Song of Saul before his last battle

Warriors and chiefs! should the shaft or the sword 
Pierce me in leading the host of the Lord, 
Heed not the corse, though a king's, in your path: 
Bury your steel in the bosoms of Gath! 

Thou who art bearing my buckler and bow, 
Should the soldiers of Saul look away from the foe, 
Stretch me that moment in blood at thy feet! 
Mine be the doom which they dared not to meet. 

Farewell to others, but never we part, 
Heir to my royalty, son of my heart! 
Bright is the diadem, boundless the sway, 
Or kingly the death, which awaits us to-day!

by George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824) , "Song of Saul before his last battle", from Hebrew Melodies, no. 13, published 1815

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

by John Mais Capel (1862-1931) , "Song of Saul before his last battle", published 1902. [voice and piano]
by George Alfred Grant-Schaefer (1872-1939) , "Song of Saul", published 1913. [voice and piano]
by Isaac Nathan (1790-1864) , "Warriors and chiefs", published 1815 [voice and piano], from A Selection of Hebrew Melodies No. I, no. 13.

by Heinrich August Marschner (1795-1861) , "Sauls Lied vor seiner letzten Schlacht", op. 100 (Israelitische Gesänge) no. ? (<<1861). [voice and piano]

by Modest Petrovich Musorgsky (1839-1881) , "Pesn' Saula pered bojem", 1863, published 1871 [voice and piano], and 1908

by Johann Karl Gottfried Loewe (1796-1869) , "Saul vor seiner letzten Schlacht", op. 5 no. 6 (1824), published 1826. [voice and piano]

by Carl Debrois van Bruyck (1828-1902) , "Sauls böse Stunde" [voice and piano]

Date added to the website: 2003-10-19.

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