Just a Song at Twilight | In the United States, we adopted many our “our” folk songs from the native lands of those who immigrated to America and brought their fine music with them.
I love the sweetness of the music and the innocence of the lyric. It almost sounds like a lullaby. I imagine that most people could sing it. It reminds me of the many songs that our parents would sing to (and with) us—on long car trips and camping trips, and every night at bed time. I’d forgotten how much we did sing back then. We each had a song targeted at us individually—mine was “Peg O’ My Heart” but my favorite was “Shine On Harvest Moon”. Even as little children we already had a large catalog of music in our heads.
Lovely. I was going to note that this was another of those songs that has an "intro" section that is melodically different than the rest of the song (is there a musical term for that practice?), but I see in a comment or your reply to a comment below that it may be just the first verse of other verses not shown or played. But in any case, it served a purpose for me here.
We mentioned and talked about that sort of thing (ie, a seemingly musically "different" intro for a song) in an earlier Sometimes a Song column, and I have felt that that practice reminded me of something, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. But hearing this song, for some reason, popped the connection into my head just now. I'm thinking those "intros" before the main melody or chorus takes over, are like the teaser opening scenes of most modern movies these days before the introductory title and credits get displayed and the "meat" of the movie only actually begins after that.
Curious, since (am I remembering correctly?) I think most "old" movies pretty much opened up directly with the title and credits first, and only afterwards did the movie proper begin to play. But these days, it is almost mandatory for movie to have an opening scene to draw the viewer in, then the title and credits followed by the movie proper. Virtually the opposite development from popular songs (at least some) that used to have an intro section first, but modern songs, for the most part now, jump right into the gist (whether chorus or verse) of the song (though an instrumental intro is common enough of course).
Stanley, yes, this is really the "verse" followed by the chorus. The confusion comes from the use of the term "verse" in 20th century musical theater to describe what we now would call "the intro." If you dabble around in theoretical discussions of these old songs, your head will fly off at the technical wonders of these "verse/introductions." It really will. Dabble, if you dare! I learned from one of our readers who remembered this song from an old book that it did indeed have two verses (there really were no "verse/intros" in parlor music) .. and I was glad to learn that, because my trusty American Songbook (1964; not to be confused with the massive and ever-growing collection called The Great American Songbook) let me down on that point. I will say that "Love's Old Sweet Song" appeared when parlor music was about to peak, and who knows? Someone might actually know, but my speculation is that this song is often printed in our time with the FIRST VERSE being presented as a VERSE/INTRO, and was certainly used that way by Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae as though that were the case. There are so many stories to tell and so much to discuss about each one of these great old tunes. It may be that "marketing" was beginning to drive the music "industry" in mid-century when the verse/intros were largely dropped from the recordings of popular songs (Tony Bennett kept the verse/intro in, "I left My Heart in San Francisco," but it was very short). I'm speculating that "air time" and the later desire to put more songs on each LP (after those hit the scene) may have determined producers to "cut to the chase" and do the song proper only. I have no support for this speculation, but I'd say likewise, what Hollywood gives in terms of marketing a film is what "flies in Peoria." In the days of big studio stars, people really wanted to see the major credits first to know WHO would be in the film and who directed it. And I think that they would have been annoyed indeed to have the film interrupted right after it began with credits. I'd give 10 to 1 that modern marketing (and viewers who need to be immediate gratification) have driven that shift to "teaser" approach to film (and television shows). Earlier viewers and listeners had more patience, no doubt of that.
Of course. I will add that I just marvel to think that people who were courting used to go out in a buggy and sing songs like this together. I would have so loved to have grown up in that world.
Dominique, I find this tune so very touching, movingly simple and sweet. Notice that neither Jo Stafford or Gordon MacRae -- singing stars of their day -- do any hot-dogging in their rendition, either. They just sing it as written, with their beautiful voices and lovely harmonization.
Reminds me of my voice teacher, Gwen Roberts, who would tell me to sing The Star-Spangled Banner “without all of that nonsense.” No “hot-dogging,” as you put it. Gwen would have loved that.
ACK! I hate the mangling of "The Star-Spangled Banner." It was much better when the fans used to just sing it in the stadiums! And similarly, I hate soloists who hot-dog "Amazing Grace." Just sing the song!!! Your voice teacher was absolutely right.
I may have some of the words wrong. They well up out of memory (along with a few tears). When I was an only child in the ‘40s, I used to spend a lot of my spare time doodling on the upright piano which had been moved from Grandma’s house, where the whole clan used to sing around it. This song was in one of a series of attractively printed paper booklets called “Treasure Chests”.
Mary, I wrote you a reply, and it disappeared into Cyberspace. Forgive if this shows up twice in two forms! I usually do include the verses in the post, but this week I just forgot to do it. But I only know of one verse to this song, the one sung by Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae. It's that way in my songbook, too, so I assume I am correct there. Most folks know the chorus better than the verse, which hits us more like a lead-in (similar to those appended to popular songs of the mid-20th century) than as a verse, anyhow. It is a LOVELY tune and lyric. Thank you for sharing that sweet memory of your father's singing this to you as a child.
An aside: Tony and I often find these paper booklets in our antiquing outings. In Canada, we have one that was printed by a bus line, for use on what they advertised as "sing-along" bus tours. IMAGINE THAT! Whenever we find such an "artifact," we refer to it as a "Different Universe Alert." Those were more human days, indeed.
Thanks for your response, although I’m not the one whose father sang it to her—that’s Judy, below. We did sing as a family, though.
I’m the one who has been collecting lyrics all my life. You’ve “forced” me to dig through my crumbling piles of heterogenous music to verify my recollection of that second verse. Found it in “Treasure Chest of Songs We Love” (Treasure Chest Publications, New York, 1936).
I did mess up a little bit on the words (Must be getting old 🙃):
Third line should begin “Footsteps may falter…” and it ends “So till the end when life’s dim shadows fall, Love will be found the sweetest song of all.”
Mary, I'm sorry for the confusion. I've had trouble with the comments boxes all day. Things are jumbled and disappearing (on my end -- I hope not others'). Thanks for sharing that second verse! That's one "bad" on my old standby collection from 1964, which is usually quite reliable and includes way more verses than I find eleswhere .. but the second verse got by them somehow. Now I'm wondering why Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae didn't record the second verse. I'll have to write it in my book. Thank you for the info!
Actually, Mary, now I have a theory that the sheetmusic followed the lead of the mid-century "verse/intros" that were so popular then, and printed the first verse of "Love's Old Sweet Song" as though it were an intro, and treated the chorus as "the song." Certainly the fact that people were almost from the beginning referring to the tune as "Just a Song at Twilight" supports this. But when it was originally published, parlor music did not have such verse/intros which were separate from the song and yet let TO it. In answering a comment by Stanley above, it occurred to me that Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae's version of the song, recorded in the 1940's, did treat the first verse as an intro, in a way that more modern listeners would have expected it. That's a lot of gabble, and I don't have any real proof that this is true .. but it seems probable to me. I'd be interested to see how modern art song versions of the song are presented in sheet music. As I mentioned to Stanley, these song admit of no end of stories and discussion and even technical analysis -- for those who can speak in those terms of just how the songs work musically. For most of us, we just love them!
I am 88 years old and raised in a children's home where we had aroller piano we could pump out these beautiful old songs. Many Sunday evenings we kids use to sing our hearts out. Thank you for the memory!
Aw, Marie! That is a sweet memory you shared. Life was so very different in those days. I was a child in the 1960's and I tell people that I grew up in a "Leave it to Beaver" world. I always wanted a player piano, but we never got one, somehow, though we do have a parlor organ. We use it mainly for Christmas caroling parties -- and the old hymns sure do sound good on it, despite the wheezing and coughing it does! I miss the days when everyone knew the old tunes and didn't think it silly to sit around and sing of an evening.
One of my favorite musicals, Meet Me in St. Louis, has its fair share of original songs (since entered into The Songbook) but also recreates time and place marvelously by relying on several old parlor songs, it’s a lot of fun!
Adrian, you beat me to the punchline today! There were a number of musicals that were built around the songs, and the one you mention below is called "On Moonlight Bay," one of those old-style musicals with a thin story line which provides mostly a vehicle for the songs. Yes, you remember a comment I made about Doris Day, but I actually enjoy her singing when she was young and new. What I don't like is the vocal mannerisms she developed in her mid-career. If you listen to her voice when she was a band singer, you hear the difference. She did a great job in "On Moonlight Bay" with these old tunes. Lots of the parlor tunes have made it to the Great American Songbook, or at least to the repertoire of art singers. The editor of my dog-eared "American Songbook" from 1964 (I use it for the guitar notation) was right. People DID know and love these songs, and that is attested to by how many movies they were used in, if not as vocals as background -- to help along the tone. I am always telling Tony what songs are playing in the background of movies and old TV shows .. and in the saying of the title, I always have an "ah-ha" moment of realization that SOMEONE knew that those tunes would -- perhaps subliminally -- evoke a mood suitable to the scene. And often enough, they also were used to enhance a comic scene. You gotta love old movies!
Also I know you’re not crazy about Doris, but I believe they did something similar for her period musicals, on moonlight bay and by the light of the silvery moon, with Gordon McRae too
Adrian, I'm just picky! I like her early voice much better than her later one, when she seems to have depended on some trademark mannerism which I don't like. But she was a gal with some talent, for sure.
Oh I understand completely! I wasn’t holding it against you at all, nobody’s perfect…
I have a far more controversial opinion, one I’m a little scared to bring up on a forum with such close Italian-American ties… I kinda feel the same way about Sinatra! I think his early voice is so much more moving than the later years, which feel less vulnerable and too “cool.” I blame Ava…
If you mean his “ring-a-ding days with the Rat Pack, I’m with you.
To be fair to both him and Doris (and even to those of us who only sing in the congregation and around the house), sometimes we develop mannerisms to compensate for voices and lungs which are no longer working as well as they used to.
I love the sweetness of the music and the innocence of the lyric. It almost sounds like a lullaby. I imagine that most people could sing it. It reminds me of the many songs that our parents would sing to (and with) us—on long car trips and camping trips, and every night at bed time. I’d forgotten how much we did sing back then. We each had a song targeted at us individually—mine was “Peg O’ My Heart” but my favorite was “Shine On Harvest Moon”. Even as little children we already had a large catalog of music in our heads.
Lovely. I was going to note that this was another of those songs that has an "intro" section that is melodically different than the rest of the song (is there a musical term for that practice?), but I see in a comment or your reply to a comment below that it may be just the first verse of other verses not shown or played. But in any case, it served a purpose for me here.
We mentioned and talked about that sort of thing (ie, a seemingly musically "different" intro for a song) in an earlier Sometimes a Song column, and I have felt that that practice reminded me of something, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. But hearing this song, for some reason, popped the connection into my head just now. I'm thinking those "intros" before the main melody or chorus takes over, are like the teaser opening scenes of most modern movies these days before the introductory title and credits get displayed and the "meat" of the movie only actually begins after that.
Curious, since (am I remembering correctly?) I think most "old" movies pretty much opened up directly with the title and credits first, and only afterwards did the movie proper begin to play. But these days, it is almost mandatory for movie to have an opening scene to draw the viewer in, then the title and credits followed by the movie proper. Virtually the opposite development from popular songs (at least some) that used to have an intro section first, but modern songs, for the most part now, jump right into the gist (whether chorus or verse) of the song (though an instrumental intro is common enough of course).
Stanley, yes, this is really the "verse" followed by the chorus. The confusion comes from the use of the term "verse" in 20th century musical theater to describe what we now would call "the intro." If you dabble around in theoretical discussions of these old songs, your head will fly off at the technical wonders of these "verse/introductions." It really will. Dabble, if you dare! I learned from one of our readers who remembered this song from an old book that it did indeed have two verses (there really were no "verse/intros" in parlor music) .. and I was glad to learn that, because my trusty American Songbook (1964; not to be confused with the massive and ever-growing collection called The Great American Songbook) let me down on that point. I will say that "Love's Old Sweet Song" appeared when parlor music was about to peak, and who knows? Someone might actually know, but my speculation is that this song is often printed in our time with the FIRST VERSE being presented as a VERSE/INTRO, and was certainly used that way by Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae as though that were the case. There are so many stories to tell and so much to discuss about each one of these great old tunes. It may be that "marketing" was beginning to drive the music "industry" in mid-century when the verse/intros were largely dropped from the recordings of popular songs (Tony Bennett kept the verse/intro in, "I left My Heart in San Francisco," but it was very short). I'm speculating that "air time" and the later desire to put more songs on each LP (after those hit the scene) may have determined producers to "cut to the chase" and do the song proper only. I have no support for this speculation, but I'd say likewise, what Hollywood gives in terms of marketing a film is what "flies in Peoria." In the days of big studio stars, people really wanted to see the major credits first to know WHO would be in the film and who directed it. And I think that they would have been annoyed indeed to have the film interrupted right after it began with credits. I'd give 10 to 1 that modern marketing (and viewers who need to be immediate gratification) have driven that shift to "teaser" approach to film (and television shows). Earlier viewers and listeners had more patience, no doubt of that.
This is precious. Thank you.
Dominique, I'm so glad you enjoyed it. To me such songs never grow old.
Of course. I will add that I just marvel to think that people who were courting used to go out in a buggy and sing songs like this together. I would have so loved to have grown up in that world.
So do I marvel at that. It was indeed a different world.
Dominique, I find this tune so very touching, movingly simple and sweet. Notice that neither Jo Stafford or Gordon MacRae -- singing stars of their day -- do any hot-dogging in their rendition, either. They just sing it as written, with their beautiful voices and lovely harmonization.
Reminds me of my voice teacher, Gwen Roberts, who would tell me to sing The Star-Spangled Banner “without all of that nonsense.” No “hot-dogging,” as you put it. Gwen would have loved that.
Hooray for your teacher! I, too.think that our National Anthem should be sung “straight”. Thought I was the only one.
ACK! I hate the mangling of "The Star-Spangled Banner." It was much better when the fans used to just sing it in the stadiums! And similarly, I hate soloists who hot-dog "Amazing Grace." Just sing the song!!! Your voice teacher was absolutely right.
What—no second verse??
Even today we hear love’s song of yore.
Deep in our hearts it dwells forever more.
Twilight may darken, weary grow the way,
Still we can hear it at the close of day.
Then in the dark, when life’s grim shadows fall,
Love will remain the sweetest song of all.
I may have some of the words wrong. They well up out of memory (along with a few tears). When I was an only child in the ‘40s, I used to spend a lot of my spare time doodling on the upright piano which had been moved from Grandma’s house, where the whole clan used to sing around it. This song was in one of a series of attractively printed paper booklets called “Treasure Chests”.
Mary, I wrote you a reply, and it disappeared into Cyberspace. Forgive if this shows up twice in two forms! I usually do include the verses in the post, but this week I just forgot to do it. But I only know of one verse to this song, the one sung by Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae. It's that way in my songbook, too, so I assume I am correct there. Most folks know the chorus better than the verse, which hits us more like a lead-in (similar to those appended to popular songs of the mid-20th century) than as a verse, anyhow. It is a LOVELY tune and lyric. Thank you for sharing that sweet memory of your father's singing this to you as a child.
An aside: Tony and I often find these paper booklets in our antiquing outings. In Canada, we have one that was printed by a bus line, for use on what they advertised as "sing-along" bus tours. IMAGINE THAT! Whenever we find such an "artifact," we refer to it as a "Different Universe Alert." Those were more human days, indeed.
Thanks for your response, although I’m not the one whose father sang it to her—that’s Judy, below. We did sing as a family, though.
I’m the one who has been collecting lyrics all my life. You’ve “forced” me to dig through my crumbling piles of heterogenous music to verify my recollection of that second verse. Found it in “Treasure Chest of Songs We Love” (Treasure Chest Publications, New York, 1936).
I did mess up a little bit on the words (Must be getting old 🙃):
Third line should begin “Footsteps may falter…” and it ends “So till the end when life’s dim shadows fall, Love will be found the sweetest song of all.”
I believed it then, and know it now.
Mary, I'm sorry for the confusion. I've had trouble with the comments boxes all day. Things are jumbled and disappearing (on my end -- I hope not others'). Thanks for sharing that second verse! That's one "bad" on my old standby collection from 1964, which is usually quite reliable and includes way more verses than I find eleswhere .. but the second verse got by them somehow. Now I'm wondering why Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae didn't record the second verse. I'll have to write it in my book. Thank you for the info!
Actually, Mary, now I have a theory that the sheetmusic followed the lead of the mid-century "verse/intros" that were so popular then, and printed the first verse of "Love's Old Sweet Song" as though it were an intro, and treated the chorus as "the song." Certainly the fact that people were almost from the beginning referring to the tune as "Just a Song at Twilight" supports this. But when it was originally published, parlor music did not have such verse/intros which were separate from the song and yet let TO it. In answering a comment by Stanley above, it occurred to me that Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae's version of the song, recorded in the 1940's, did treat the first verse as an intro, in a way that more modern listeners would have expected it. That's a lot of gabble, and I don't have any real proof that this is true .. but it seems probable to me. I'd be interested to see how modern art song versions of the song are presented in sheet music. As I mentioned to Stanley, these song admit of no end of stories and discussion and even technical analysis -- for those who can speak in those terms of just how the songs work musically. For most of us, we just love them!
The loveliest version of that song I ever heard was my father singing me to sleep with it when I was a little girl.
Isn't that a sweet memory? We grew up in a different world, Judy.
I am 88 years old and raised in a children's home where we had aroller piano we could pump out these beautiful old songs. Many Sunday evenings we kids use to sing our hearts out. Thank you for the memory!
Aw, Marie! That is a sweet memory you shared. Life was so very different in those days. I was a child in the 1960's and I tell people that I grew up in a "Leave it to Beaver" world. I always wanted a player piano, but we never got one, somehow, though we do have a parlor organ. We use it mainly for Christmas caroling parties -- and the old hymns sure do sound good on it, despite the wheezing and coughing it does! I miss the days when everyone knew the old tunes and didn't think it silly to sit around and sing of an evening.
One of my favorite musicals, Meet Me in St. Louis, has its fair share of original songs (since entered into The Songbook) but also recreates time and place marvelously by relying on several old parlor songs, it’s a lot of fun!
Adrian, you beat me to the punchline today! There were a number of musicals that were built around the songs, and the one you mention below is called "On Moonlight Bay," one of those old-style musicals with a thin story line which provides mostly a vehicle for the songs. Yes, you remember a comment I made about Doris Day, but I actually enjoy her singing when she was young and new. What I don't like is the vocal mannerisms she developed in her mid-career. If you listen to her voice when she was a band singer, you hear the difference. She did a great job in "On Moonlight Bay" with these old tunes. Lots of the parlor tunes have made it to the Great American Songbook, or at least to the repertoire of art singers. The editor of my dog-eared "American Songbook" from 1964 (I use it for the guitar notation) was right. People DID know and love these songs, and that is attested to by how many movies they were used in, if not as vocals as background -- to help along the tone. I am always telling Tony what songs are playing in the background of movies and old TV shows .. and in the saying of the title, I always have an "ah-ha" moment of realization that SOMEONE knew that those tunes would -- perhaps subliminally -- evoke a mood suitable to the scene. And often enough, they also were used to enhance a comic scene. You gotta love old movies!
Also I know you’re not crazy about Doris, but I believe they did something similar for her period musicals, on moonlight bay and by the light of the silvery moon, with Gordon McRae too
Adrian, I'm just picky! I like her early voice much better than her later one, when she seems to have depended on some trademark mannerism which I don't like. But she was a gal with some talent, for sure.
Oh I understand completely! I wasn’t holding it against you at all, nobody’s perfect…
I have a far more controversial opinion, one I’m a little scared to bring up on a forum with such close Italian-American ties… I kinda feel the same way about Sinatra! I think his early voice is so much more moving than the later years, which feel less vulnerable and too “cool.” I blame Ava…
If you mean his “ring-a-ding days with the Rat Pack, I’m with you.
To be fair to both him and Doris (and even to those of us who only sing in the congregation and around the house), sometimes we develop mannerisms to compensate for voices and lungs which are no longer working as well as they used to.