Sweet And Low: A Song History

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Alfred Tennyson first published The Princess in 1847. It is a long narrative poem about a princess who withdraws from the world of men to found a college for women. For the third edition in 1850 he added several new lyrics.[1] "Sweet and Low" was one of these 1850 additions.[2] Britannica counts it, together with "The Splendour Falls" and "Tears, Idle Tears," among Tennyson's finest lyrics.[1] The poem is a lullaby. A mother hushes her baby, and the wind off the western sea is asked to carry the child's father safely home.[2]

Dark painting of a sailboat on the sea under a moonlit, cloudy sky

Albert Pinkham Ryder, Moonlight Marine, oil and possibly wax on wood, 1870–90. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0).

Composers soon set the lullaby to music. Otto Dresel's version was published in 1855, and later settings came from Gustav Holst, Arthur Somervell and others.[3] The setting that lasted was a part-song for mixed voices by Joseph Barnby (1838–1896). Barnby was born in York and became a prominent choral director and organist in London. He was later precentor at Eton and principal of the Guildhall School of Music, and he was knighted in 1892.[4][5] The song-text database LiederNet dates Barnby's "Sweet and Low" to 1863.[3] IMSLP gives its first publication as 1865, in Novello's The Musical Times.[6]

Barnby's piece was a runaway success. In 1896 the Monthly Musical Record called it "the most popular part-song ever written."[6] A standard music dictionary names it the chief survivor among his many compositions.[4] The melody also travelled well beyond choral societies. Hymnary.org finds it in 51 hymnals and songbooks from 1888 onward, sometimes with new words.[5]

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Sources

  1. Encyclopaedia Britannica: "The Princess".
  2. Representative Poetry Online (University of Toronto Libraries): "The Princess: Sweet and Low".
  3. The LiederNet Archive: "Sweet and low".
  4. Encyclopedia.com (The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music): "Barnby, (Sir) Joseph".
  5. Hymnary.org: "[Sweet and low, sweet and low] (Barnby)".
  6. IMSLP: "Sweet and Low (Barnby, Joseph)".