Click to view the track list for CD #1
James Joyce at the Piano in Paris, 1939 James Joyce: Music in the Novels and Poems
CD #1 Songs
Artwork for CD #1 cover

James Joyce Quote
Sir John Stevenson is perhaps best known for his collaboration with Thomas Moore in several musical works where he provided adaptations, including Moore's National Airs, in which "Oft in the Stilly Night" first appeared.
James Joyce Unquote

Click to play music clip of track 4

From CD #1:
Oft in the Stilly Night

Words by Thomas Moore;
musical arrangement by Sir John Stevenson

Song Lyrics

From National Airs by Thomas Moore
 

(Scotch Air)*
Oft in the Stilly Night Sheet Music

Oft, in the stilly night,
Ere Slumber's chain has bound me,
Fond Memory brings the light
Of other days around me;
The smiles, the tears,
Of boyhood's years,
The words of love then spoken;
The eyes that shone,
Now dimm'd and gone,
The cheerful hearts now broken!
Thus, in the stilly night,
Ere Slumber's chain hath bound me,
Sad Memory brings the light
Of other days around me.

When I remember all
The friends, so link'd together,
I've seen around me fall
Like leaves in wintry weather;
I feel like one,
Who treads alone
Some banquet-hall deserted,
Whose lights are fled,
Whose garlands dead,
And all but he departed!
Thus, in the stilly night,
Ere Slumber's chain hath bound me,
Sad Memory brings the light
Of other days around me.


*The text of the poem is from an early U.S. edition of The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore. The wording and punctuation differ minutely from the lyrics in the sheet music, which replaces boyhood's with childhood's, hearts with heart, and hath bound me with has bound me.


Notes on the Song

Coming soon....


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