Kashmiri Song

src: i.ytimg.com

"Kashmiri Song" is a 1902 song by Amy Woodforde-Finden based on a poem by Laurence Hope, pseudonym of Adela Florence Nicolson.

The poem first appeared in Hope's first collection of poems, The Garden of Kama (1901), also known as India's Love Lyrics.

The following year, when Amy Woodforde-Finden set to music Four Indian Love Lyrics, "Kashmiri Song" emerged as the most popular, quickly becoming a drawing room standard and remaining popular until the Second World War.

Video Kashmiri Song

Words

Maps Kashmiri Song

Interpretations

The phrase "beside the Shalimar" presumably refers to one of two Shalimar Gardens, the Shalimar Gardens Kashmir or the Shalimar Gardens Lahore. Although the former seems the likelier identification, given the song's title, the fact that Nicolson lived in Lahore gives some weight to the latter.

src: s1.dmcdn.net

Recordings

There have been numerous recordings of the song, including:

• Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber on the 2006 album Unexpected Songs
• One of only two Rudolph Valentino recordings in 1923.

Among famous singers to record the song in the inter-war years, there are 3 versions by Peter Dawson, two by Frank Titterton, and single versions by John McCormack and Richard Tauber.

src: i.ytimg.com

Culture

The song has led an unusually varied life particularly in the field of popular culture. Some of the places where the song/poem is mentioned or quoted are:

• The film The Sheik (1921) starring Rudolph Valentino, based on the 1919 novel The Sheik by Edith Maude Hull.
• Ford Madox Ford's novel Parade's End (1924-1928).
• Jack Conroy's novel A World to Win (1935)
• The film This Happy Breed (1944) based on Noël Coward's stage play (1939).
• The film Hers to Hold (1943), sung by Deanna Durbin
• The film Maytime in Mayfair (1948) refers to the song, suggesting it is a cliche.
• Henry Miller's novel, Sexus (1949)
• Anthony Powell's novel, Casanova's Chinese Restaurant (1960) the fifth volume of A Dance to the Music of Time.
• Gilbert Sorrentino's novel Aberration of Starlight (1980)
• A ghazal by Agha Shahid Ali (1997)
• Title of a short story by Anne Enright in her collection, Yesterday's Weather (2008).
• P. G. Wodehouse's novel, Ring for Jeeves (1953), quoted by captain Biggar
• Tom Holt's Lucia in Wartime (after E F Benson), where it is sung by Major Benjie.
• Vikram Seth's novel, A Suitable Boy (1993)
• Lorrie Moore's novel, A Gate at the Stairs (2009).

src: www.gyawun.com

References

src: i.ytimg.com

External links

• Woodforde Family website
• Kashmiri Song sheet music at Library of Congress
• Maggie Teyte recording (1921) at Library of Congress

Source of article : Wikipedia