How Beautiful Is Night

Composer: FARNON, Robert
  • Farnon composed this piece in 1947.1
  • This piece was inspired by the opening of Thalaba (written 1799-1800), an epic poem by Robert Southey (1774-1843)2

How beautiful is night!
A dewy freshness fills the silent air;
No mist obscures, nor cloud, nor speck, nor strain,
Breaks the serene of heaven;
In full-orb’d glory younder Moon divine
Rolls through the dark blue depths.
Beneath her steady ray
The desert-circle spreads,
Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky.
How beautiful is night!

From Thalaba by Robert Southey

Sources

  1. David Ades, “Farnon, Robert,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed September 25, 2019,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000046073.
  2. Tim McDonald, liner notes to Robert Farnon, Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Adrian Leaper, Marco Polo 8.223401, CD, 1991.

Cut IDs

21522