Lyr Add: Rock Me To Sleep, Mother 1860

Subject: Please don't post the same thing twice
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 May 01 - 04:51 PM

Hi, Uncle Jaque - yeah, it's best if songs are posted only once. If you post a song twice, it doubles the burden on the people who harvest and process songs for submission to the Digital Tradition. If you want to call attention to a song you posted previously, use the "filter" or "Forum Search" to find the old thread. You can bring an old thread back to life by posting a new message to it. If you have nothing new to say, just put "refresh" in the body of the message.
Our general policy here is "one song, one thread" (not that people follow that policy very well). It's best if the lyrics, tune, and all discussion of a song are in the same thread. If it's split among several threads, it's hard to have a quality study of a song.
Whenever you post a song at Mudcat, it is immediately available to everyone who takes the time to search. We do not incorporate songs into the Digital Tradition Folk Song Database immediately, since we edit submissions to the database in an attempt to make it a more credible resource.
-Joe Offer-

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Click here for sheet music to this song

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Rock Me To Sleep, Mother' 1860
From: Uncle Jaque
Date: 12 May 01 - 12:29 PM

Thank you for the technical edification; I didn't realize that there were two seperate and distinct "databases" here.

I guess I have done a fair share of palaverating on a number of subjects here; I used to flit around several forums, but have focused the majority of my attention on the 'Cat for about the past year. I like to think that I'm a somewhat better Musician - and perhaps a better man - for it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Rock Me To Sleep, Mother' 1860
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 11 May 01 - 12:21 PM

Perhaps you tried the "Lyrics Search", which only looks at the DT; the one to go for is the newer and much more powerful "Digitrad and Forum Search", through which I found it immediately.  (I remembered it from last time).  Another thing you can try (which can be a help, too, for recent threads that may not have been indexed yet) is to click on your name at the head of one of your own posts; this will get you a list of links to all the posts you have ever made here under that name.  Often quite a sobering experience!

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Rock Me To Sleep, Mother' 1860
From: Uncle Jaque
Date: 11 May 01 - 11:48 AM

Malcolm: Y'know, I thought I'd posted it earlier (along with some others from the collection), but when I went to the Database I did not find it (under "Rock..." anyway) so thought I'd give it another shot. I confess relative ignorance as to how all of this works, so appologize for redundance..
My favorite score is attributed to ERNEST LESLIE , is pitched in 3 flats (I do it in "C" which is most compatable to my vocal range) and is in 3/8 time. I goes sort of like a gentle waltz. As printed, the melody line (top of 4 parts) covers an octave between "E"s; not bad for a piece of this vintage. Apparantly it was assumed that any civilized Musician should be able to cover 2 & 1/2 octaves, and people might begin to be impressed if you hit 3. "Star Spangled Banner" seems to have been grade school material, and Prof. A. CROUCH who wrote "Kathleen Mavourneen" (try that one when you're feelin' vocally talanted) could sing every note on a standard keyboard, dead bang on from "Basso proffundo to high Alto". If there is anyone alive today who can do that, I'm not aware of them. Pavorratti?
If I had an E-dress or URL I could try to send a copy; I have it scanned in several formats, including (I think) *.MIDI.
Although still struggling with my guitar arrangement (it's got potential I think) I don't do much in "C" and some sections have chord changes on every beat, so I'm a little reluctant to take it in front of an audience or to a recording studio just yet... but I'd like to hear a more competent picker than I (plenty of ye out there I know) run through it some time.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Rock Me To Sleep, Mother' 1860
From: MMario
Date: 11 May 01 - 11:03 AM

Levy site is currently down. Uncle Jacque? do you remember which of their version is closest to yours? I will do up the tune for submission when the levy site comes back up.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Rock Me To Sleep, Mother' 1860
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 11 May 01 - 10:49 AM

If you were to refer back to the last time you posted this song:  Lyr Add: 'Rock Me To Sleep, Mother' 1861  you would see that it has been harvested for the DT, so there wasn't much point in posting it again, really.  Do you have a tune for it?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Rock Me To Sleep, Mother' 1860
From: Uncle Jaque
Date: 11 May 01 - 10:49 AM

Again, my appologies for crude formatting; once I paste onto the text box there is very little I can do with it before it gets very unstable or "crashes".

There are a couple of versions of this piece in the LEVY collection; it was put to three or more scores and was apparantly quite popular in it's day. The only known recording of it is by Robin Speilberg on her "Mother" album put out a couple of years ago. She found the poem in a NYC Library, fell in love with it, and since she could find no score wrote her own... which weirdly is not at all far off from the 1860 one I use. I wish I knew how to post images here so I could share the score with you - but I guess we are not supposed to do that anyway. It really is a lovely tune, albiet not the easiest one to play or sing. Since I don't see it on the Mudcat BD and Mother's Day is coming up - here it is; enjoy! And a Happy Mom's Day to all ye Mudcat Moms out there! };>{) We luvs ya, aye!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Rock Me To Sleep, Mother' 1860
From: MMario
Date: 11 May 01 - 10:46 AM

got a tune?

Subject: Lyr Add: ROCK ME TO SLEEP (Elizabeth A Allan)^^^
From: Uncle Jaque
Date: 11 May 01 - 10:36 AM

Just in time for Mother's Day:

"ROCK ME TO SLEEP, MOTHER"

Elizabeth Akers Allan Portland, Maine Civil war Journalist \ War correspondent 1860

Back-ward, turn back-ward, 0 time in your flight,

Make me a child again just for to-night!

Mother, come back from the echoless shore,

Take me again to your heart as of yore;

Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care,

Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair;

Over my slumbers your loving watch keep; -

Rock me to sleep, Mother, - rock me to sleep!

Backward, flow backward, 0 tide of the years!

I am so weary of toil and of tears, -

Toil without recompense, tears all in vain, -

Take them, and give me my childhood again!

I have grown weary of dust and decay, -

Weary of flinging my soul-wealth* away;

Weary of sowing for others to reap;-

Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep!

Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue,

Mother, 0 mother, my heart calls for you!

Many a summer the grass has grown green,

Blossomed and faded, our faces between:

Yet, with strong yearning and passionate pain,

Long I to-night for your presence again.

Come from the silence so long and so deep;

Rock me to sleep, mother, - rock me to sleep!

* One version prints as "Soul-Wreath"

Mother, dear mother, the years have been long

since I last listened your lullaby song:

Sing, then, and unto my soul it shall seem

Womanhood's years have been only a dream.

Clasped to your heart in a loving embrace,

With your light lashes just brushing my face,

Never hereafter to wake or to weep; -

Rock me to sleep, mother, - rock me to sleep!

Over my heart, in the days that have flown,

No love like mother-love ever has shone;

No other worship abides and endures,

Faithful, unselfish, and patient like yours:

None like a mother can charm away pain

From the sick soul and the world-weary brain.

Slumber's soft calms o'er my heavy lids creep;

Rock me to sleep, mother,- rock me to sleep!

Come, let your brown hair, just lighted with gold,

Fall on your shoulders again as of old;

Let it drop over my forehead to-night,

Shading my faint eyes away from the light;

For with it's sunny-edged shadows once more

Haply will throng the sweet visions of yore;

Lovingly, softly, its bright billows sweep; -

Rock me to sleep. mother. - rock me to sleep!^^^