Scotch rhapsody (Sitwell, set by W. Walton) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


 Do not take a bath in Jordan
 Gordon,
 On the holy Sabbath, on the peaceful day!
 Said the huntsman,
 playing on his old bagpipe,
 Boring to death the pheasant
 and the snipe -
 Boring the ptarmigan
 and grouse for fun -
 Boring them worse
 than a nine-bore gun.
 Till the flaxen leaves where the
 prunes are ripe,
 Heard the tartan wind a-droning
 through the pipe,
 And they, heard Macpherson say:
 "Where do the waves go; What hotels
 Hide their bustles
 and their gay ombrelles?
 And would there be room for me? -
 Would there be room,
 Would there be room for me?"
 There is a hotel at Ostend
 Cold as the wind, without an end,
 Haunted by ghostly poor relations
 Of Bostonian conversations
 (Like bagpipes rotting
 through the walls.)
 And there the pearl-ropes fall like shawls
 With a noise like marine waterfalls.
 And "Another little drink
 wouldn't do us any harm"
 Pierces through the sabbatical calm.
 And that is the place for me!
 So do not take a bath in Jordan,
 Gordon,
 On the holy Sabbath on the
 peaceful day-
 Or you'll never go to heaven,
 Gordon Macpherson,
 And speaking purely as a private person
 That is the place - that is the place -
 that is the place for me!

Input by Dan Eggleston

Authorship

Edith Sitwell (1887-1964)

Facades

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

William Walton (1902-1983)

Façade

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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