The River (Elgar)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"The River" is a song written by the English composer Edward Elgar in 1909 as his Op.60, No.2.
On the title-page it is described as a "Folk-Song (Eastern Europe), paraphrased by Pietro d’Alba and Edward Elgar." - Pietro d’Alba (alias Peter Rabbit) was Elgar’s pseudonym for himself.
A footnote to the poem explains the personification of the invoked river, and the tempo indication is an appropriately dramatic Allegro con fuoco.
With its companion song The Torch, it was performed by one of Elgar’s favourite singers, the mezzo-soprano Muriel Foster, at the Hereford Music Festival of 1912.
[edit] Lyrics
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- THE RIVER*
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- River, mother of fighting men, (Rustula !)
- Sternest barrier of our land, (Rustula !)
- From thy bosom we drew life :
- Ancient, honoured, mighty, grand !
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- Rustula !
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- Ancient, honoured, mighty, grand !
- Oh ! what worship had been thine, (Rustula !)
- Hadst thou held the foe-men, drowned ; (Rustula !)
- Flood, more precious far than wine,
- Victress, saviour, world-renowned !
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- Rustula !
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- Victress, saviour, world-renowned !
- Rustula !
- Like a girl before her lover, (Rustula !)
- How thou falterdst, - like a slave ; - (Rustula !)
- Sank and fainted, low and lower,
- When thy mission was to save.
- Coward, traitress, shameless !
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- Rustula !
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- Coward, traitress, shameless !
- When thy mission was to save.
- On thy narrowed, niggard strand, (Rustula !)
- Despairing - now the tyrant's hand (Rustula!)
- Grips the last remnant of our land,
- Wounded and alone I stand,
- Tricked, derided, impotent !
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- Rustula !
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- Tricked, derided, impotent !
- Wounded and alone I stand,
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- Pietro d’Alba.
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- From a Folk-Song (Eastern Europe)
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• NOTE-… “The river was in full flood and, had it remained so another twenty-four hours,
would undoubtedly have overwhelmed the enemy : but it sank far below its normal level
more rapidly than it had risen three days before.”
[edit] References
- Michael Kennedy, Portrait of Elgar (Oxford University Press, 1968) ISBN 0193154145
