The Torch is a song written by the English composer Edward Elgar in 1909 as his Op.60, No.1.
The manuscript is dated 23 December 1909.
On the title-page, the song is dedicated "To YVONNE,"Percy Young (in his Elgar O. M.) says this is "Probably fictitious." and it is described as a "Folk-Song (Eastern Europe),"Folk-Song" probably also fictitious paraphrased by Pietro d’Alba and Edward Elgar."Pietro d’Alba (alias Peter Rabbit) was Elgar’s pseudonym for himself
It was one of a set of a cycle of four songs that he planned, to his own words. It was shortly after writing the song A Child Asleep for Muriel Foster, a few days before the Christmas of 1909 that Elgar received the news of the death of a friend, the soprano Olga Ouroussoff, the young wife of Henry Wood. The inspiration for the songs was the result of this news. Only the first song of the cycle, The Torch and the last, The River were written.
The song was orchestrated in July 1912 and, with its companion song The River, it was first performed by Muriel Foster at the Hereford Music Festival on 11 September 1912.
Lyrics
THE TORCH
Come, O my love ! Come, fly to me; All my soul Cries out for thee : Haste to thy home,- I long for thee, Faint for thee, Worship thee Only, - but Come !
Dark is the wood,- The track's ever lonely and gray; But joyous the blaze That welcomes and shows thee the way.
Come, O my love ! Come, fly to me : All my soul Cries out for thee ! Haste to thy rest,- I long for thee, Sigh for thee, Faint for thee; Come to my breast.
Cold is the stream,- The ford is a danger to thee : My heart is aflame, As the beacon that lights thee to me.
Come, O my love ! Come, fly to me ! All my soul Cries out for thee : Haste to thy home,- I long for thee, Faint for thee, Worship thee Only,- but Come !
Pietro d’Alba. From a Folk-Song (Eastern Europe)
Recordings The Songs of Edward Elgar SOMM CD 220 Neil Mackie (tenor) with Malcolm Martineau (piano), at Southlands College, London, April 1999
Notes
References
Banfield, Stephen, Sensibility and English Song: Critical studies of the early 20th century (Cambridge University Press, 1985) Kennedy, Michael, Portrait of Elgar (Oxford University Press, 1968)
External links