The Old Refrain - 1915

James Pitt-Payne, London and Ian Cousins, Opera Australia - 25 Feb 2002

I often think of home, Deeooleeay,
When I am all alone and far away;
I sing an old refrain: Deeooleeay,
For it recalls to me a bygone day
It takes me back again to meadows fair,
Where sunlight's golden rays
beam ev'rywhere,
My childhood joys again come back to me,
My mother's face in fancy, too I see,
It was my mother taught me how to sing
And to that memory my heart will cling,
I'm never sad and lone while on my way
As long as I can sing: Deeooleeay!
Though years have passed and gone, Deeooleeay,
And though my heart is young,
my head is gray,
Yet still the echos ring, Deeooleeay,
And dear old memories forever stay.
My song can bring me visions full of light,
And sweetest dreams
throughout the darkest night;
Of all that life can give, that song is best,
I'll take it with me when I go to rest,
And when at last my journey here is o'er,
'Twill ring more joyfully than e'er before,
For up to heaven I will take my lay
The angels too will sing: Deeooleeay!

Soft karaoke
Words
treble clef 1
treble clef 2
lyric line
bass
Lyric Line
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The Old Refrain 1915
Music by Fritz Kreisler
Lyric by Alice Mattullath
copyright MCMXV by Charles Foley, New York
dedicated by Kreisler thus:
'To My Dear Friend John McCormack'
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Sequence by Dr. Pitt-Payne in London UK
and Ian Cousins, Opera Australia
karaoke by Dr. Pitt-Payne
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completed Monday 25 February 2002 at 06.57
in association with Doug Grierson
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A Viennese Popular Song
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