Hark! from the pit a fearsome sound (Anonymous, set by H. Cowell) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


Hark! from the pit a fearsome sound
That makes the blood run cold;
Symphonic cyclones rush around --
And the worst is yet untold.
 
No -- they unchain those dogs of war,
The wild sarrusophones,
A double-bass E-flat to roar
Whilst crunching dead men's bones.
 
The muted tuba's dismal groan
Uprising from the gloom,
And answered by the heckelphone,
Suggest the crack of doom.
 
Oh mama! Is this the earthquake zone?
What ho, there, stand from under!
Or is it the tonitruone
Just imitating thunder?
 
Nay, fear not, little one, because
Of this sublime rough-house;
'Tis modern opera by the laws
Of Master Richard Strauss.
 
Singers?  They're scarcely heard nor seen --
In yon back seat they sit;
The day of Song is past, I ween:
The orchestra is "it."

Input by T. P. Perrin

Authorship

Anonymous/Unidentified Artist

Music Since 1900

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

Henry Dixon Cowell (1897-1965)

Three Anti-Modernist Songs

Date added to the website: 2004-04-10.

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