Byron wrote the Hebrew Melodies to accompany music by the composer Isaac Nathan which he claimed derived from Synagogue tunes used at the time of the Temple in Jerusalem, although it is likely that most of the music was from more recent European sources. While some of the poems are based on stories from the Book of Job most have no specific religious or Hebrew connotations.
The poems were widely admired, influencing works by Heine and Lermontov and being set to music by composers including Mendelssohn, Schumann and Mussorgsky.
(Summary by Alan Mapstone)
The poems were widely admired, influencing works by Heine and Lermontov and being set to music by composers including Mendelssohn, Schumann and Mussorgsky.
(Summary by Alan Mapstone)
LibriVox recordings are public domain in the United States; copyright status may differ elsewhere.
Chapters
- Chapter 1
She Walks in Beauty
01:55 - Chapter 2
The Harp the Monarch Minstrel Swept
01:40 - Chapter 3
If That High World
01:22 - Chapter 4
The Wild Gazelle
01:48 - Chapter 5
Oh! Weep for Those
01:23 - Chapter 6
On Jordan's Banks
01:28 - Chapter 7
Jephtha's Daughter
01:51 - Chapter 8
Oh! Snatched Away in Beauty's Bloom
01:34 - Chapter 9
My Soul is Dark
01:26 - Chapter 10
I Saw Thee Weep
01:18 - Chapter 11
Thy Days are Done
01:25 - Chapter 12
It is the Hour
01:18 - Chapter 13
Song of Saul Before his Last Battle
01:17 - Chapter 14
Saul
02:31 - Chapter 15
"All is Vanity saith the Preacher"
01:49 - Chapter 16
When Coldness Wraps
02:34 - Chapter 17
Vision of Belshazzar
02:54 - Chapter 18
Sun of the Sleepless
01:03 - Chapter 19
Were my Bosom as False as Thou Deem'st It to Be
01:23 - Chapter 20
Herod's Lament for Mariamne
02:09 - Chapter 21
On the Day of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus
02:17 - Chapter 22
By the Rivers of Babylon we Sat Down and Wept
01:26 - Chapter 23
The Destruction of Semnacherib
02:20 - Chapter 24
From Job
01:24 - Chapter 25
Lines on the Death of Sir Peter Parker, Bart.
02:56