Beloved

Lyricist. J. Edward Fraser

Publisher. M. Witmark and Sons

Date. 1904

Key/Range. D Major (d' -- f#")

COMMENTARY

Lyricist J. Edward Fraser was a performer on the London stage, appearing in Lady Madcap, Mr. Popple, and as Lord Eynsford with Gertie Millar in Our Miss Gibbs. This song was published the year he was a member of the company of Three Little Maids, which Frank Tours led as music director on its world tour. In 1920, he wrote the words and music for the British musical comedy The Widow and the Maid. Fraser’s lyric shows the full measure of love and devotion that was possible between young men and women in the Edwardian Era before they had even made their affection known to each other. Since the relationship is aspirational, one could think of the song itself as a serenade or musical love letter to the object of the protagonist’s desire. An early example of Tours’ gift for long, lyrical melodic lines, each four-measure phrase in the sixteen-measure verse is different in rhythm and shape, while the whole line sounds like one long melodic idea. The coda is a variant on the third phrase and climaxes, appropriately, on the highest note and loudest dynamic in the song. Also appropriate is that fact that the music’s expressive high point occurs on the word “worship,” since that is, in a secular sense, the song’s central theme.