The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #54683   Message #848329
Posted By: GUEST,Q
16-Dec-02 - 02:28 PM
Thread Name: Tune Req: Byron set to music
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Byron set to music
"She Walks in Beauty" has been set to music at least twice. The poem was one of a series Byron wrote in 1815 to be set to adaptations of traditional Jewish tunes prepared by Isaac Nathan. Some of these are sung by cantors. (Trivia- A first edition, folio, calf, signed by Nathan, is on sale for $3500).
Some of these poems are at : Songs to Hebrew Melodies
(scroll down and find links to other Byron poems)

Carl C Müller, Op. 47, "She Walks in Beauty," was again set to music in 1880 by Spear and Dehnhoff, NY. The original lyrics are suplemented by a German translation. In American Memory.

"Maid of Athens" was set to music several times (American Memory).
A. H. Rosewig, 1874, F. A. North & Co., Philadelphia
E. Mack, 1876, F. A. North, Philadelphia
The Bodleian Library has many broadsides of the song, printed in the period 1849-1880. No tunes specified.

Charles Gounod, (date?), on a recording, "Songs of Charles Gounod," Hyperion cd A66801/2 (2 cd set). Some top singers on this album.

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy set some songs by Byron to music.

At the University of Toronto website, it is suggested that "So We'll Go No More A Roving" is based in part on the refrain of the Scottish song, "The Jolly Beggar."