Mn CL19: l>(p\^ Columbia ?Hraliergttp in tfie Citp of iSeto gorb LIBRARY DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC NOVELLO'S ORIGINAL OCTAVO EDITION. To MY FRIEND NICHOLAS KILBURN, ESQ. COMPOSED FOR THE LEEDS MUSICAL FESTIVAL, igoi. THE BLIND GIRL OF CASTEL-CUILLE CANTATA FOR SOPRANO AND BARITONE SOLI, CHORUS, AND ORCHESTRA THE POEM TRANSLATED FROM THE GASCON OF JASMIN BY H. W. LONGFELLOW THE MUSIC COMPOSED BY S. COLERIDGE-TAYLOR. (OP. 43-) PRICE Two SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE. LONDON : NOVELLO AND COMPANY, LIMITED AND NOVELLO. EWER AND CO., NEW YORK. Copyright, igoi, hy Novella and Company^ Limited. The right of Public Representation and Performance is reserved. The purchase of Scores and Parts carries with it the right of Public Performance, If it is desired to use hired or borrowed copies of Scores or Parts, the permission of the Publishers must be first obtained. LONDON : NOVELLO AND COMPANY, LIMITED, PRINTERS. THE BLIND GIRL OF CASTEL-CUILLE. A band of youngsters PART I. Wildly rollicking! AT the foot of the mountain height Kissing, AVliere is perched CasteLCinl]e, Caressing, When the apple, the plum, and the almond-tree With fingers pressing. In the plain below were growing white, Till in the veriest This is the song one might perceive Madness of mirth, as they dance, On a Wednesday morn of Saint Joseph's Eve : They retreat and advance, " The roads should blossom, the roads should Trying whose laugh shall be loudest and bloom, merriest; So fair a bride shall leave her home ! " The roads should blossom, the roads should Should blossom and bloom with garlands gay. bloom. So fair a bride shall pass to-day ! " So fair a bride shall leave her home ! This old Te Deum, rustic rites attending. Should blossom and bloom with garlands gay. Seemed from the clouds descending ; So fair a bride shall pass to-day ! " When lo ! a merry company Of rosy village girls, clean as the eye. BARITONE SOLO. Each one with her attendant swain, Came to the cliff, all singing the same strain ; Meanwhile, whence comes it that among Resembling there, so near unto the sky. These maidens fresh and fair, Rejoicing angels, that kind Heaven has sent Baptiste stands sighing, with silent tongue ? For their delight and our encouragement Is it Saint Joseph would say to us all, Together blending. That love, o'er-hasty, precedeth a fall ? And soon descending 0, no ! for a maiden frail, I trow. The narrow sweep Never bore so lofty a brow ! Of the hill-side steep, What lovers !—they give not a single cai'ess ! They wind aslant To see them so careless and cold to-day. Toward Saint Amaiit, These are grand people, one would say. Through leafy alleys What ails Baptiste ? what grief doth him Of verdurous valleys oppress ? With merry sallies It is, that, half way up the hill, Singing their chant: Dwelleth the blind orphan still. '' The roads should blossom, the roads should bloom. So fair a bride shall leave her home! Should blossom and bloom with garlands gay, Love, the deceiver, them ensnared ; So fair a bride shall pass to-day ! " For them the altar was prepared ; But alas ! the summer's blight. The dread disease that none can stay. The pestilence that walks by night, The sky was blue ; without one cloud of gloom, Took the young bride's sight away. The sun of March was shining brightly, All at the father's stern command was And to the air the freshening wind gave lightly changed; Its breathings of perfume. Their peace was gone, but not their love When one beholds the dusky hedges blossom, estranged ; A rustic bridal, ah ! how sweet it is ! Wearied at home, ere long the lover fled ; To sounds of joyous melodies. Returned but three short days ago. That touch with tenderness the trembling The golden chain they round him throw, bosom, He is enticed, and onward led A band of maidens To marry Angela, and yet Gaily frolicking. Is thinking ever of Margaret. THE BLIND GIRL OF CASTEL-CUILLEc CHORUS. Come! keep the promise of that happier day. Then suddenly a maiden cried, That I may keep the faith to thee I plighted! " Anna, Theresa, Mary, Kate ! What joy have I without thee?—what delight ? Grief wastes my life, and makes it misery; Here comes the cripple Jane ! " And by a Day for the others ever, but for me fountain's side A woman, bent and gray with years, For ever night ! for ever night! Under the mulberry-trees appears. When he is gone 'tis dark ! my soul is sad ! And all towards her run, as fleet I suffer ! 0 my God ! come, make me glad. As had they wings upon their feet. When he is near, no thoughts of day intrude ; It is that Jane, the cripple Jane, Day has blue heavens, but Baptiste has blue Is a soothsayer, wary and kind. eyes ! She telleth fortunes, and none complain. Within them shines for me a heaven of love, She promises one a village swain. A heaven all happiness, like that above, Another a happy wedding-day. No more of grief ! no more of lassitude ! And the bride a lovely boy straightway; Earth I forget,—and heaven, and all distresses, All comes to pass as she avers ; When seated by my side my hand he presses ; She never deceives, she never errs. But when alone, remember ail! But for this once the village seer Where is Baptiste ? he hears not when I call ! Wears a countenance severe. A branch of ivy, dying on the ground, And from beneath her eyebrows thin and white I need some bough to twine around! Her two eyes flash like cannons bright In pity come ! be to my suffering kind ! Aimed at the bridegroom in waistcoat True love, they say, in grief doth more abound! blue. What then—when one is blind ? Who, like a statue, stands in view; *' Who knows ? perhaps I am forsaken ! Changing colour, as well he might, Ah ! woe is me ! then bear me to my grave ! When the beldame, wrinkled and gray, 0 God ! what thoughts within me waken ! Takes the young bride by the hand, Away ! he will return ! I do but rave ! And, with the tip of her reedy wand, He will return ! I need not fear ! Making the sign of the cross, doth say,— He swore it by our Saviour dear ; " Thoughtless Angela, beware ! He could not come at his own will ; Lest, when thou weddest this false bride­ Is weary, or perhaps is ill! groom. Perhaps his heart, in this disguise, Thou diggest for thyself a tomb !" Prepares for me some sweet surprise ! But some one comes! Though blind, my And she was silent; and the maidens fair heart can see ! Saw from each eye escape a swollen tear ; And that deceives me not !—'tis he ! 'tis he ! " But on a little streamlet silver-clear, What are two drops of turbid rain ? Saddened a moment, the bridal train CHORUS. Resumed the dance and song again; And the door ajar is set. " The roads should blossom, the roads should And poor, confiding Margaret bloom, Rises, with outstretched arms, but sightless So fair a bride shall leave her home ! eyes; Should blossom and bloom with garlands gay. 'Tis only Paul, her brother, who thus cries :— So fair a bride shall pass to-day!" BARITONE SOLO. PART II. " x\ngela the bride has passed ! SOPRANO SOLO AND CHORUS. 1 saw the wedding guests go by ; Tell me, my sister, why were we not asked? And from suffering worn and weary, For all are there but you and I! " But beautiful as some fair angel yet. Thus lamented Margaret, In her cottage lone and dreary :— SOPRANO SOLO. " He has arrived ! arrived at last! " Angela married ! and not send Yet Jane has named him not these three days TO tell her secret unto me ! past; 0, speak ! who may the bridegroom be ?" Arrived I yet keeps aloof so far ! And knows that of my night he is the star! BARITONE SOLO. Knows that long months I wait alone, benighted, And count the moments since he went away! " My sister, 'tis Baptiste, thy friend ! " THE BLIND GIRL OF CAST:^L-CUILL^. CHORUS. CHORUS. A cry the blind girl gave, but nothing said ; It was enough ; and Jane no more replied. A milky whiteness spreads upon her cheeks ; Now to all hope her heart is barred and cold ; An icy hand, as heavy as lead, But to deceive the beldame old Descending, as her brother speaks, She takes a sweet, contented air ; Upon her heart, that has ceased to beat, Speaks of foul weather, or of fair. Suspends awhile its life and heat. At every word the maiden smiles! She stands beside the boy, now sore distressed, Thus tlie beguiler she beguiles ; A wax Madonna as a peasant dressed. So that, departing at the evening's close, She says, " She may be saved ! she BARITONE SOLO AND CHORUS. nothing knows ! '' " Hark ! the joyous airs are ringing ! Poor Jane, the cunning sorceress ! Sister, dost thou hear them singing ? Now that thou wouldst, thou art no prophetess! How merrily they laugh and jest! This morning, in the fulness of thy heart, Would we were bidden with the rest ! Thou wast so, far beyond thine art I I would don my hose of homespun gray, And my doublet of linen striped and gay ; PAET III. Perhaps they will come; for they do not Now rings the bell, nine times reverberating, wed And the white daybreak, stealing up the sky, Till to-morrow at seven o'clock, it is said! " Sees in two cottages two maidens waiting.