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A Boy's Summer Song - (2013)
Paul Laurence Dunbar
for baritone and piano
'Tis fine to play
In the fragrant hay,
And romp on the golden load;
To ride old Jack
To the barn and back,
Or tramp by a shady road.
To pause and drink,
At a mossy brink;
Ah, that is the best of joy,
And so I say
On summer's day,
What's so fine as being a boy? Ha, Ha!
With line and hook
By a babbling brook,
The fisherman's sport we ply;
And list the song
Of the feathered throng
That flit in the branches nigh.
At last we strip
For a quiet dip;
Ah, that is the best of joy.
For this I say
On a summer's day,
What's so fine as being a boy? Ha, Ha!2 pages, circa 1' 45"
Paul Laurence Dunbar
The text appears in Dunbar's collection of poems titled Lyrics Of Sunshine and Shadow (1901). For more information on Dunbar, please see my setting the marvelous repository for his work at Wright State University Libraries' Paul Laurence Dunbar Digital Collection.
The setting is lightly syncopated, bright in tempo and feeling and intended to be a short celebratory romp of the simplicity of summertime through the innocent perceptions of a boy.
The score for A Boy's Summer Song is available as a free PDF download, though any major commercial performance or recording of the work is prohibited without prior arrangement with the composer. Click on the graphic below for this piano-vocal score.
