On A Clear Day

When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see
For all the day they view things unrespected;
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright, are bright in dark directed.
Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
How would thy shadow’s form form happy show
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!
How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made
By looking on thee in the living day,
When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!
All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.
--William Shakespeare, Sonnet 43

Alan Jay Lerner
American musical stage lyricist
(31 August, 1918 – 14 June, 1986)
This MP3 Selection Expired on 09-06-2007
Christine Andreas (2002)
On A Clear Day You Can See Forever
(Lane & Lerner)

Candide

"There is a concatenation of events in this best of all possible worlds: for if you had not been kicked out of a magnificent castle for love of Miss Cunegonde: if you had not been put into the Inquisition: if you had not walked over America: if you had not stabbed the Baron: if you had not lost all your sheep from the fine country of El Dorado: you would not be here eating preserved citrons and pistachio-nuts."

"All that is very well," answered Candide, "but let us cultivate our garden."
--Voltaire "Candide, ou l'Optimisme (1759)"

Leonard Bernstein
American composer and conductor
(25 August, 1918 – 14 October, 1990)
This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-31-2007
Lenoard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic
Overture to Candide (Bernstein)

Debussy

So when in reverie I look and listen,
Half dream-like floats, within my passive mind,
Why in the sun its branches gleam and glisten,
And harp-wise beat the wind;

Why, when the sea-waves, heralding their tidings,
Come roaring on the shore with crests of down,
In grave acceptance of their sad confidings,
It bows its stately crown;
    -- Tracy Robinson (1833-1915)

Claude Debussy
French Neo-Classical composer
(22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918)
This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-25-2007
Dan Gibson - Reverie (Debussy)

A Midsummer Reverie

Alexander Gluzunov
Russian Composer and Music Professor
(10 August, 1865 – 21 March, 1936)
This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-21-2007
Stephen Coombs, piano
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B Major,
2nd Movement, Andante (Glazunov)

The Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

--William Butler Yeats -  "The Lake Isle of Innisfree"

Victor Young
Composer and Orchestra Director
(8 August, 1900 - 11 November, 1956)
Won Best Music Oscar posthumously in 1956
'Around the World in Eighty Days'
This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-09-2007
Maureen O'Hara (1952) - The Isle of Innisfree
(Farrelly; arr.Young)

The Isle of Innisfree
The Quiet Man (1952)

Music: Dick Farrelly
Arr: Victor Young

Sung by Movie Cast: Maureen O'Hara

I've met some folks who say that I'm a dreamer
And I've no doubt there's truth in what they say
But sure a body's bound to be a dreamer
When all the things he loves are far away

And precious things are dreams unto an exile
They take him o'er the land across the sea
Especially when it happens he's an exile
From that dear lovely Isle of Innisfree

And when the moonlight peeps across the rooftops
Of this great city, wondrous though it be
I scarcely feel its wonder or its laughter
I'm once again back home in Innisfree

I wander o'er green hills through dreamy valleys
And find a peace no other land could know
I hear the birds make music fit for angels
And watch the rivers laughing as they flow

But dreams don't last
Though dreams are not forgotten
And soon I'm back to stern reality
But though they pave the footways here with gold dust
I still would choose the Isle of Innisfree

Siboney

Ernesto Lecuona
Cuban composer
(6 August, 1895 - 29 November, 1963)
This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-08-2007
Mantovani and His Orchestra (1963)
Siboney (Lecuona)

Moonglow and the Theme from 'Picnic'

Morris Stoloff
American-born composer and conductor
(1 August, 1898 - 16 April, 1980)
This MP3 Selection Expired on 08-06-2007
Morris Stoloff and His Orchestra
Moonglow and the Theme from 'Picnic' (1955)