The Long Day

(But I Am Over Here, and He Is Over There!)

Lyricist. George V. Hobart

Publisher. M. Witmark & Sons

Date. 1918

Key/Range. G Major (b' -- e")

COMMENTARY

Lyricist George V. Hobart was a humorist and a prolific author of books and libretti for Broadway musicals during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Though they never worked together on a show, Tours and Hobart were both devoted members of the Lambs Club, where they probably met. Hobart’s lyric for “The Long Day” is a radical departure from his comedy work for the Ziegfeld Follies and other theatrical productions, as it reveals the author’s sensitivity and poetic gift. Particularly appealing is the obvious, but not cloying reference to one of most famous songs from another well-known member of the Lambs Club, George M. Cohan. Hobart deftly took Cohan’s jingoistic call to arms in “Over There” and used it to remind the audience of the women who were sacrificing on the home front when their loved ones went to war. The elegant simplicity of his lyric is reflected in its traditional elements, such as the trochaic five-syllable lines that are used consistently throughout and the Petrarchian juxtaposition (nature is peaceful, but my heart is not) that comprises the song’s primary argument. But while this simplicity is matched by Tours’ melodic setting, which is almost completely diatonic, his harmony is highly adventurous, which could be seen as an illustration of the unsettling interior life of the protagonist amidst the external tranquility of the environment and of the outward calm she projects in her community. In the B-section of the song’s A-B-A’ form, Tours took the verses with the same meter as the outer sections and gave them a different setting that conceals their metric similarity, thus providing the listener a respite from the five-syllable rhythm. One of the few Tours songs explicitly written from a woman’s perspetive, “The Long Day” was, nonetheless, performed by John Charles Thomas in recital and promoted as such by the publisher.