The American tar: "don't give up the ship." Currier and Ives, 1845. Prints and Photographs Reading Room, Library of Congress.

from Two Poems by John Masefield (1918) by Charles Tomlinson Griffes

Charles Tomlinson Griffes's Two Poems by John Masefield was composed in July 1918 but published posthumously by G. Schirmer in 1920. The first of the two songs in the collection, "An Old Song Re-sung," is a rhythmic piece very much in the spirit of a sea-shanty. The text, by John Masefield (1878-1967), the British poet laureate known as "the Poet of the Sea," recounts a dramatic tale of the pilfered treasures that are lost, along with the pirates' lives, when catastrophe befalls the ship.

Organized in three verses, Griffes's song opens in a cheerful and energetic fashion. The jovial mood is short-lived and deceptive, as the final verse describes the sinking of the ship and the deaths of the drunken seamen. Griffes musically depicts this tragedy with an agitated accompaniment featuring movement by a semitone in the left-hand at the work's conclusion, thereby sealing the sailors' doom.

In addition to housing the published edition of the song, the Music Division at the Library of Congress is also the repository of the holograph version of Griffes's "An Old Song Re-sung," acquired from Griffes's family in 1923. By studying the manuscript in the composer's hand, scholars and musicians can appreciate Griffes's penmanship as well as his attention to detail.

The sailor's adieu. Currier and Ives, 1845. Prints and Photographs Reading Room, Library of Congress.

from Eight Songs, op. 47 (1893) by Edward MacDowell

Although he is primarily known for his piano compositions, Edward MacDowell contributed over forty songs to America's repertoire. His song output can be divided into three stylistic periods. MacDowell's early songs were written during his time in Germany and feature settings of texts by notable German poets, including Goethe and Heine. By the late 1880s, MacDowell was setting English texts, especially those written by contemporary American composers. For his late-period songs, MacDowell frequently set music to his own poems, which often centered on issues such as ideal love and the tranquility of nature.

MacDowell's Eight Songs, op. 47, come from his last period of song composition. Written in 1893 while living in Boston, these songs were penned when MacDowell was at the height of his fame as a composer. The second to last song in the set, "The Sea," is perhaps one of MacDowell's finest songs. Set to a text by William Dean Howells, "The Sea" describes the tragic story of a lonely sweetheart waiting in vain for the return of her lover, who has died in a shipwreck at sea. MacDowell's use of chromaticism and carefully placed eighth rests adds dramatic intensity to the song and suggests the inevitable outcome of the maritime disaster. The Music Division at the Library of Congress houses several of MacDowell's holograph sketches of Eight Songs in its collections, as well as the first edition of the published work (Breitkopf & Härtel, 1893).