Buffalo Bill's - (1991)     YR1519

E. E. Cummings

for medium voice and piano

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Buffalo Bill 's
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion....

 

(for the remainder of this text, please consult any one of the many printed and electronic sources)

 

   [ 2 pages, circa 1' 00" ]

 

This text was originally published in The Dial, Vol. 68, No. 1 (Jan. 1920). New York: The Dial Publishing Company, Inc.

and republished in Portraits, V, in Tulips and Chimneys (1923)

 

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E. E. Cummings

 

To reflect the intentional typography and capitalization, each capitalized word is repeated twice while the others are set only once, so that the typographical stress is reflected in the musical setting itself. Setting this short poem appealed to me immediately upon first reading, the musical motive is simple, a waltz-like paean to this bigger-than-life American folk hero who, as is true for all, proved the basic truth of mortality.