Memories (Ives, set by C. Ives, G. Bachlund) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


A. Very Pleasant

 We're sitting in the opera house;
 We're waiting for the curtain to arise
 With wonders for our eyes;
 We're feeling pretty gay,
 And well we may,
 "O, Jimmy, look!" I say,
 "The band is tuning up
 And soon will start to play."
 We whistle and we hum,
 Beat time with the drum.

 We're sitting in the opera house;
 We're waiting for the curtain to arise
 With wonders for our eyes,
 A feeling of expectancy,
 A certain kind of ecstasy,
 Expectancy and ecstasy... Sh's's's.

B. Rather Sad

 From the street a strain on my ear doth fall,
 A tune as threadbare as that "old red shawl,"
 It is tattered, it is torn,
 It shows signs of being worn,
 It's the tune my Uncle hummed from early morn,
 'Twas a common little thing and kind 'a sweet,
 But 'twas sad and seemed to slow up both his feet;
 I can see him shuffling down
 To the barn or to the town,
 A humming.

Authorship

Charles Edward Ives (1874-1954)

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

Gary Bachlund

Charles Edward Ives (1874-1954)

Available translations (or transliterations, if applicable):

SPA

Spanish

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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