The Lost Chord

Earlier I was sorting out a box of uncategorised CDs I haven't touched in years when I found an old CD from my past, The Cliff Adams Singers: The Golden Years of Song. These are songs loved by our parents and influenced on us.  Upon review of the 20 tracks, I dawned upon few I'm familiar with and love to this day. One song in particular haunted me: The Lost Chord. With a bit of research, I realised the music is composed by no other than Arthur Sullivan, a setting of an 1858 poem by Adelaide Anne Procter. Sullivan composed it in 1877 whilst tending to his brother on his deathbed.

The Lost Chord was not written for public use but it quickly became a success, the subject of one of the first-ever phonograph recordings in 1888. It has been recorded by prominent singers at the time, including Enrico Caruso, Beniamino Gigli, and Nelson Eddy, among others. 

Below, the haunting but beautiful The Lost Chord, sung by Webster Booth, British Tenor. YouTube, BigTezza12. Accessed June 15, 2020. 



The Lost Chord 
Lyrics by Adelaide Anne Procter
Music composed by Arthur Sullivan. 

Seated one day at the organ
I was weary and ill at ease
And my fingers wandered idly
Over the noisy keys

I know not what I was playing
Or what I was dreaming then;
But I struck one chord of music
Like the sound of a great Amen
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 perplexèd 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 Heav'n
I shall hear that grand Amen

It may be that death's bright angel
Will speak in that chord again
It may be that only in Heav'n
I shall hear that grand Amen.


Resource:

The Lost Chord. Wikipedia. Accessed June 15, 2020.



(c) June 2020. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.