Catalogue title: 26 Welsh Songs, WoO 155.

Scoring: 1-2 voice(s), violin, cello, piano (or harp).

Composed: 1810-15.

Individual item 23 from the corresponding collection, not the complete set.... Read more

Catalogue title: 26 Welsh Songs, WoO 155.

Scoring: 1-2 voice(s), violin, cello, piano (or harp).

Composed: 1810-15.

Individual item 23 from the corresponding collection, not the complete set.

Item in the set: The old strain. Andante espressivo, amoroso (B minor).

Sung text (original language):
My pleasant home be side the Dee!
I often sigh to think of thee,
dear scenes of love and peace and
ease,
how diff ’rent all from scenes like
these!
My soldier brave I’ve follow’d far
but sicken at these sights of war.
The nod at church, the conscious
smile,
The haste to help me at the stile,
The pleasant walk at summer eve,
The parting kiss at taking leave:
O hours! That once with Tom were
past,
Dear happy hours! too sweet to last.
Yet Love, I know, always cure
The ills that we from Love endure;
And Tom can with a single smile
The weariest of my thoughts beguile,
Dear pleasant home beside the Dee!
I must not - will not - think of thee.

William Smyth (1765-1849)

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