Peter Dawson sings "Bedouin Love Song" poem by Bayard Taylor, music by Ciro Pinsuti

Описание: Peter Dawson sings "Bedouin Love Song" on a Zonophone disc.

"Bedouin Love Song" was once a very famous song, but nobody sings it today. It was a standard in parlors during the reign of King Edward. In that era, nearly all bass singers (or bass-baritones) sang it at one time or another.

Music is by Ciro Pinsuti.

The song's words are taken from a poem titled "Bedouin Song." It was the most popular poem by Bayard Taylor (1825-1878). Taylor was a poet, travel writer, translator, and fiction writer (short stories and novels). He is now largely forgotten, but he enjoyed fame from around 1851 to 1875.

Taylor's words resemble a Shelley poem published 40 years before Taylor wrote "Bedouin Song" (I need to find the title of that Shelley poem). Taylor was a fan of Shelley.

Taylor's poem had been published decades before Ciro Pinsuti wrote the music.

Bayard Taylor was important to American literature in several ways in the 19th century, but his Bedouin poem was his best-loved work.

Many Americans first learned the word "Bedouin" due to the poem's popularity from the 1850s onwards.

A bedouin is one born and raised in the desert or mountain wilderness of the Middle East. Think of the expanses of the Sinai, the Negev, Arabia. A literal translation of the word may be "resident of the desert."

A bedouin in Taylor's time was more likely to ride a camel than ride a "stallion shod with fire" (as Taylor puts it).

Taylor is basically forgotten today despite his many volumes published in a lifetime that made him a literary celebrity. He wrote four novels that sold moderately (he had no great skill as a novelist), and his translation of Faust was influential. He wrote travel books that sold well. The Taylor novel titled Joseph and His Friend has a little fame today since it is regarded as the first "gay" novel. Taylor did not intend for the book to be known that way--he depicts a very close Platonic friendship.

Taylor's "Bedouin Song, stands the test of time (it is still a good poem--worth reading today) but also exerted a big influence on American culture (the past) by introducing the image of a man on a horse in the desert with a passionate love for a lady.

The poem's refrain makes a memorable use of hyperbole--the idea that this love will outlast things that are unlikely to die soon, including the sun, the stars (which are "suns" in their own ways), and time on earth (this refers to the Apocalypse)!

Here are the lyrics of the song:

From the desert I come to thee
On my Arab [horse] shod with fire;
And the winds are left behind
In the speed of my desire.
Under thy window I stand,
And the midnight hears my cry:
I love thee, I love but thee,
With a love that shall not die
Till the sun grows cold,
And the stars are old,
And the leaves of the Judgment Book unfold!

Look from thy window and see
My passion and my pain;
I lie on the sands below,
And I faint in thy disdain.
Let the night-winds touch thy brow
With the heat of my burning sigh,
And melt thee to hear the vow
Of a love that shall not die
Till the sun grows cold,
And the stars are old,
And the leaves of the Judgment Book unfold!

Peter Smith Dawson, born on January 31, 1882, in Adelaide, South Australia, was one of his generation's most versatile singers.

He made superb records of operatic arias, oratorio solos, sentimental ballads, upbeat popular songs, and parlor tunes.

He possessed an incredibly rich bass-baritone voice. He was deft at interpretation, and his enunciation was spectacular.

He came from a humble background. His father was Thomas Dawson, ironworker and plumber.

Peter Dawson sang as a boy soprano at a social at the College Park Congregational Church, St Peters, and was later in the St Andrew's Presbyterian Church choir.

In 1902, Dawson moved to London and studied with Charles Santley and others.

On 20 May 1905 he married Annie Mortimer Noble, a soprano with the stage name of Annette George. They had no children.

He wanted to retire after World War II but the income from singing (and recording) continued to prove alluring. He continued to give his time and talent to recording studios long after others might have retired.

Dawson died on September 27, 1961, in Sydney.