Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse

Subject: Lyr request: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 07:50 AM

I'd like to get words and music to songs about nurse Edith Cavell, executed by Germans in 1915 for helping British, French and Belgian soldiers escape enemy lines. Edith Cavell memorial website

British Theatre and the Great War, 1914–1919 includes an article on pp 140-158 'A Sweet Tribute to Her Memory': War-time Edith Cavell Plays and Films by Veronica Kelly which mentions three songs.

One song I had already looked for on line as it was mentioned by Keberoxu in the Murdoch Maclean thread:   
"'Nurse Cavell Lament. Words by Murdoch Maclean. Music by Malcolm Macfarlane. Edited and arranged by Arthur W Marchant, Gaelic and English words. All profits for the 'Scottish Edith Cavell Fund'. Sung by Sergt. -Major Colin Macleod, celebrated Gaelic tenor. Dedicated with permission to the Heroine's Mother, Mrs L S Cavell'
Recording is held by the Royal London Hospital Archives and Museum [Maclean wrote English language lyrics, Macfarlane set to music and wrote Scottish Gaelic lyrics]

Also: "Remember Nurse Cavell!" Words by Gordon V. Thompson, music by Jules Brazil (1915) and "All for Her Country's Sake" by L Silberman and Mason Dixon[!] (1917)

---------
"She was an Angel of Mercy" Sung by Stanley Kirkby comemorating Nurse Edith Cavell (youtube)

two songs in US Library Congress holdings
"Edith Cavell" Browne, Raymond A. -- 1871-1922 (composer) Emerson, C. K. (lyricist) and Edith Cavell; Gilliland, Alton B. (lyricist)
Both songs Created &/or Published: 1919. Downloadable pdf copies available for these two.

Standing as I do in view of God and eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough.
I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.
Edith Louisa Cavell, October 11th 1915

Subject: Lyr request: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 08:01 AM

I meant to have the title Lyric request,not lyric add -- but I hope some Mudcatters can help make this a lyric add thread. I'll eventually get around to typing out words from the Library of Congress recordings and maybe someone else could transcribe the youtube recording. But I'm particularly interested in the Maclean/Macfarlane song in both English and Gaelic versions. Thanks! Móran taing. Míle Buíochas (gracias, merci, danke schön etc)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 02:17 PM

Thanks for starting this thread, Felipa. Thanks also for the PM.

Must be because of my USA upbringing that nobody ever told me about Nurse Edith Cavell before; I can see how she would be famous, east of the Atlantic, and I guess in Canada people would know of her as well.

I have contacted the British Library Imaging department, as I believe they have a copy in their archives of the "Lament for Nurse Cavell." That may take weeks or even months.

Arthur W Marchant had a doctorate in music, not a Ph.D. though. He specialized in the pipe organ it seems, both performing and composing. It would seem that Malcolm MacFarlane is accountable for the song's tune; and I would guess that Marchant (sometimes erroneously "Marchand") took the tune and arranged an accompaniment to go with it. What I can find about Malcolm MacFarlane is that he was a Scottish Gaelic specialist, and published what looks like didactic material for studying or teaching the language.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 04:24 PM

the lyrics of songs from US Library of Congress
(sheet music is downloadable as pdf from links given earlier)

Edith Cavell by CK Emerson

Edith Cavell, you are an angel, brightly beams your face;
You did your bit for freedom's cause, the spirit of your race;
We love you, yes we love you - and when they signed your death knell,
They took from us an angel, our own Edith Cavell.

Chorus:
Now she floats in the great Space of Mystery
That's as much as one can say;
Let us hope that some day we'll all meet her,
On that Great, Great White Way.

May we cherish her mem'ry in silence,downdeep in our hearts let us pray
In our dreams we can see her standing, in the hour they shot her away
Love her? Yes we love her!there's a story we never can tell;
When they took from us an angel, our own dear Edith Cavell

EDITH CAVELL by Anton Gilliland

A heart of love God to her gave,
To battlefield she strode to save
With courage rare and ideals high
A parting word, she said goodbye

There is a fight, a hard-fought one
The roll is called when it is done
Response! There's none to nurse Cavell,
The nurse was taken, sad to tell.

Chorus
The nurse has done her duty well
Her life she did not live in vain
Her name shall ring throughout the land
and we'll rally to the name,
The name of Cavell.

The world is hushed, there is a sigh
When she is told that she must die
A martyr to the right she fell,
Peace to the nurse, Edith Cavell.

The suff'ring world shall no more feel
The ministry of nurse Cavell,
She answered well that inward call,
She gave her life, she gave her all.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 06:04 PM

yes, Edith Cavell would be remembered more in the UK, but I think the news of her death travelled far. Not long after her death, a committee in Boston Massachusetts held a memorial service and resolved to employ an "Edith Cavell nurse" and send her to serve with the British Expeditionary Forces in Europe. Alice Fitzgerald wrote her memoirs of a year serving in ww1.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 06:25 PM

She was an Angel of Mercy by George Bert and Chas. Britton and tune by Lawrence Wright - see http://imagesearchnew.library.illinois.edu/cdm/ref/collection/myers/id/5236

SHE WAS AN ANGEL OF MERCY (partial lyrics)

In the book of judgment in years to come, the tale shall be ever told,
Of the brave Nurse Cavell, and how she died, in letters of purest gold
Hers was a glorious mission of love, amidst all the battle and strife,
Calm and serene, keep the name ever green, of the woman who laid down her life.

Refrain:
She was an angel of mercy, one of the Red Cross band,
Nursing the sick and the wounded, with a loving and tender hand,
Let us teach our children, the mem'ry must no die,
Of here sweet name, and her glorious fame, as the years roll by.

Verse:
What a grand, grand story, it thrills the hear, inspiring the poets pen,
Fulfilling that message sent from above, of peace and goodwill to men,
Tho' the grim spectre of war shall have pass'd, and peace reigns again on the earth,
Tho' she's at rest, her dear name will be bless'd, and shall live in the land of her birth.

Subject: RE: Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Oct 16 - 08:44 PM

this link should appear at the end of the first sentence in the first message

https://edithcavell.org.uk/

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: Norval
Date: 13 Oct 16 - 09:32 PM

Edith Cavell has a mountain in Jasper National Park (Alberta, Canada) named in her honor.

Mount Edith Cavell

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: meself
Date: 13 Oct 16 - 11:19 PM

There are a number of schools named after her in Canada - and elsewhere, I would imagine.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: Murpholly
Date: 14 Oct 16 - 05:02 AM

Her tomb at Norwich Cathedral is impressive.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Nov 16 - 01:41 PM

The British Library's copy (a photocopy may be ordered by payment to the Imaging Department) gives the song, cited in the OP of this thread, as
"A Lament. For Nurse Cavell."
Words by Murdoch Maclean.
Melody and Gaelic words by Malcolm MacFarlane.
Edited and arranged by Arthur W. Marchant.

On another Mudcat thread, that for poet Murdoch Maclean, I have posted his English text, as it is separately printed on one page of the sheet music from publisher Eneas Mackay.

What follows is a lyric in Scottish Gaelic; it is given only within the sheet-music score, not printed separately. The melody of the song, if the previous citation is correct, was composed and adapted to Murdoch Maclean's lyric by Malcolm MacFarlane.
Elsewhere in the same score, Malcolm MacFarlane is identified by two names:
the first is the previous Anglicized name;
the second says "Fo Laimh Chalum Mhic Pharlain."
Malcolm MacFarlane is also identified as
the author of the Scottish Gaelic text.

In the actual printed music, the melody has its own line of staves.
Directly below it is Murdoch Maclean's English.
Directly below that is Malcolm MacFarlane's Scottish Gaelic, in italics.
The keyboard accompaniment (Arthur W. Marchant, if you are keeping track)
is written out on a "grand staff" directly below the two lines of song text.

If you compare the two poems and their -- what are the words -- prosody and scansion,
it is clear that they differ slightly.
The Gaelic actually has an extra syllable or two per line, compared to the English poem.
The actual tune bears this out.
The melody has been meticulously printed so that the English-text notes are copied out, large and full-size.
In that same melodic line, smaller-sized notes indicate the pitches on which to sing those extra syllables of the Scottish Gaelic.

Deep breath: and let's type out that Gaelic as best we can.

[no separate Gaelic title] [Eideag Chaithbhéil?]

by Malcolm MacFarlane / Chalum Mhic Pharlain

Fann ghaoth na mochthrath ri osnaidhean bròin;
Fairge fo uamhunn, is gruaim air na neòil;
Saorsa, le heagal, air teicheadh gu còs,
'S Eideag Chaithbhéil 'si 'na beuban gun deò.

Gníomh na minaire thug bàrr a thaobh tnùth
Air Herod 's air Néro le'n reubairean gnùth,
Mort na mna mìn thaobh a dìlse 'nar cùis.
Dhaibhsan thig dìoghladh, ach dhìthse thig cliù.

Dìoghlar e mìghnìomh nam mìstearan thall:
Chì sinn ma's beò, gur i chòir a bhios ann;
'S theid cliù na banghaisgich, o dheachdadh peann,
Sìos feadh nan linn gus an crìochnaichear àm.

Sèimh biodh do chadal, a bhanoglach chaomh;
Leigheas nan creuchd b'e do dhreuchd air an tsaogh'l;
'Sluachmhoire t' éifeachd do chreutairean daor,
Ma theagaisg do mhort daibh gur sochair an tsaors'.

No date is printed, but presumed 1917.
Stirling: Eneas Mackay, publisher (43 Murray Place).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Nov 16 - 07:31 PM

The information quoted in the original post duplicates well what is printed on the front of the sheet music for the "Lament for Nurse Cavell."

On the back, under a photograph of a sculpted bust of Edith Cavell, is a poem with the citation that it was first printed in the Glasgow "Citizen."

by Elise Rae-Brown

Her life for evermore is robed in light;
Her sacred memory lifted to the stars;
Martyr and Saint to-day our hearts acclaim her,
The nation's love shall be her monument.

Deathless her deeds in human hearts shall live,
Making immortal that last sacrifice.
And so we leave her to her quiet rest,
Palm branch and Cross of Victory on her breast.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Nov 16 - 07:43 PM

Though Edith Cavell was the only nurse executed by the Germans in the Great War, she was not the only one sentenced to death.

Ada Cole was also charged for continuing to do what Edith Cavell had been shot for, after that had happened, and in 1918 was sentenced to die, and held in a death cell for three months. Only the Armistice saved her.

Here is a site about her, and her tireless campaign on behalf of ill-treated horses, both in the War and later. There's a horse-rescue centre named after her in Harlow.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 21 Nov 16 - 01:56 PM

The following is just my opinion, for what it's worth, after several days of perusing the Malcolm MacFarlane melody and what has been arranged around it, of "A Lament for Nurse Cavell."

I get an uncomfortable feeling when I hear the sound of this composition all together:
Arthur W. Marchant's churchy chord progressions and voice-leading in the harmonies;
Malcolm MacFarlane's modal, traditional-sounding melody;
and Murdoch Maclean's nineteenth-century-sounding English verse.

This feelings persuades me that the whole composition was sort of cobbled together, that it is not of a whole. Sadly, it sounds like less than the sum of its parts.

On this forum thread, the initial post and the eleventh post both give author/composition credits as printed in the sheet music for "A Lament for Nurse Cavell." What is quoted in the original post, comes from the frontispiece of the sheet music, which has then been duplicated for the archives catalog records. What is quoted in Post Eleven, dated 17 November 2016, is what I found printed inside the score, directly above the opening measures of the song.

"Melody and Gaelic words by Malcolm MacFarlane" is more specific than what is printed on the title page, "Music by Malcolm MacFarlane....Gaelic and English Words."   

The following is my speculation only.

Malcolm MacFarlane's tune, and his Gaelic lyrics, are of a piece, and fit together hand in glove, the most natural thing about this commemoration song. Murdoch Maclean's English poem can be made to fit to Malcolm MacFarlane's melodic line, but the fit is not without awkward and unnatural phrasing. I believe that poet Maclean wrote the poetry on its own, having no connection whatever with the tune. I will never know whether MacFarlane was required to take Maclean's already-finished poem, and by himself come up with a Gaelic version and a melody to complement Maclean's English lyric. But that is what I speculate. I go on to guess that, faced with this challenge, MacFarlane came up with a Gaelic text which, while not a literal translation from Maclean's English, ended up being a free adaptation of Maclean's thoughts and sentiment into a Gaelic poem which -- I presume to say -- stands on its own merits. Certainly the melody and the Gaelic prosody fit each other better than MacFarlane's melody fits Maclean's English verses.

Arthur W. Marchant tried for a somber, tasteful effect in harmonizing MacFarlane's melody from the top down. But Marchant is working from a classical-music and High-Church context, while MacFarlane's melody is neither of those things. Marchant's chords and counterpoint attempt to persuade the ear that the whole piece belongs in the diatonic minor that is conventional in church hymns. MacFarlane's tune, however, is modal, specifically mixolydian, and it rises and falls in a way that church anthems rarely do, composed as it is to sound like oral traditional singing.

So I guess this whole package, this way of selling the product as it were, was an attempt to be all things to all people, appealing to the English on one hand and the Scottish/Gaelic/Celts on the other. Nice try, but I'm not surprised that nobody has heard of the thing.

That front-page blurb references "celebrated Gaelic tenor," a Sergeant-Major Colin MacLeod. I imagine him singing MacFarlane's Gaelic words to MacFarlane's melody, rather than singing Maclean's English lyric. And that is probably the interpretation that would find more favor and have more success than the other approach.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: Felipa
Date: 22 Nov 16 - 10:04 AM

thanks Keberoxu

incidently, the publisher's forename "Eneas" is more the way I have heard Aonghus pronounced by Scottish Gaelic speakers, rather than "Angus" "Fo Laimh Chalum Mhic Pharlain" means from the hand of Calum Mac Pharlain.

I think Murdoch MacLean's poem and MacColm McFarland (Calum Mac Pharlain)Gaelic language version deserve to be published together in the same discussion, and of course MacLean's poem is pertinent to the subject of this thread. So I have copied it from your Sleep Weel My Bairnie (Murdoch MacLean) discussion:

LAMENT FOR EDITH CAVELL

by Murdoch Maclean

Winds of the dawning, low by her grave
Sigh for the fallen, fearless and brave;
Out in the greyness, lonely and dread,
Waves of the ocean sob for the dead.

Honour and Freedom fled in the night,
Thou wert their glory, thine was their light;
Rest to the faithful -- rest till the day,
Tears of a nation hallow thy clay.

Fainting they bound thee pale in the morn,
Martyr'd the laid thee bleeding and torn,
Calmly unyielding, steadfast and tried
All for thy country guiltless thou died.

Proudly thy story ages shall trace
Martyr of Belgium born of our race --
Wrapt in thy slumber rest till the day,
Tears of a nation hallow thy clay!

----
the first verses of the Gaelic and English are similar in content. I wonder where MacFarlane got Herod and Nero into his second verse. I prefer MacFarlane's last verse - my quick summation would be: may you rest in peace, let your death be a lesson for freedom

EIDEAG CHAITHBHÉIL (Edith Cavell)

Fann ghaoth na mochthrath ri osnaidhean bròin;
Fairge fo uamhunn, is gruaim air na neòil;
Saorsa, le heagal, air teicheadh gu còs,
'S Eideag Chaithbhéil 'si 'na beuban gun deò.

Gníomh na minaire thug bàrr a thaobh tnùth
Air Herod 's air Néro le'n reubairean gnùth,
Mort na mna mìn thaobh a dìlse 'nar cùis.
Dhaibhsan thig dìoghladh, ach dhìthse thig cliù.

Dìoghlar e mìghnìomh nam mìstearan thall:
Chì sinn ma's beò, gur i chòir a bhios ann;
'S theid cliù na banghaisgich, o dheachdadh peann,
Sìos feadh nan linn gus an crìochnaichear àm.

Sèimh biodh do chadal, a bhanoglach chaomh;
Leigheas nan creuchd b'e do dhreuchd air an tsaogh'l;
'Sluachmhoire t' éifeachd do chreutairean daor,
Ma theagaisg do mhort daibh gur sochair an tsaors'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: Jack Campin
Date: 01 Dec 16 - 09:33 PM

keberoxu sent me the sheet music,so I've ABC'ed it and converted the ABC to PDF:

http://www.nigelgatherer.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=46&pid=214

I think Cavell deserved a better tune than that.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 02 Dec 16 - 12:07 PM

I concur with Jack Campin, regretfully.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: GUEST,Felipa
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 11:57 AM

Jack, is it possible to post sheet music on your site as well?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 12:41 PM

Jack Campin posted something to the thread "bagpipe music question" using one of those programs that I am too illiterate to identify.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: Jack Campin
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 02:42 PM

If you follow my link you'll get to a forum thread on Nigel Gatherer's site where I uploaded both the ABC and a PDF of staff notation generated from it. (I think I posted the ABC in another thread here - you don't need to understand ABC to use it via a converter site).

I don't know if Nigel's site lets non-members read the content - if not, get back to me.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 31 Aug 21 - 05:54 PM

A Waltz for Edith Cavell by Anto Morra   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_GarxWUKbM
"She was an Angel of Mercy" Sung by Stanley Kirkby commemorating Nurse Edith Cavell C 1915   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM9e1JRndiU

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs about Edith Cavell ww1 nurse
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 31 Aug 21 - 06:18 PM

The Edith Cavell Triptych - Anto Morra Live 30/3/2019   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl-yr2eC1ik