Lyr/Tune Req: The Child's First Grief (F Hemans)

Subject: Child's First Grief info
From:
Date: 22 Apr 97 - 03:45 AM

Howdy Folks,

Emery (from Pete & Emery on western PA radio years ago) has the words and music for "The Child's First Grief" by Felicia D. Hemans. He has asked me if any of you folks can give any information about this song he found in a 1936 songbook. I've never heard the song. Thanks for the help.

Allinkausay,
Bill

Subject: RE: Child's First Grief info
From: Wavestar
Date: 28 Nov 00 - 04:27 PM

Can someone explain why this thread seems to have two subjects? I'm confused!

-J

---

It confused me, too. I moved the "tortoise" messages here (click).
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Child's First Grief info
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 Oct 06 - 08:06 AM

For what it's worth, you can see the words to A CHILD'S FIRST GRIEF at Google Book Search.

Subject: ADD: Child's First Grief (Mrs. Hemans)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 Oct 06 - 08:10 PM

I can't figure out how to print or copy-paste or OCR from the Google books, so I guess I'll have to do it the hard way. At least I have a monitor that's big enough to view two windows side-by-side.

THE CHILD'S FIRST GRIEF.
(Mrs. Hemans)

"Oh! call my brother back to me!
    I cannot play alone;
The summer comes with flower and bee—
    Where is my brother gone?

"The butterfly is glancing bright
    Across the sunbeam's track;
I care not now to chase its flight,
    Oh! call my brother back!

"The flowers run wild—the flowers we sow'd
    Around our garden tree;
Our vine is drooping with its load,
    Oh! call him back to me!"

"He would not hear thy voice, fair child;
    He may not come to thee;
The face that once like spring-time smiled,
    On earth no more thou'lt see.

"A rose's brief bright life of joy,
    Such unto him was given;
Go—thou must play alone, my boy!
    Thy brother is in heaven."

"And has he left his birds and flowers;
    And must I call in vain?
And through the long, long summer hours,
    Will he not come again?

"And by the brook and in the glade
    Are all our wanderings o'er?
Oh! while my brother with me play'd,
    Would I had loved him more!"


source: The Primary Standard Speaker, By Epes Sargent, 1857

Oh, that's a tear-jerker, that one. I haven't found a tune to transcribe.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Child's First Grief info
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 13 Oct 06 - 08:47 PM

Joe -

You can't select the text from the Google books, because they're just scans (images) of the book pages - not text. You can use the graphics select tool to cut out a part, paste it into your graphics program (Photoshop Elements is my choice), save as .jpg, which your OCR program probably could convert.

You beat me to the lyrics because I figured I'd need to look at the whole book to get © dates etc, and with my connection it was a 40 minute download.

The .pdf of the book opens with "errors." PSE normally could import pages direct to graphics, but there's apparently something wrong with the download I got, so the copy/paste to .jpg is the best that could be done with this one.

The book has a bunch of really maudlin stuff, so it could be fertile ground for someone wanting to set some tearjerkers to tunes.

I didn't find any additional credits for the author of the one in question, so nothing additional about background for it...

Do we suppose the one who asked is still around after 9 years?

John

Subject: RE: Child's First Grief info
From: Peace
Date: 13 Oct 06 - 08:57 PM

The Child's First Grief by Felicia D. Hemans


HEMANS, FELICIA (1793-1835).   Felicia Dorothea Browne; married Captain Hemans. Published first poems at the age of fifteen.

Subject: RE: Child's First Grief info
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 Oct 06 - 09:13 PM

Hi, John -
I 've often wondered about the requestor Bill, who signed off his messages with "Allinkausay." He had a wonderful knowledge of folk music and made remarkable contributions both here and at rec.music.folk. And he was a very nice guy, to boot.
Anybody know about him?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Child's First Grief info
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 13 Oct 06 - 11:17 PM

The Child's First Grief is not to be confused with:

A Man's First Joy?



(Grabbing hat and ducking.)

John

Subject: RE: Child's First Grief info
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 01:46 PM

The Childs First Grief

Sheetmusic at:

Childs first grief / by Max Braun
The child's first grief, op. 11 / by Max Braun.

At the first link:

Braun, Max.
CREATED/PUBLISHED
Brooklyn, NY: P. K. Weizel, 1854.
NOTES
In bound volumes: Copyright Deposits 1820-1860
SUBJECTS
Songs with piano
RELATED TITLES
Music for a nation: American sheet music, 1820-1860.
MEDIUM
1 score
CALL NUMBER
M1.A12V vol. 64 Case Class original bound volumes
PART OF
American 19th-century sheet music. Copyright deposits, 1820-1860
REPOSITORY
Library of Congress. Music Division.
DIGITAL ID
sm1854 560340 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/sm1854.560340


At the second link:

The child's first grief, op. 11 / by Max Braun.
Braun, Max.
CREATED/PUBLISHED
Brooklyn, NY: P. K. Weizel, 1854.
NOTES
In bound volumes: Copyright Deposits 1820-1860
SUBJECTS
Songs with piano
RELATED TITLES
Music for a nation: American sheet music, 1820-1860.
MEDIUM
1 score
CALL NUMBER
M1.A12Z vol. 59 Case Class original bound volumes
PART OF
American 19th-century sheet music. Copyright deposits, 1820-1860
REPOSITORY
Library of Congress. Music Division.
DIGITAL ID

Neither of these two credits "Felicia D. Hemans" as the lyric author, although the second (on page 2) has a dedication to "Adelaide H. Metcalf, of Damairscotta "Maine.""

There are minor variations in the text, but this is apparently "the same poem" set to music.

Both copies show submitted to LOC for copyright in 1854. This is prior to the book in which the poem is shown, but it remains unknown when "Felicia" may have written the poem.

John