THREE SONGS ON TEXTS OF OSCAR WILDE (1987)
by RAOUL PLESKOW




   Title: Three Songs On Texts Of Oscar Wilde
          Three Songs On Poems Of Oscar Wilde
          Three Songs Of Oscar Wilde

   Date of Composition: 1987

   Instrumentation: voice, piano

   Publisher: American Composers Alliance

   Date of Publication: 1987

   Duration: 8 minutes


   Recordings:
	Turnabout Records


   Notes:
	The three songs are on different poems.  Theocritus - A Villanelle
	is set in its entirety, while Holy Week at Genoa and Rome
	Unvisited have only several lines set.  The texts are:



   
   
			   Theocritus - A Villanelle
   
   O singer of Persephone!
   In the dim meadows desolate
   Dost thou remember Sicily?
   
   Still through the ivy flits the bee
   Where Amaryllis lies in state;
   O Singer of Persephone!
   
   Simaetha calls on Hecate
   And hears the wild dogs at the gate;
   Dost thou remember Sicily?
   
   Still by the light and laughing sea
   Poor Polypheme bemoans his fate;
   O Singer of Persephone!
   
   And still in boyish rivalry
   Young Daphnis challenges his mate;
   Dost thou remember Sicily?
   
   Slim Lacon keeps a goat for thee,
   For thee the jocund shepherds wait;
   O Singer of Persephone!
   Dost thou remember Sicily?
   
                                      
			   From HOLY WEEK AT GENOA
   

   Outside the young boy-priest passed singing clear,
   'Jesus the son of Mary has been slain,
   O come and fill His sepulchre with flowers.'

   Ah, God! Ah, God! those dear Hellenic hours
   Had drowned all memory of Thy bitter pain,
   The Cross, the Crown, the Soldiers and the Spear.
   

			   From ROME UNVISITED
   
   I.
   
   
   O Roma, Roma, at thy feet
   I lay this barren gift of song!
   For, ah! the way is steep and long
   That leads unto thy sacred street.
   
		
   
   



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Created: September 6, 1998
Last Updated: November 12, 2001