This edition was prepared by David Anderson — free to download, print, rehearse and perform.
Heraclitus, Op. 110, No. 4
Staff Notation • Secular, Partsongs
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2 editions of this piece
Different typesettings and voicings of the same work. This page shows the main edition; the others are below.
SATB · James Gibb
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Heraclitus, Op. 110, No. 4 by Charles Villiers Stanford — Lyrics
They told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead,
They brought me bitter news to hear and bitter tears to shed.
I wept as I remember'd how often you and I
Had tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky.
And now that thou art lying, my dear old Carian guest,
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About Heraclitus, Op. 110, No. 4
Charles Villiers Stanford's Heraclitus is a setting for SATB choir of William Cory's poignant English text, a translation of a Greek epigram by Callimachus. Stanford, a significant figure in late Victorian and Edwardian English music, here crafts a moving secular part-song. The lyrics lament the death of a friend, Heraclitus, recalling their shared conversations and the enduring power of his voice and wisdom, which even death cannot silence. The music, written for unaccompanied voices, would have been composed around the turn of the twentieth century. Stanford's setting captures the blend of grief and defiant remembrance found in the text, offering a deeply expressive challenge for a mixed choir.
