In five-score summers!
Poet: Thomas Hardy
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Poem
1967 |
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Finzi's title: In Five-Score Summers |
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1 | In five-score summers! All new eyes | |
2 | New minds, new modes, new fools, new wise; | |
3 | New woes to weep, new joys to prize; | |
4 | With nothing left of me and you | |
5 | In that live century's vivid view | |
6 | Beyond a pinch of dust or two; | |
7 | A century which, if not sublime, | |
8 | Will show, I doubt not, at its prime, | |
9 | A scope above this blinkered time. | |
10 | - Yet what to me how far above? | |
11 | For I would only ask thereof | |
12 | That thy worm should be my worm, Love! | |
(Hardy, 220) |
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✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦
✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦
Musical Analysis
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Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes - Distributed by Hal Leonard Corporation
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Pedagogical Considerations for Voice Students and Instructors:
✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦
✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦
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lowest |
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stanza 1 | stanza 2 | stanza 3 | stanza 4 | total | |
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✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦
Audio Recordings
The Songs of Gerald Finzi to Words by Thomas Hardy
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Gerald Finzi |
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The English Song Series - 12 |
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✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦✼✦
The following is an analysis of **** by Gerhardus Daniël Van der Watt. Dr. Van der Watt extended permission to post this excerpt from his dissertation on October 8th, 2010. His dissertation dated November 1996, is entitled:
The Songs of Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) To Poems by Thomas Hardy
This excerpt comes from Volume II and begins on page *** and concludes on page ***. To view the methodology used within Dr. Van der Watt's dissertation please refer to: Methodology - Van der Watt.
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The following is an analysis of In Five-Score Summers by Curtis Alan Scheib. Dr. Scheib extended permission to post this excerpt from his dissertation on February 17th, 2012. His dissertation dated 1999, is entitled:
Gerald Finzi's Songs For Baritone On Texts By Thomas Hardy: An Historical And Literary Analysis And Its Effect On Their Interpretation
This excerpt begins on page seventy-four and concludes on page seventy-five.
1967 |
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Finzi's title: In Five-Score Summers |
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In five-score summers! All new eyes | ||
New minds, new modes, new fools, new wise; | ||
New woes to weep, new joys to prize; | ||
With nothing left of me and you | ||
In that live century's vivid view | ||
Beyond a pinch of dust or two; | ||
A century which, if not sublime, | ||
Will show, I doubt not, at its prime, | ||
A scope above this blinkered time. | ||
- Yet what to me how far above? | ||
For I would only ask thereof | ||
That thy worm should be my worm, Love! | ||
(Hardy, 220) |
The poem is Hardy at his most pessimistic, believing that the next century will have forgotten all traces of the poet and his love, and that the future will be no better than the worst of the present. All that is asked for is that they should lie together in death. According to Joy Finzi, Gerald had composed a verse of this song some time earlier and finished it early in 1956. She also relates in her journal that he felt the text was really too personal and thereby unsuitable for setting. He added the subtitle "Meditation" to Hardy's title apparently to try and ease his discomfort with the text. (Banfield, 473) The setting is in G minor and Finzi makes use of a good deal of chromaticism for dramatic effect, especially in the poem's second line which paints a frenetic picture of what is to come (example 41).
Though the pace becomes more steady, the rest of the song maintains a pained chromaticism, the final two measures in the piano echoing the initial vocal phrase.
The preceding was an analysis of In Five-Score Summers by Curtis Alan Scheib. Dr. Scheib extended permission to post this excerpt from his dissertation on February 17th, 2012. His dissertation dated 1999, is entitled:
Gerald Finzi's Songs For Baritone On Texts By Thomas Hardy: An Historical And Literary Analysis And Its Effect On Their Interpretation
The excerpt began on page seventy-four and concluded on page seventy-five.