The Last Rose of Summer

My brother recently introduced me to the violinist Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst (1814–1865) and asked me to look for the scores of two of his pieces, Fantasie brillante sur Otello de Rossini op. 11 and Variations on the Last Rose of Summer. Ernst was a pupil of the legendary Niccolò Paganini, and he was himself a violinist of the first rank. His pieces would naturally be technically demanding.

I managed to find and bought the Variations on the Last Rose of Summer, and though I found a shop that supposedly has the Otello-Fantasie, the shop has not been responsive. As a semiaccomplished amateur violinist, I also tried to play the Variations, and my conclusion was: the last rose of summer is rather thorny (夏日最後的玫瑰, 很多刺).

The poem that goes with this Irish folk-song is, on the other hand, exceedingly forlorn:

’Tis the last rose of summer,
Left blooming all alone,
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone.
No flower of her kindred,
No rose bud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh.

I’ll not leave thee, thou lone one,
To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go sleep thou with them;
Thus kindly I scatter
Thy leaves o’er the bed
Where thy mates of the garden
Lie scentless and dead.

So soon may I follow
When friendships decay,
And from love’s shining circle
The gems drop away!
When true hearts lie withered
And fond ones are flown
Oh! who would inhabit
This bleak world alone?

(UPDATE 2005-09-08 11:27) Yippee! The shop that I said was not responsive has finally emailed me a notice that the score for the Otello-Fantasie is being mailed.

(UPDATE 2005-09-10 15:21) The last rose of summer from my garden.