Ethelbert Nevin

Many of Ethelbert Nevin's approximately 85 songs were favorites of turn of the century opera singers, especially the songs "The Rosary" and "Nightingale's Song."

Photo: Ethelbert Nevin at piano, public domain

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About

Born in Pittsburgh, Ethelbert Nevin was the son of a writer and a pianist. The first grand piano carried over the Allegheny mountains was for his mother.

Nevinb began playing piano before age six and wrote his first musical composition at age 11. He had a career as both a virtuoso pianist and composer, settling at times in both Pittsburgh and Boston. After spending many years in Europe, Nevin gave piano recitals 1898 with the dancer Isadore Duncan in New York City. Duncan “illustrated in classic dances” the piano music of Nevin.

In addition to his 85 songs, Nevin composed 55 piano works, more than a dozen choral works, and other pieces, though no large scale works.

–Christie Finn
Source: Deane L. Root’s article in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians

Related Information

Songs

Recordings

Paul Robeson - The Complete EMI Sessions

(Charles Wakefield Cadman, Henry T. Burleigh, Benjamin Carr, Will Marion Cook, Stephen Foster, Langston Hughes, Carrie Jacobs-Bond, Ethelbert Nevin, Oscar Rasbach and Oley Speaks)

1938

The First Opera Recordings: A Survey

(Ethelbert Nevin)

2003

Rosa Ponselle On the Air, Vol. 1

(Carrie Jacobs-Bond, Ethelbert Nevin and Charles Gilbert Spross)

2000

Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Contralto

(John Alden Carpenter, Stephen Foster, Ethelbert Nevin and John Stafford Smith)

1935

Paul Sperry Sings Songs of an Innocent Age

(Amy Marcy Beach, Charles Wakefield Cadman, John Alden Carpenter, George Whitefield Chadwick, Arthur Foote, Henry F. Gilbert, Charles Griffes, Charles Ives, Edward MacDowell and Ethelbert Nevin)

1990

Books

Sheet Music

A Bed-Time Song

Composer(s): Ethelbert Nevin

Free via IMSLP

An African Love Song

Composer(s): Ethelbert Nevin

Free via IMSLP

At Rest

Composer(s): Ethelbert Nevin

Free via IMSLP

Ethelbert Nevin, Song Album II (Recital Publications)

Composer(s): Ethelbert Nevin

Find at your Local Library

Five Songs, Op. 12

Composer(s): Ethelbert Nevin

Song(s): 1. A Summer Day
2. Beat upon mine, little heart
3. In a Bower
4. Little Boy Blue
5. At Twilight (Peyton Van Rensselaer)

Free via IMSLP

I Once Had a Sweet Little Doll, Dears

Composer(s): Ethelbert Nevin

Free via IMSLP

Mighty Lak' a Rose

Composer(s): Ethelbert Nevin

Free via IMSLP

Serenade

Composer(s): Ethelbert Nevin

Free via IMSLP

Songs from Vineacre, Op. 28

Composer(s): Ethelbert Nevin

Song(s): 1. A Necklace of Love
2. Mon Desir
3. Sleeping and Dreaming
4. The Nightingale's Song
5. The Dream-Maker Man
6. The Silver Moon (La Lune Blanche)
7. Ein Liedchen
8. Ein Heldenlied

Free via IMSLP

Stars of the Summer Night

Composer(s): Ethelbert Nevin

Free via IMSLP

The Milkmaid's Song

Composer(s): Ethelbert Nevin

Free via IMSLP

The Rosary

Composer(s): Ethelbert Nevin

Free via IMSLP

The Rosary

Composer(s): Ethelbert Nevin

Buy via Schott

The Woodpecker

Composer(s): Ethelbert Nevin

Free via IMSLP

To Anne

Composer(s): Ethelbert Nevin

Free via IMSLP

When All the World is Young, Lad

Composer(s): Ethelbert Nevin

Free via IMSLP

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