There Lurks a Tear Jazz Ensemble - Digital Sheet Music
21564983
There Lurks a Tear
21564983
21564983
21564983
Details
Jazz Ensemble Jazz Ensemble - Digital Download
SKU: A0.970746
Composed by Mike Strand. Concert,Jazz,Latin,World. Score and parts. 3 pages. Michael M. Strand #5025123. Published by Michael M. Strand (A0.970746).By Mike Strand, ASCAP 
This is a lead sheet for a bossa nova, ideal for a jazz ensemble, large, or small, with a singer. Â It's a good foundation for a variety of arrangements, contrafacts, and improvisations.
The lyrics are by Lord George Gordon Byron, his poem "My Soul Is Dark".
The audio sample is a bossa nova accompaniment generated by iReal Pro, combined with my melody from Finale PrintMusic. For this sample, you will hear a cello for the part with lyrics, suggesting a baritone or bass singer. Or a mezzo or soprano may sing it an octave higher, as written in the lead sheet. You will hear an oboe for the musical introduction and bridges.Â
There Lurks a Tear has an interesting background. I discovered that the modern music idioms of tango and bossa nova are excellent for conveying its sad and dejected mood.
Here is that background:
Lord George Gordon Byron, the British romantic poet and satirist, wrote a collection of thirty poems, the "Hebrew Melodies", in 1814-1815. The ninth of these, "My Soul Is Dark", provided the lyrics to this bossa nova. The phrase in the poem, "If in these eyes there lurk a tear", motivated the title, There Lurks a Tear.
Byron’s "My Soul is Dark" expresses a sad, dejected mood that can effectively be conveyed with tango music. In 2004, I wrote a tango "art song", entitled "My Soul Is Dark", for piano and bass singer, from which There Lurks a Tear is derived. The art song version was performed in public in a Washington Musica Viva concert on October 23, 2005. Gary Poster sang bass, accompanied by Carl Banner on the piano.
You may learn more about "Hebrew Melodies" and their connection with Isaac Nathan, a composer and contemporary of Byron, from the following link: https://www.newsteadabbeybyronsociety.org/works/downloads/hebrew_melodies.pdf
Â
Here is the poem, "My Soul Is Dark", by Lord Byron, as it is used in There Lurks a Tear:
Â
My Soul Is Dark, Lord George Gordon Byron
My soul is dark – Oh! quickly string
The harp I yet can brook to hear;
And let thy gentle fingers fling
Its melting murmurs o’er mine ear.
If in this heart a hope be dear,
That sound shall charm it forth again:
If in these eyes there lurk a tear,
‘Twill flow, and cease to burn my brain.
Â
(Instrumental bridge, then):
‘Twill flow, and cease to burn my brain.
Â
But bid the strain be wild and deep,
Nor let thy notes of joy be first:
I tell thee, minstrel, I must weep,
Or else this heavy heart will burst;
For it hath been by sorrow nursed,
And ached in sleepless silence, long;
And now ’tis doomed to know the worst,
And break at once – or yield to song.
 (Instrumental bridge, then):
And break at once – or yield to song.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard’s global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.
About Digital Downloads
Digital Downloads are downloadable sheet music files that can be viewed directly on your computer, tablet or mobile device. Once you download your digital sheet music, you can view and print it at home, school, or anywhere you want to make music, and you don’t have to be connected to the internet. Just purchase, download and play!
PLEASE NOTE: Your Digital Download will have a watermark at the bottom of each page that will include your name, purchase date and number of copies purchased. You are only authorized to print the number of copies that you have purchased. You may not digitally distribute or print more copies than purchased for use (i.e., you may not print or digitally distribute individual copies to friends or students).
