Six Romances to words by W. Raleigh, R. Burns and W. Shakespeare

  Six Romances on Verses by
W. Raleigh, R. Burns and W. Shakespeare
For Basso Soloist and Piano, Op. 62

  The rough and fair author’s manuscripts of the cycle of romances are kept in the Glinka State Central
Museum of Musical Culture and the Russian State Archives of Literature and Art.
  The first edition of the piano score was published by Muzfond in 1943 under the title of Six Romances
for Bass Soloist, Op. 62. Romance No. 2 (“O Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast”) was printed without a title,
just as in the author’s manuscript.In subsequent editions of the piano score, the cycle was printed with the title Romances on Verses by W. Raleigh, R. Burns and W. Shakespeare, Op. 62. A title was added to romance No. 2 from the first line of the poem—“O Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast”.
  The second edition came out in 1963 (Sovetsky kompozitor Publishers, Moscow).
  The third and fourth editions of the cycle were included in the collection Dmitri Shostakovich. Vocal Compositions for Voice and Piano put out by Muzyka Publishers in 1967 and 1974.
  The fifth edition appeared in 1982 (Muzyka Publishers, Moscow) as part of Dmitri Shostakovich’s
Collected Works (Vol. 32).
  The commonly used name of the cycle Six Romances on Verses by English Poets figures in the foreign
edition of the piano score published in Leipzig in 1972 (VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig, 1972)
with three interlinear texts in Russian, English, and German.
  The original poems by Walter Raleigh, Robert Burns, and William Shakespeare were used in the English version, as well as the popular English children’s song The Grand Old Duke of York.