A LOST CHORD
Seated one day at the Organ,
I was weary and ill at ease,
And my fingers wandered idly
Over the noisy keys.
I do not know what I was playing,
Or what I was dreaming then;
But I struck one chord of music,
Like the sound of a great Amen.
It flooded the crimson twilight
Like the close of an Angel’s Psalm,
And it lay on my fevered spirit
With a touch of infinite calm.
It quieted pain and sorrow,
Like love overcoming strife;
It seemed the harmonious echo
From our discordant life.
It linked all perplexed meanings
Into one perfect peace,
And trembled away into silence
As if it were loth to cease.
I have sought, but I seek it vainly,
That one lost chord divine,
Which came from the soul of the Organ,
And entered into mine.
It may be that Death’s bright angel
Will speak in that chord again,–
It may be that only in Heaven
I shall hear that grand Amen.
Adelaide Anne Procter
Geoffery Lewis’ Celestial Navigations “The Hunchback”.
https://youtu.be/_w9BIueWrxk?list=RD_w9BIueWrxk
Was that a completely original text or is it from the novel?
It is an actual poem then set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert and Sullivan) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Chord . It was famous in the late Victorian era and well known even into the Teens and Twenties. Sullivans arrangement of it is particularly haunting.
Very interesting about the song version. Imagine, Caruso sang it for the survivors of the Titanic.
Now I was referring to the video clip that Ed Brault left in his comment. It seems to be a dramatic reading from Hugo’s, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” But I’ve never read the book so I wasn’t sure of the source of the text for the dramatic reading.
And I found a 4 part mens performance (By the Vocal Majority a Barbershop chorus here singing with an organ) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHTaTMYRYRA . I’ve sung a 4 part SATB arrangement in the past so this seems similar from my dim memories, but these gentleman’s execution exceeds any chorus I’ve ever been in…
I guess I picked a good quote for today. I’ve got one more quote from that poetess for tomorrow I think.