Lyr Req: Service- Any others that strike you ?

Subject: Lyr Req: Service- Any others that strike you ?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 11 Mar 13 - 02:24 PM

As worth posting for musicians?


From FiddleHangout...


Fiddler by Robert Service

Oh! I have built a house at last,
To fill with music night and say;
For I have laboured in the past
And had no small a time to play.
My house is of a whin-grey stone;
Its walls are bare for poor I be,
But with my fiddle all alone,
       I'll have rare company.

My fiddle's old and so am I.
For it I've often longed in vain.
Bleak years and years I've laid it by,
But now I'll take it up again.
For in four frail gut strings I know
All music sleeps for me to wake,
And here before the peat-fire glow
       Fine melody I'll make.

I'll leave my fiddle by the bed,
And take it in the morning bright,
So all the dreaming in my head
Will weave into a web of light.
Or lone lament - I'm fearing so,
For I have waited far too long,
And all a life of want and woe
       May well into my song.

But no! I'll make these wintry walls
like Spring, with dancing day and night;
And when the Great Conductor calls,
My fiddle I'll be holding tight.
My last love! Worth its weight in gold . . .
Yet - on its strings my fingers lie
So warped and worn, so stiff and cold . . .
       Too late! - I want to cry.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Service- Any others that strike you ?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 11 Mar 13 - 06:34 PM

Some (lots of some) of his work available at this site.

I had his complete works at one point but a public library ended up with it all.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Service- Any others that strike you ?
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 12 Mar 13 - 12:42 AM

There are other threads where we've discussed musical settings of Ballad of Blasphemous Bill, Cremation of Sam McGee, and other Service poems.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Service- Any others that strike you ?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 12 Mar 13 - 11:36 AM

OK. I have several volumes myself, but had not seen any that directly involved musicians- or instruments. I was wondering what other ones I had missed that called out specific instruments or songs.

Might be a good concert idea- read the poems and play the songs or perform on the instrument being discussed.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Service- Any others that strike you ?
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 12 Mar 13 - 01:07 PM

Did you remember this,Bruce?

"War, War, War" Country Joe does Robert W. Service