Lyr ADD: Lalla Rookh (Fairport Convention)

Subject: lalla rookh
From: pax
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 10:09 PM

I'm looking for lyrics/music to this lovely song, anyone out ther to help?

Subject: RE: LYR REQ: lalla rookh
From: jonm
Date: 17 Feb 07 - 03:17 AM

It's by Chris Leslie and Maartin Allcock and included in the Fairport Songbook volume 2.

Subject: RE: LYR REQ: lalla rookh
From: An Buachaill Caol Dubh
Date: 17 Feb 07 - 11:43 AM

I don't know the song "lalla rookh", but thought it worth mentioning that "Lalla Rookh" is a long, narrative poem, early C19th, by the Irish poet and song-writer Thomas Moore, and includes a couple of lyrics including the familiar "Bendemeer's Stream"; I bet I'm not alone in having wondered where in Ireland this water is, until I discovered that it's actually somewhere Oriental/Middle Eastern. At least the lines about the Nightingale singing "all the year long" now make sense.

Subject: RE: LYR REQ: lalla rookh
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Feb 07 - 11:48 AM

from the depths of my memory archives:

Lalla Rookh
Was a naughty book
By Thomas Moore,
Who has written four;
Each warmer than the former;
So the most recent
Is the least decent.

Subject: RE: LYR REQ: lalla rookh
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Feb 07 - 01:55 PM

Lalla Rookh appeared in "The Fire Worshippers." An extract from the poem is online here:
http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1492.html

Lalla Rookh

Subject: RE: LYR REQ: lalla rookh
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Feb 07 - 02:20 PM

Much about Lalla Rookh, including my silly little poem, is to be found here

Subject: RE: LYR REQ: lalla rookh
From: Linda Goodman Zebooker
Date: 17 Feb 07 - 02:42 PM

Our choir, the New Dominion Chorale, is rehearsing Robert Schumann's Paradise and the Peri, the text of which (about 20 pages long) is a portion of Lallah Rookh. It will be the Washington DC premiere of the piece. If you want any of those words I can help.

By chance I also have sitting next to it a copy of beautiful sheet music of "Bendemeere's Stream", downloaded from the National Library of Australia. I learned the Digitrad version for an Open Sing awhile back. The sheet music's tune is by CW MacCarthy and is somewhat different from the Digitrad's. I hadn't realized the connection between the two pieces.

Linda

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lalla Rookh
From: GUEST,Maartin Allcock
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 12:24 PM

Chris Leslie wrote the words to my tune after reading about figureheads on sailing ships. Often it was the only point of reference as literacy was not enjoyed by all. There was a boat called Lalla Rookh in the book he'd been reading. Turns out there's an old mine in Western Australia called Lalla Rookh too.

Maart
Harlech, Cymru
www.maartinallcock.com

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lalla Rookh
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 Jan 08 - 02:01 PM

"Lalla-Rookh: An Oriental Romance" was a long narrative work, part prose and part poetry, by Thomas Moore, published in 1817. Lalla-Rookh was the name of the heroine in the story.

You can view the entire work at Google Book Search. It is 335 pages in that edition.

Several musical works were based on Moore's book, or on parts of it:
an opera ("Lalla Rookh," 1821) by Gaspare Spontini,
an oratorio ("Paradise and the Peri," Op. 50, 1843) by Robert Schumann,
a ballet ("Lalla Rookh," 1846) by Cesare Pugni,
an opera ("Lalla Roukh," 1862) by Félicien-César David,
an opera ("Feramors," 1863) by Anton Rubenstein,
a cantata ("Lalla Rookh," 1877) by Frederic Clay,
an opera ("The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan," 1881) by Charles Villiers Stanford,
an opera ("Zelica," 1891) by Stephen R. Philpot,
a cantata ("The Fire Worshippers", 1892) by Granville Bantock,
-- did I miss any?

Other things named Lalla Rookh include at least two sailing ships, a steam locomotive, and a settlement in Western Australia. There is also a Colorado-based band named Lalla Rookh that plays Scottish music.

However, I'm reasonably certain that what the original requestor wanted was this song recorded by Fairport Convention (I am only able to provide two brief excerpts from sound samples):

LALLA ROOKH
Words, Chris Leslie. Music, Maartin Allcock.

...through the water.
The figurehead will guard our crew,
For Lalla Rookh she is a princess of old India.
She looks ahead for storm or....

...the gulls no longer circle round us.
The sun is strong upon my face.
We're pulling hard upon her ropes now.
We hope this wind will last for days.
For Lalla Rookh....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lalla Rookh
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Oct 18 - 12:59 AM

Lalla Rookh made an appearance on an Australian TV quiz show last night, but not in reference to the Fairport song, nor the Thomas Moore book. They had a segment in which the panellists were given a name, and asked whether it was the name of a rapper or a restaurant. Lalla Rookh was one of the names given. Turns out it's an Italian restaurant in Perth. They have a website, https://www.lallarookh.com.au
but I didn't see anything there about how they came to choose that name.

Subject: Lyr Add: LALLA ROOKH (Fairport Convention)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Nov 18 - 07:55 AM

Here’s what I think I hear:

LALLA ROOKH
Words, Chris Leslie. Music, Maartin Allcock.
As recorded by Fairport Convention on “Acoustically Down Under” (2005)

Our ship she sails across the bar line.
The port is slipping out of view.
Rum and(?) oak cut through the water,
The figurehead will guard our crew
For Lalla Rookh

She is a princess of old India.
She looks ahead for storm or calm.
She’s all I have for my salvation
With the muscle in my arm.
O Lalla Rookh—

Please think of me when I am on the deep
And keep me safe within your heart.
Don’t be flattered by another’s eyes
Don’t give your love while we’re apart.

The gulls no longer circle round us.
The sun is strong upon my face.
We're pulling hard upon the ropes now.
We hope this wind will last for days.
O Lalla Rookh—

[instrumental break]

Please think of me... [repeat]

Coming home the moon’s behind us.
How many times I’ve called your name!
I’ll hold you in my arms so tightly
Till I go to sea again,
O Lalla Rookh!
Till I go to sea again,
O Lalla Rookh!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lalla Rookh (Fairport Convention)
From: GUEST,susanne
Date: 21 Sep 22 - 07:26 PM

This is lovely! Thank you, Jim Dixon! Well done

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lalla Rookh (Fairport Convention)
From: GerryM
Date: 21 Sep 22 - 10:45 PM

One of the Gilbert & Sullivan operettas is called Iolanthe, or The Peer and the Peri. I wonder whether that subtitle is a play on Schuman's Paradise and the Peri, referenced several times in this discussion of Lalla Rookh.