Oh! ’Tis Merry When the Moonbeams (Wilbur Fisk Heath)

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• (Posted 2023-10-26)  CPDL #76711:     

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2023-10-26).   Score information: Letter, 12 pages, 516 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: Oh! ’Tis Merry When the Moonbeams
Composer: Wilbur Fisk Heath
Lyricist: Charles Jeffreys
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1879 Ivison, Blakeman and Company
Description: 

Original text and translations

English text

Oh! ’tis merry when the moonbeams
O’er the sparkling waters play,
And a thousand stars are flashing
From the billows’ foaming spray.

Oh! ’tis sweet to hear the murmurs
Stealing gently from the shores,
When the melody is mingling
With the music of the oars;
O’er the billows sounding far,
Hark! the gondolier’s guitar;
Fairer sky has never shone
With thy beams, thou placid moon!

I could fancy, in the ripple,
That I see the Naiads play,
While the siren mermaid cheers me
With the magic of her lay.
There is music in the sighing
Of the night-wind’s dying fall,
As it meets the rippling waters,
That is dearer far than all.

O’er the billows’ roaming far...
Come, then, with thy sweet guitar;
Fairer night has never shone,
Speed thy bark, then gaily on!
Oh! ’tis merry when the moonbeams
O’er the sparkling waters play;
And a thousand stars are flashing
From the billows’ foaming spray.