Sleep'st thou or wak'st thou (The de'il tak' the wars) (Joseph Haydn)
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- (Posted 2022-07-11) CPDL #69973:
- Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2022-07-11). Score information: A4, 2 pages, 129 kB Copyright: CC BY SA
- Edition notes: Please click on the link for preview/playback/PDF download.
General Information
Title: Sleep'st thou or wak'st thou (The de'il tak' the wars)
Composer: Joseph Haydn
Lyricist: Robert Burns
Number of voices: 1v Voicing: Solo high
Genre: Secular, Folksong
Language: English
Instruments: Keyboard
First published: 1822
Description: Hob. XXXIA.229. An English song confected in "Scottish" style in 1698, the model for Haydn's work was generally accepted as traditional by anthologers of Scots items by the 1780s. As such, but with new words commissioned from Robert Burns, it was sent to Haydn to provide a new harmonization. The resultant song has only the most tenuous of links with the Celtic Tweelight.
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
"The heroine of this most exquisite song was Miss Lorimer of Craigieburn, near Moffat."
Sleep'st thou or wak'st thou, fairest creature;
Rosy morn now lifts his eye,
Numbering evey bud which nature
Waters wi' the tears of joy.
Now, to the streaming fountain,
Or up the heathy mountain,
The hart, hind and roe freely wildly-wanton stray:
In twining hazel bow'rs
His lay the linnet purrs;
The lavrock to the sky
Ascends wi' sangs o' joy;
While the sun and thou arise to bless the day!
Phoebus, gilding the brow of the morning,
Banishes ilk darksome shade,
Nature gladdening and adorning;
Such to me my lovely maid.
When frae my Jeannie parted,
Sad, cheerless, broken-hearted,
Then night's glooomy shades, cloudy, dark, o'ercast my sky:
But when she charms my sight,
In pride of beauty's light;
When through my very heart
Her beaming glories dart;
'Tis then -- 'tis then, I wake to life and joy!