The Lost Chord (Arthur Sullivan)

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CPDL #21526:   Sibelius 4

Editor: Micah Brandhandler (submitted 2010-04-22).   Score information: Letter, 2 pages, 56 kB   Copyright: Public Domain

Edition notes: This version is derived from the 1917 edition of "55 Songs and Choruses for Community Singing".

General Information

Title: The Lost Chord
Composer: Arthur Sullivan
Lyricist: Adelaide A. Proctor^{create page}

Number of voices: 1v   Voicing: Unison

Genre: Secular, Madrigal

Language: English
Instruments: a cappella
Published:

Description:

External websites:

Original text and translations

English text

Seated one day at the organ,
I was weary and ill at ease,
And my fingers wandered idly
Over the noisy keys;

I know not what I was playing,
Or what I was dreaming then,
But I struck one chord of music,
Like the sound of a great Amen.

It flooded the crimson twilight,
Like the close of an Angel's Psalm,
And it lay on my fevered spirit,
With a touch of infinite calm;

It quieted pain and sorrow,
Like love overcoming strife;
It seemed the harmonious echo
From our discordant life;

linked all perplexed meanings
Into one perfect peace,
And trembled away into silence,
As if it were loath to

I sought but I seek it vainly,
That one lost chord divine,
Which came from the soul of the organ,
And entered into mine.

It may be that Death's bright Angel
Will speak in that chord again,
It may be that only in Heav'n
I shall hear that grand Amen.