Maiden's Prayer
Maiden's Prayer | |
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Piano music by E♭ major, C minor | |
Catalogue | Op. 4 |
Published | 1856 |
Duration | 5:46 min. |
"A Maiden's Prayer" (original Polish title: "Modlitwa dziewicy" Op. 4, French: "La prière d'une vierge") is a composition of Polish composer Tekla Bądarzewska-Baranowska (1834–1861). It was published in 1856 in Warsaw, and then as a supplement to the Revue et gazette musicale de Paris in 1859. It is a short piano piece of medium difficulty for intermediate pianists. Some have liked it for its charming and romantic melody; others have described it as "sentimental salon tosh."[who?] The pianist and academic Arthur Loesser described it as "this dowdy product of ineptitude."[This quote needs a citation]
In country music
"Maiden's Prayer" | ||||
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Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys singles chronology | ||||
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The American musician
Wills wrote lyrics for "Maiden's Prayer" and recorded it again in 1941 (
Twilight falls, evening shadows find,
There 'neath the stars, a maiden so fair divine.
The moon on high seemed to see her there.
In her eyes is a light, shining ever so bright,
She whispered a silent prayer.
"Maiden's Prayer" was released in May 1941, and quickly hit number 1 on June 28, 1941, in The Billboard's "Hillbilly and Foreign Record Hits Of the Month".[8]
Relatively few country singers have
Wills recorded the song a third time on the 1963 album Bob Wills Sings and Plays.[4] When he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, "Maiden's Prayer" was one of the works cited.[citation needed]
In popular media
The "Maiden's Prayer" is quoted in the 1930 opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht. It appears midway through act 1, played on an out-of-tune piano at a honky-tonk frequented by prostitutes and their clients. Jakob Schmidt, one of the denizens of Mahagonny, refers to the song as "ewige Kunst" ("eternal art").[citation needed]
"Maiden's Prayer" is heard off-stage in act 4 of
The Rodgers and Hart standard "It Never Entered My Mind" refers to this song in the penultimate line.[citation needed]
In the 1955 Italian Scandal in Sorrento film, Antonio and Violante play the tune together on a piano at the very end of the movie
In Nobuhiko Obayashi's 1977 horror movie House, the character Melody plays the opening section of "A Maiden's Prayer" on the piano a few times.[citation needed]
In 1993, the North Korean Wangjaesan Dance Troupe's VHS tape featured this song in electronic arrangement.[citation needed]
In the 2013 television serial The Tunnel, Anglo-French actor and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg performs a voice-over to the tune of the Maiden's Prayer, singing a mixture of French and English:
Venez dans mes bras, closer to me, dear.
Donnez-vous à moi; set aside all fear.
Restons enlacés pour l'éternité,
Yes, you shall be mine till the end of time.[citation needed]
The piece remains especially popular in Asia. In Japan, the melody of Bądarzewska's Maiden Prayer is played when the platform door of Shinkansen bullet trains closes.[16] In Taiwan, the Maiden's Prayer is played on garbage trucks.[17]
In literature
The Maiden's Prayer was used in a macabre context in
Interpretations
A Maiden's Prayer Op. 4 by Bądarzewska is featured on Lang Lang's 2019 album Piano Book released by Deutsche Grammophon.[19]
References
- ^ 78 Record: Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys - Maiden's Prayer (1941), retrieved 2021-07-20
- ISBN 0195139895.
- ^ McWhorter, Cowboy Fiddler, pp. 59–60: "Bob said, 'He played "The Spanish Two-Step" and I locked the door where he couldn't get out and nobody else could get in, and I made him stay there until he taught me that and "Maiden's Prayer." Finally he nodded. I didn't know whether he needed to go to the bathroom or if I was doing it right, but I let him out.' That Mexican taught him those two tunes."
- ^ a b Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies: Bob Wills – part II Retrieved 2 January 2012
- ^ "Maiden's Prayer", Bob Wills with music sample, AllMusic. Retrieved 1 January 2012
- ^ "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail, Buck Owens review with chart and music sample, AllMusic. Retrieved 1 January 2012
- ^ "A Maiden's Prayer", Bob Wills with music sample, Allmusic. Retrieved 1 January 2012
- ^ "Hillbilly Recordings – Month Ending June 28, 1941" (PDF). The Billboard. Cincinnati, Ohio. 28 June 1941. p. 94. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
- ^ San Antonio Rose Ray Price review with music sample, Allmusic. Retrieved 1 January 2012
- ^ Red Headed Stranger Willie Nelson review with chart and music sample, Allmusic. Retrieved 1 January 2012
- ^ The Everly Brothers, The Masters, Eagle Records, 1997
- ^ "'A Maiden's Prayer': A call to dump all our garbage"[dead link] Archived 2011-08-11 at the Wayback Machine by Leo Maliksi (7 October 2008)
- ^ "In Taiwan, trash disposal is a classical affair". MNN – Mother Nature Network. Archived from the original on 2018-10-03. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
- ^ "Taiwan Enlists Garbage Trucks To Teach the English Language" by Jason Dean, The Wall Street Journal, September 25, 2002 (subscription required)
- ^ "When You Hear Beethoven, It’s Time to Take Out the Trash (and Mingle)" by Amy Qin and Amy Chang Chien, The New York Times, February 8, 2022
- ^ "Shinkansen platform door closing sound "Badarzewska−La prière d'une"". youtube.com. Retrieved 25 November 2023.
- ^ "Kaohsiung (高雄) Taiwan garbage truck song". youtube.com. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
- ^ "The Wind in the Rose-Bush" by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
- ^ "Lang Lang - Badarzewska-Baranowska: The Maiden's Prayer, Op. 4 (Track by Track)". youtube.com. 5 April 2019. Retrieved 25 November 2023.
Bibliography
- McWhorter, Frankie. Cowboy Fiddler in Bob Wills' Band. University of North Texas Press, 1997. ISBN 1-57441-025-3
- Mishler, Craig. The Crooked Stovepipe: Athapaskan Fiddle Music and Square Dancing in Northeast Alaska and Northwest Canada. University of Illinois Press, 1993. ISBN 0-252-01996-2