Emer’s Farewell to Cucullain (Charles Villiers Stanford)
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- (Posted 2024-03-17) CPDL #79569:
- Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2024-03-17). Score information: Letter, 8 pages, 475 kB Copyright: Personal
- Edition notes: This edition is the first since its original U.S. printing, transcribed and edited by the discovering researcher.
General Information
Title: Emer’s Farewell to Cucullain
Composer: Charles Villiers Stanford
Lyricist: Alfred Perceval Graves
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong, Folksong
Language: English
Instruments: A cappella
First published: 1923 Silver, Burdett and Company
Description: AIR: LONDONDERRY
Commissioned for use by school choirs in the U.S., this Irish folksong setting was never published in the UK and was unknown to scholars for nearly a century.
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
O might a maid confess her secret longing
To one who dearly loves, but may not speak!
Alas! I had not hidden to thy wronging
A bleeding heart beneath a smiling cheek;
I had not stemmed my bitter tears from starting,
And thou had’st learned my bosom’s dear distress,
And half the pain, the cruel pain of parting,
Had passed, Cucullin, in thy fond caress.
But go! Connacia’s hostile trumpets call thee,
Thy chariot mount and ride the ridge of war,
And prove whatever feat of arms befall thee,
The hope and pride of Emer of Lismore;
Ah, then return, my hero, girt with glory,
To knit my virgin heart so near to thine,
That all who seek thy name in Erin’s story
Shall find its loving letters linked with mine.