Note to the Cantata

The annotated musical directions which here accompany `The Cantata', arranged for the composer's use, were first sent with the newly-completed text in a private letter to Mr. Gibson Peacock, of Philadelphia.

I am enabled to give these annotations and the author's own introduction to his work through the kindness of Mr. Peacock: the friend who, while yet an entire stranger, awakened and led the public recognition of Mr. Lanier's place in the world of art. M. D. L.

"Baltimore, January 18, 1876.

" . . . The enclosed will show you partly what I have been doing. . . . The Centennial Commission has invited me to write a poem which shall serve as the text for a Cantata (the music to be by Dudley Buck, of New York), to be sung at the opening of the Exhibition, under Thomas' direction. . . . I've written the enclosed. Necessarily I had to think out the musical conceptions as well as the poem, and I have briefly indicated these along the margin of each movement. I have tried to make the whole as simple and as candid as a melody of Beethoven's: at the same time expressing the largest ideas possible, and expressing them in such a way as could not be offensive to any modern soul. I particularly hope you'll like the Angel's song, where I have endeavored to convey, in one line each, the philosophies of Art, of Science, of Power, of Government, of Faith, and of Social Life. Of course I shall not expect that this will instantly appeal to tastes peppered and salted by [certain of our contemporary writers]; but one cannot forget Beethoven, and somehow all my inspiration came in these large and artless forms, in simple Saxon words, in unpretentious and purely intellectual conceptions, while nevertheless I felt, all through, the necessity of making a genuine song — and not a rhymed set of good adages — out of it. I adopted the trochees of the first movement because they COMPEL a measured, sober, and meditative movement of the mind; and because, too, they are not the genius of our language. When the troubles cease, and the land emerges as a distinct unity, then I fall into our native iambics. . . ."

"Baltimore, January 25, 1876.

"My Dear Friend: — Your praise, and your wife's, give me a world of comfort. I really do not believe anything was ever written under an equal number of limitations; and when I first came to know all the conditions of the poem I was for a moment inclined to think that no genuine work could be produced under them.

"As for the friend who was the cause of the compliment, it was, directly,
Mr. Taylor. . . . INDIRECTLY, YOU are largely concerned in it. . . .
I fancy [all] this must have been owing much to the reputation
which you set a-rolling so recently. . . .

"So, God bless you both.

"Your friend, S. L."

[End of original text.]

Differences between the editions of 1891 & 1916 (printings of 1898 & 1918).

Other than errors resulting from corruption of the plates over 20 years, the following differences are the only changes:

1) The 1898 copy was printed by Trow's Printing and Bookbinding Company, New York. The 1918 copy was printed by The Scribner Press.

2) The dedication of the poem "Sunrise", at the beginning of this volume, is in the 1918 copy, but not in the 1898 copy.

3) In the 1898 copy, the last line of "From the Flats" is:

"`Lull' sings a little brook!"

In the 1918 copy the last line has been changed to:

"Bright leaps a living brook!"

4) In the 1898 copy, the 5th line of "Laus Mariae" is:

"So mixt each morn and night rise salient heaps:"

In the 1918 copy the 5th line has been changed to:

"So twixt each morn and night rise salient heaps:"

5) The footnote to "The Raven Days" (preceding it in this etext) is in the 1918 copy, but not in the 1898 copy.

6) Two poems, "Our Hills" and "Laughter in the Senate", are in the 1918 copy, but not in the 1898 copy.

Other notes to the text:

1) The Charlotte Cushman referred to in several poems is most likely Charlotte Saunders Cushman, an American actress, 1816-76.

2) In "The Hard Times in Elfland", the last line of the 50th stanza read in the original as:

"Thus we become the sport of Fate."

This has been changed to:

"Thus we became the sport of Fate."

This is because, in context, the past tense seems to fit better, and therefore this change allows the text to flow better. It should not alter the content in any meaningful sense.

3) Several mentions are made in this text to Shakespeare. The variant spelling `Shakspere' was originally used in some occurrences.