Levy Sheet Music with those lyrics to find the misspellings and the original punctuation. Here are the German lyrics, from the Levy Sheet Music: SING MIR DEIN LIED (German words by Frida Wilhelmi, Music by Edwin Greene) Sing mir dein Lied im Dämmershein, --- (Sing me your song in the twilight's glow) Gieb mir Vergessen aller Pein. --- (Make me forget all pain.) Lang ist der Tag, Mein herz so schwer ---(Long is the day, my heart so heavy) wollt', dass mein Leid vorüber wär. --- (Would that my grief were over.) Sing mir dein Lied, reich mir die Hand ---(Sing me your song, give me your hand) und führ' mich sunft ins Träumeland. ---(and lead me [sunft]* into dreamland.) Wenn auch mein Auge dich nicht sieht, ---(Even though my eye does not see you,) Lieb, du bist nah, ich hör' dein Lied, ---(Love, you are near, I hear your song) Nichts ist geblieben, Nacht ist so lang, --- (Nothing remains, night is so long,) lass mir dein Lieben und deinen Sang. --- (Leave me your love and your song.) Wund ist mein Herz, Lieb, schwer mein Gemüt, --- (Sore is my heart, Love, my mind heavy.) bleib du bei mir, Lieb, sing mir dein Lied. --- (Stay with me, Love, sing me your song.) Sing mir dein Lied, von allem Glück --- (Sing me your song, from all happiness bliebst du mir, Lieb, allein zurück, --- (Stay with me, Love, left alone*.) Schliesst mir der Schlaf die Augen zu, --- (Close your eyes to sleep,) bringt er der müden Seele Ruh --- (It brings the weary soul rest.) Sing mir dein Lied; ich lieb' allein --- (Sing me your song, I love alone) von Allen dich nur, sing mich ein. --- (from [Allen]* to you only, sing me one.)* Falsch ist und trüg'risch Alles hier, --- ( Everything is false and deceptive here,) Gott nur und du sind treu zu mir. --- (Only God and you are true to me.) (Repeat verse 3) *These are places where I couldn't figure out how to translate. |
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27 Jan 12 - 04:56 AM (#3297073) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep / Sing Mir Dein Lied From: Genie The lines in parentheses are as close as I could come to a literal translation. I'm sure some of our more fluent German speakers can improve on my efforts. The English lyrics in the sheet music are in many places a literal translation or close to it, but in others, quite a bit of license was taken for "singability" and maybe more poetic English expression than an actual translation would yield. |
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27 Jan 12 - 05:19 AM (#3297083) Subject: Lyr Add: SING MIR DEIN LIED / SING ME YOUR SONG From: Joe Offer Pretty good translation, Genie. A few remarks: und führ' mich sunft ins Träumeland. ---(and lead me [sunft]* into dreamland.) ...should be sanft (gently) Wenn auch mein Auge dich nicht sieht, ---(Even though my eye does not see you,) ...could be "And if my eye doesn't see you" Wund ist mein Herz, Lieb, schwer mein Gemüt, --- (Sore is my heart, Love, my mind heavy.) ...I think I'd translate Gemüt as "spirit/soul" Sing mir dein Lied; ich lieb' allein --- (Sing me your song, I love alone) von Allen dich nur, sing mich ein. --- (from [Allen]* to you only, sing me one.)* ..."Ich lieb allein von Allen dich nur" would translate, "Of everyone, I love only you." -Joe, ehemalige Berlinerspion - (but this spy was armed only with headphones and a ballpoint pen) So, here's my attempt:
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27 Jan 12 - 01:28 PM (#3297334) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep / Sing Mir Dein Lied From: Genie Thanks, Joe. For some reason Google translate didn't recognize "Gemüt" or "Allen," and I wasn't sure how to translate them. "Allen" seems close to "Alles," but I wasn't sure. "Sanft" makes more sense, too. As with most of the other translation trouble spots, the problem was a typo or a misreading of the sheet music. |
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19 Apr 13 - 01:35 PM (#3505854) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep / Sing Mir Dein Lied From: GUEST Does anyone know the history behind the song? |
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20 Apr 13 - 08:55 AM (#3506150) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep / Sing Mir Dein Lied From: Ron Davies I'd second Guest's query. For instance, which predated the other--German or English? Or, by some chance, were they written at the same time?--it appears they were published at the same time. |
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21 Apr 13 - 04:48 AM (#3506464) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep / Sing Mir Dein Lied From: GUEST,Grishka I do not know the history, but from the original editions it is quite clear that the poem by the then-popular English poet Clifton Bingham is the starting point. Frida Wilhelmi was (according to Google) a prolific translator of English poetry, of good craftswomanship, as we see above. Performers should prefer the English lyrics. The publisher in Boston may have added a German translation not only to serve the German-speaking community in America, but also to suggest the prestigious genre of "German lied". However, neither Bingham nor Greene had any high-brow ambitions. |
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24 Jan 16 - 08:49 PM (#3767866) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep / Sing Mir Dein Lied From: GUEST My mother taught me a version when I was 15 and asked me to sing it to her when she was passing away. I don't know the significance for her. I did sing it for her. |
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25 Jan 16 - 03:30 PM (#3768058) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep / Sing Mir Dein Lied From: keberoxu Looked up G. Clifton Bingham in an attempt to see if the song had some memorable backstory, as a couple of messages have requested. Not found a backstory so far. Bingham was only 54 when he died in 1913. He was a prolific writer; Sing Me To Sleep was only one of many lyrics. To one interviewer he allowed that he was proud of "The Dear Homeland," from all his songs; they were sung by everybody from Lillian Russell to John MacCormack. He also wrote the lyrics to "Just a Song at Twilight." Will keep searching and report back anything of interest. About "Love's Old Sweet Song" a/k/a Just a Song at Twilight: the Internet anecdote repeated everywhere is that when the lyric was first published as a poem, composers all but trampled each other to get the permission to set it to music. |
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25 Jan 16 - 06:23 PM (#3768106) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep / Sing Mir Dein Lied From: keberoxu This was published November 1915, in the U.K. I believe: (thanks books.google.com) The late Edwin Greene, composer of that tremendously popular ballad "Sing me to Sleep," was one of those fortunate composers that have been justly rewarded for their work. Mr. Greene was in the hands of honest publishers, Phillips and Page, London, and received his regular royalty on every copy sold throughout the world. In fact, this one song supported him. Mr. Greene was an invalid nearly all his life, and the royalties brought him the comfort that he so much needed. Another source at the same website says, He was self-taught. And this from an Auckland, New Zealand obituary, shortly after his 1915 demise: ....During the past 25 years Mr. Greene had been a confirmed invalid, as the result of very severe operations, and he was ever subject to acute recurrences of illness, but with the help of his wonderful vitality he made a courageous struggle against physical misfortunes. It was out of this suffering that his musical renown directly sprang....By assiduous self-culture he qualified for the post of organist .... but his health soon broke down. His gift for song-writing was evinced early in life, although it was not until his affliction came that his special gift was developed on lines that met with immediate public recognition. It was while lying in a hospital ward that he wrote the words and music of "Springtide," in after years the composer's favorite....A beautiful setting of Tom Hood's pathetic verses, "I Remember," was next published, and was quickly followed by "Sing Me to Sleep," ...it leapt into popular favour at once. The whole English-speaking world was soon singing it, and other nations caught the infection, for the German, Hungarian, French, Italian, and other translations sold out rapidly. The publication assured Mr. Greene a regular income, his publisher paying him a handsome retaining fee so long as he reserved his compositions exclusively for the firm. No subsequent lyric from his pen achieved such fame, although all sold well." The silence around his affliction is typical of the era, I suppose. Consumption? |
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25 Jan 16 - 06:49 PM (#3768111) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep / Sing Mir Dein Lied From: keberoxu Well, I just scared up, in a Bermuda gazette of some kind, an advert for something called Phosferine, with a testimonial letter from Edwin Greene, "one of the most famous Musical composers of to-day." It dates from 1903, one year after publishing "Sing Me to Sleep." Greene extols its use after recovering from surgery and says it helped him. And the surgery in question, the letter names as 'Inguinal Colotomy.' Now, THAT sounds dire. |
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25 Jan 16 - 07:11 PM (#3768112) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep / Sing Mir Dein Lied From: keberoxu From, A Century of Ballads, 1810 - 1910: Clifton Bingham is very closely associated with the work of two composers, Edwin Greene and Edward St. Quentin. Of the former's songs, "Sing Me to Sleep" has attained an enormous popularity, although Bingham declares that the lyric was offered to over forty composers and publishers before it ultimately found acceptance. |
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25 Jan 16 - 10:41 PM (#3768131) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sing Me To Sleep / Sing Mir Dein Lied From: GUEST,leeneia Here's a link to a YouTube video with soprano Alma Gluck singing the song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwqXlGqFu70 |