Beethoven, though patronized by the European nobility, had no respect for “station”. His passionate commitment to elevating the status of the common man is evidenced by his long and sometime stormy collaboration with the Edinburgh publisher George Thomson, who commissioned and published settings of folk songs he had collected from all over the British Isles.
“The kiss, dear maid, thy lip has left” sets a poem written by George Gordon, Lord Byron.
The kiss, dear maid, thy lip has left,
Shall never part from mine,
Till happier hours restore the gift
Untainted back to thine.
Thy parting glance, which fondly beams,
An equal love, may see;
The tear that from thine eyelid streams
Can weep no change in me.
I ask no pledge to make me blest
In gazing when alone;
Nor one memorial for a breast
Whose thoughts are all thine own.
By day or night, in weal or woe,
This heart, no longer free,
Must bear the love it cannot show,
And silent ache for thee.
The Schiller Institute NYC Chorus is holding its spring concert tomorrow at 4pm! See it online: https://www.musae.me/sinycchorus/experiences/970/believe-in
20 Irish Songs, WoO 153: No. 9, The Kiss, Dear Maid, Thy Lip Has Left
20 Irish Songs, WoO 153: No. 9, The Kiss, Dear Maid, Thy Lip Has Left
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John Scialdone published this page in Daily Beethoven 2021-04-25 11:38:39 -0400