If You Loved Me

Lyricist. Hilda Hammond Spenser

Publisher. M. Witmark and Sons

Date. 1914

Key/Range. A Major (e' -- f#")

COMMENTARY

The lyric by Hilda Hammond Spenser has a theme about romantic love that is the inverse of the typical juxtaposition we see in a poem by Petrarch. Instead of the lover experiencing romantic angst while nature is seemingly expressing its joy in springtime, Hammond depicts her lovers (albeit aspirationally) as elated while walking amongst the gloom of winter. Three large sections (A-B-A’) are formally balanced, each with fourteen-measure periods comprised of three phrases in the vocal line (4+4+6). The tonic of the first section (A Major) does not appear until measure 9 and then only briefly, contributing to a sense of movement that is illustrative of the emotional excitement of the protagonist imagining the wonderful possibilities offered by a shared life. The opening F dominant sonority (♭VI) presages the new key the B-section (F Major), which modulates through D♭ Major, another descending third-relation key, before returning chromatically to the original key for the recapitulation of the opening material at 37.