Marguerite Radclyffe Hall – The Art Song Podcast

The Silver Rose

text: Radclyffe Hall, 1910

I’ll sing you a ditty of Nowhere Town.
You climb the hill when the sun goes down,

Step out on the roadway of golden light,
And Nowhere Town lies along to your right.

In Nowhere Town is a Silver Rose,
A magic blossom that swings and grows

So high, that never a man or maid
Has plucked that flower from its fairy glade.

The rose is watered by all the tears
That lovers weep through the countless years,

And warmed by the breath of ardent* sighs,
And lit by the light in lovers’ eyes.

And none may reach it to pluck, save he
Whose love shall last through eternity.

So some sweet evening we’ll go, we two,
And I will gather the rose for you.

*Lehmann omits this word.

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The Art Song Podcast · Episode 6: Liza Lehmann & Radclyffe Hall

In this episode of The Eternal Feminine Podcast Series, we discuss two women: English composer Liza Lehmann (1862-1918) and English poet Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943). Both women lived during the turn of the 19th century; Lehmann was the daughter of famed portrait painter Rudolph Lehmann and his wife Amelia, a singer, composer, and amateur artist. Liza Lehmann enjoyed a successful, if not short career as a concert singer, gaining the admiration of audiences at home and abroad. She began composing after her marriage to Herbert Bedford, an equally talented composer, writer, and inventor. Radclyffe Hall was a novelist and poet, best known for her novel The Well of Loneliness, which sought to raise awareness and understanding of lesbianism in society at large. Her first partner, Mabel Batten, was a well-known amateur singer and composer and it is likely due to this connection that Lehmann knew Radclyffe Hall and came to set her poetry.

Listen to the full podcast to hear our discussion of these two remarkable women and our recording of the piece “The Silver Rose.”

Read more about Liza Lehmann and Radclyffe Hall in “A Whole Lotta Lehmann” and “Trial by Tabloid”.

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