Who's in the next room (Alexandra Uitdenbogerd)
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CPDL #19696: 
- Editor: Philip Legge (submitted 2009-06-28). Score information: A4, 8 pages, 109 kB Copyright: Personal
- Edition notes: Please notify composer of performances: Email
General Information
Title: Who's in the Next Room
Composer: Alexandra Uitdenbogerd
Lyricist: Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong
Language: English
Instruments: Keyboard
Published: 2009
Description:
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
“Who’s in the next room?—who?
I seemed to see
Somebody in the dawning passing through,
Unknown to me.”
“Nay: you saw nought. He passed invisibly.”
“Who’s in the next room?—who?
I seem to hear
Somebody muttering firm in a language new
That chills the ear.”
“No: you catch not his tongue who has entered there.”
“Who’s in the next room?—who?
I seem to feel
His breath like a clammy draught, as if it drew
From the Polar Wheel.”
“No: none who breathes at all does the door conceal.”
“Who’s in the next room?—who?
A figure wan
With a message to one in there of something due?
Shall I know him anon?”
“Yea he; and he brought such; and you’ll know him anon.”
The mysterious “language” at bar 20 is taken from the last three lines of the poem, pronounced backwards: “Nona mih whon loo dna chus tor ee dna ee yea Nona mih whon ya lash Oo gni thmus vo thin ah…”