“Love’s Old Sweet Song”
Then the fiddle sounded a sweeter note and Pa’s deep voice joined its singing… — These Happy Golden Years, Chapter 32, “Haste to the Wedding”
Sometimes called “Just a Song at Twilight,” words to “Love’s Old Sweet Song” were written in 1884 by G. Clifton Bingham; music is by James Molloy.
James Lyman Molloy (1837-1909) was born in Cornalour, Rahan, Ireland to a wealthy family. He studied in Dublin, Paris and Bonn, but spent most of his life in England. Although he was called to the bar in 1872, he was never a practicing attorney. At the time of his death, it was written that every British home which had a piano had a copy of “Love’s Old Sweet Song.” The song was said to have the “right combination of melody and sentiment” and was easy enough to become a general favorite.
Graham Clifton Bingham (1859-1913) was a professional lyricist from Bristol who penned the words to “Love’s Old Sweet Song” in 1882. Bingham was the son of a bookseller and he wrote stories, children’s books, and lyrics to over 1600 songs. He claimed to have written “Love’s Old Sweet Song” at four in the morning, and composers immediately fought for the right to use them. Molloy won by telegraphing his request.
In Laura Ingalls Wilder’s These Happy Golden Years manuscript, the book ended on the night before Laura and Almanzo’s wedding, with Laura listening to the fiddle. Wilder included both verses and ends the series with: “The song ended. Pa put his fiddle carefully away in its box, and one by one they all slipped quietly away to dreams.” A note to Rose in the manuscript questioned whether the whole song should be used or not. She wrote: “I don’t know if all this song should be used. I love it, but perhaps it is too much. It seems to fit right here. The last song Laura [hears] Pa sing.”
“Love’s Old Sweet Song” was very popular in the 1890s. At the time of Laura and Almanzo’s wedding in August 1885, it would have been a relatively new song, published only ten months before. Whether Pa sang it in 1885 or Laura remembered it from later years is unknown. Wilder used several popular songs from the 1890s in These Happy Golden Years, including ones that hadn’t been published at the time the story took place.
Once in the dear dead days beyond recall,
When on the world the mist began to fall,
Out of the dreams that rose in happy throng
in our hearts sang an old sweet song;
in the disk where fell the fire light gleam,
Softly it wove itself into our dream.
[chorus] Just a song at twilight, when the lights are low,
And the flick’ring shadows softly come and go.
Though the heart be weary, sad the day and long,
Still to us at twilight comes love’s old song,
Comes love’s old sweet song.
Even today we hear love’s song of yore,
Deep in our hearts it dwells forever more
Footsteps may falter, weary grow the way
we can hear it at the close of day,
So till the end, when life’s dim shadows fall,
Love will be found the sweetest song of all.
(from These Happy Golden Years)
Once in the dear dead days beyond recall
When on the world the mists began to fall,
Out of the dreams that rose in happy throng,
Low to our hearts love sang an old sweet song.
And in the dusk where fell the firelight gleam
Softly it wove itself into our dream.
Just a song at twilight, when the lights are low
And the flickering shadows softly come and go.
Though the heart be weary, sad the day and long,
Still to us at twilight comes love’s old song,
Comes love’s old sweet song.
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Click on the above images to view a copy of sheet music of “Love’s Old Sweet Song.”
“Love’s Old Sweet Song” (THGY 32)
“Once in the dear dead days beyond recall”