Their time on earth was ephemeral
But their musical genius lives on
Great works that were phenomenal
Are revived at every special occasion
Hank Williams is revered as a musician
Of country classics that have stood the test of time
Songs that evoke the human condition
Three decades of living when he died in his prime
Thirty-one was sufficient for Schubert
To make permanent his fame
Thirty-five years was the time Mozart
Had to immortalize his name
The brilliant Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Had only thirty-seven years to compose
Some musicians called him the 'African Mahler'
What he could have achieved no one knows
At thirty-eight Mendelssohn did shine
One year younger than his contemporary
Frederic Chopin at the age of thirty-nine
They are together in celestial harmony
For forty-six years Robert Schumann
Lived on earth to make his mark
Tchaikovsky had a fifty-three-year span
Before his bright light went dark
At fifty-five John Field left this earth
He is credited with inventing the nocturne
Ireland was the country of his birth
He moved to Russia never to return
The demise of Claude Debussy at fifty-six
And Ludwig Van Beethoven at fifty-seven
Although they were a century betwixt
They too are joined in musicians heaven
Antonio Vivaldi made his exit at sixty-three
Johannes Brahms when he was sixty-four
'Four Seasons' is my favorite symphony
They knew how to write a perfect score
At twenty-seven he was the composer
Of 'Last Date' and he wrote several more
The self-taught pianist Floyd Cramer
Also left this world at age sixty-four
Johann Sebastian Bach at sixty-five
Went to that orchestra in the sky
Until he was seventy-four Handel was alive
To write music that lifts our spirits high
Franz Liszt made it to seventy-five
Before his obituary was written
But at seventy-seven the one who did survive
Them all was Franz Joseph Haydn
Leonard Cohen was a Canadian songwriter
Whose lyrics of pathos are appreciated
The whole world is richer and brighter
Because of the eighty-two years that he existed
American composer William Grant Still
Whose prolific work make a heavy tome
Of ballets operas choral and chamber music until
At age eighty-three was called to his eternal home
Richard Strauss's romantic waltzes bring cheer
And Dimitri Tiomkin's film-score compositions
Their genius lasted for eighty-five years
And will endure for generations
George Walker was the first African American
Classical composer to win the Pulitzer Prize
In nineteen ninety-six for his 'Lilac' rendition
At the age of ninety-six he met his demise.
[September 19th 2005]
"To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable" - Ludwig van Beethoven
"Where the heart does not enter; there can be no music"- Pyotr IIyich Tchaikovsky
"There should be a society for the prevention of cruelty to musical instruments" - Trevor Howard in the movie 'Brief Encounter'.
This poem is in my book Polyanthum available at www.amazon.com
Copyright: Pauline L. Stillman.
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