Etta Parker

Etta Parker was the first composer to set a text of Emily Dickinson to music.

Print This Page

About

Parker’s “Have You Got a Brook in Your Little Heart?” was the first song setting of a poem by Emily Dickinson. The song was part of her 1896 cycle Three Songs and the only song in the cycle to set Dickinson’s text. The song was published six years after Dickinson’s poetry was first published. Dickinson’s sister Lavinia gave the song her blessing.

Songs

Recordings

Dwell in Possibility: Dickinson in Song

(Ernst Bacon, Aaron Copland, Celius Dougherty, John Woods Duke, Lee Hoiby, Richard Hundley, Jake Heggie, Lori Laitman, Libby Larsen, Etta Parker, Simon Sargon, Leo Smit and Richard Pearson Thomas)

2004

Sheet Music

Have You Got a Brook in Your Little Heart?

Composer(s): Etta Parker

Find it at your Local Library

Pippa's Song (The Year's at the Spring)

Composer(s): Etta Parker

Find it at your Local Library

Support us and help us grow

Dear friends, Thank you for helping us build a comprehensive online archive of American song. Your gift is greatly appreciated.