From the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Flower Drum Song.
It seems that only Rodgers could write such beautiful songs.
— posted by Roger W. Smith
August 2026
“Love, Look Away”
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Category Archives: my favorite music
“In spendour bright”
from Haydn’s The Creation (Die Schöpfung)
a marvelous musical construction of sunrise
recitative, Uriel
In splendour bright is rising now the sun,
And darts his rays; a joyful happy spouse,
A giant proud and glad
To run his measured course.
— posted by Roger W. Smith
August 2026
Handel, Esther
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A magnificent passage::
— posted by Roger W.Smith
May 2026
“Come rather, goddess sage and holy”;
- Air
Il Penseroso (soprano)
Come rather, goddess sage and holy;
Hail, divinest Melancholy,
Whose saintly visage is too bright
To hit the sense of human sight;
Thee bright-hair’d Vesta long of yore,
To solitary Saturn bore.
Handel L’Allegro il Penseroso ed il Moderato
— posted by Roger W, Smith
May 2026
Monteverdi
Posted here:
Deposuit p0tentes
Gloria Patri
from the Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610)
— posted by Roger W. Smith
October 2025
“Mirth, admit me of thy crew!”
And if I give thee honour due,
Mirth, admit me of thy crue
To live with her, and live with thee,
In unreproved pleasures free;
To hear the Lark begin his flight,
And singing startle the dull night,
From his watch-towre in the skies,
Till the dappled dawn doth rise;
Then to com in spight of sorrow,
And at my window bid good morrow,
Through the Sweet-Briar, or the Vine,
Or the twisted Eglantine.
While the Cock with lively din,
Scatters the rear of darknes thin,
And to the stack, or the Barn dore,
Stoutly struts his Dames before,
Oft list’ning how the Hounds and horn,
Chearly rouse the slumbring morn,
From the side of som Hoar Hill,
Through the high wood echoing shrill.
John Milton, “L’Allegro”
Handel, “ Mirth, admit me of thy crew!” (Air), L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato
— posted by Roger W. Smith
August 2025
post updated
The Doxology
The Doxology (“praise God from whom all blessings flow”)
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
How often I heard it in the North Church Congregational in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the First Parish Unitarian Universalist in Canton, Massachusetts when I was growing up.
At the second of these two churches, played on a booming organ by my father: Alan W. Smith. Usually without the choir.
North Church, Congregational, Cambridge, MA
First Parish Unitarian Universalist, Canton, Massachusetts
— posted by Roger W. Smith
May 2025
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Addendum:
The Doxology is quoted repeatedly in Virgil Thomson’s The Plow That Broke the Plains.
the second most beautiful Broadway song?
“We Kiss in a Shadow”
Tuptim, Lun-Tha
Rogers and Hammerstein, The King and I
PDF (below) contains production credits from performances by the St. Paul’s Theatre Guild in Dorchester, MA
My father. Alan W. Smith, was Musical Director.
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See also:
— posted by Roger W, Smith
May 2025
the most beautiful Broadway song, ever
“Something Wonderful”
from Rogers and Hammerstein’s The King and I
“Something Wonderful” is sung by Lady Thiang
My father. Alan W. Smith, was Musical Director of several productions of the King and I in Boston by the St. Paul Theatre Guild.
The role of Lady Thiang was played by Barbara Tyler and Andra Wahl in different productions by the St. Paul Theatre Guild.
I am so proud of my father.
— posted by Roger W. Smith
April 2025
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See also: