The Lost Chord (Arthur Sullivan)
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- (Posted 2017-08-11) CPDL #45833:
- Editor: Frank de Ruyter (submitted 2017-08-11). Score information: A4, 9 pages, 93 kB Copyright: CPDL
- Edition notes: Arrangement for choir SAB or SAT.
- (Posted 2010-05-27) CPDL #21526: (Sibelius 4)
- Editor: Micah Brandhandler (submitted 2010-04-22). Score information: Letter, 2 pages, 56 kB Copyright: Public Domain
- Edition notes: This version is derived from the 1917 edition of "55 Songs and Choruses for Community Singing". MusicXML source file(s) in compressed .mxl format.
General Information
Title: The Lost Chord
Composer: Arthur Sullivan
Lyricist: Adelaide Anne Procter
Number of voices: 1v Voicing: Unison
Genre: Secular, Art song
Language: English
Instruments: A cappella
First published:
Description:
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
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.
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;
linked all perplexed meanings
Into one perfect peace,
And trembled away into silence,
As if it were loath to
I 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.