Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Phillip Sear plays a 1905 transcription of a 1902 song by the English composer Edwin Greene (1856–1915). The piano version is by the British composer and music publisher Sydney Page (1858–1930), writing under the pseudonym 'Fabian Rose'.
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Born in Gloucester, England, Greene was entirely self-taught in music. He began his career as an organist at the age of 14 and held various musical appointments until he was 40; at that point, his active professional life was curtailed when he became an invalid
.
He mainly wrote songs, and described his own work as not aiming for the "classical" style, but rather being written "simply and solely for the people". As wellas composing music, he wrote verses, some of which he set to music himself.
The transcriber, Sydney Page is best known for his partnership with Alfred Phillips in the London firm Phillips & Page. The firm was founded at Kilburn in November 1888 and later moved to Oxford Market, where it specialised in popular song and domestic music-making. Page, a native of South Wales, came to London as a young man and was initially employed by Alfred Phillips, eventually becoming his junior partner in the publishing house. His dual role as publisher and composer, together with his work in the burgeoning trade in cheap editions and popular vocal music, shaped a professional identity firmly rooted in the late Victorian and Edwardian commercial music world.
As 'Fabian Rose', Page composed several songs and piano pieces designed for the amateur and parlour market. Works such as ‘Fond and True’ typify his idiom: straightforward melodic writing, clear periodic phrasing, and conventional harmonic progressions supporting gently expressive cantabile lines. These pieces, often issued with illustrated covers and promoted through the firm’s catalogues, belong to the wider repertory of salon and drawing-room music that accompanied domestic piano culture in Britain around 1900.
Within Phillips & Page, Sydney Page’s activities encompassed commissioning, editing and promoting music by other writers as well as producing his own compositions, and the firm’s catalogues show a mixture of sacred and secular vocal items, educational material and light piano music.
Greene's song has a text by the prolific English lyricist Clifton Bingham (1859–1913):
"Sing me to sleep, the shadows fall,
Let me forget the world and all.
Tired is my heart, the day is long,
Would it were come to evensong.
Sing me to sleep, your hand in mine,
Our fingers as in prayer entwine;
Only your voice, love, let me hear,
Singing to tell me you are near.
Love, I am lonely,
Years are so long,
I want you only,
You and your song;
Dark is life's shore, love,
Night is so deep,
Leave me no more, love,
Sing me to sleep.
Sing me to sleep, love, you alone,
Seem to be left me for mine own,
Haply my heart will know no pain,
When I awake from sleep again.
Sing me to sleep and let me rest,
Of all the world I love you best.
Nothing is faithful, nothing true,
In Heav'n or earth, but God and you.
I am lonely,
Years are so long,
I want you only,
You and your song;
Dark is life's shore, love,
Night is so deep,
Leave me no more, love,
Sing me to sleep."
I assume from this that the singer is dead, as presumed in my thumbnail image, created with Picsart ( tinyl.co/4WqE ).
#britishmusic #sleepmusic
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Played by Phillip Sear
psear.co.uk (Email: piano4@psear.33mail.com
WhatsApp: wa.me/441444483794 ) TikTok: tiktok.com/@pianogems
****See all my latest videos here: tinyurl.com/phillip210 ****
Phillip Sear plays a 1905 transcription of a 1902 song by the English composer Edwin Greene (1856–1915). The piano version is by the British composer and music publisher Sydney Page (1858–1930), writing under the pseudonym 'Fabian Rose'.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Born in Gloucester, England, Greene was entirely self-taught in music. He began his career as an organist at the age of 14 and held various musical appointments until he was 40; at that point, his active professional life was curtailed when he became an invalid
.
He mainly wrote songs, and described his own work as not aiming for the "classical" style, but rather being written "simply and solely for the people". As wellas composing music, he wrote verses, some of which he set to music himself.
The transcriber, Sydney Page is best known for his partnership with Alfred Phillips in the London firm Phillips & Page. The firm was founded at Kilburn in November 1888 and later moved to Oxford Market, where it specialised in popular song and domestic music-making. Page, a native of South Wales, came to London as a young man and was initially employed by Alfred Phillips, eventually becoming his junior partner in the publishing house. His dual role as publisher and composer, together with his work in the burgeoning trade in cheap editions and popular vocal music, shaped a professional identity firmly rooted in the late Victorian and Edwardian commercial music world.
As 'Fabian Rose', Page composed several songs and piano pieces designed for the amateur and parlour market. Works such as ‘Fond and True’ typify his idiom: straightforward melodic writing, clear periodic phrasing, and conventional harmonic progressions supporting gently expressive cantabile lines. These pieces, often issued with illustrated covers and promoted through the firm’s catalogues, belong to the wider repertory of salon and drawing-room music that accompanied domestic piano culture in Britain around 1900.
Within Phillips & Page, Sydney Page’s activities encompassed commissioning, editing and promoting music by other writers as well as producing his own compositions, and the firm’s catalogues show a mixture of sacred and secular vocal items, educational material and light piano music.
Greene's song has a text by the prolific English lyricist Clifton Bingham (1859–1913):
"Sing me to sleep, the shadows fall,
Let me forget the world and all.
Tired is my heart, the day is long,
Would it were come to evensong.
Sing me to sleep, your hand in mine,
Our fingers as in prayer entwine;
Only your voice, love, let me hear,
Singing to tell me you are near.
Love, I am lonely,
Years are so long,
I want you only,
You and your song;
Dark is life's shore, love,
Night is so deep,
Leave me no more, love,
Sing me to sleep.
Sing me to sleep, love, you alone,
Seem to be left me for mine own,
Haply my heart will know no pain,
When I awake from sleep again.
Sing me to sleep and let me rest,
Of all the world I love you best.
Nothing is faithful, nothing true,
In Heav'n or earth, but God and you.
I am lonely,
Years are so long,
I want you only,
You and your song;
Dark is life's shore, love,
Night is so deep,
Leave me no more, love,
Sing me to sleep."
I assume from this that the singer is dead, as presumed in my thumbnail image, created with Picsart ( tinyl.co/4WqE ).
#britishmusic #sleepmusic
-----------------------------------------------------------
Played by Phillip Sear
psear.co.uk (Email: piano4@psear.33mail.com
WhatsApp: wa.me/441444483794 ) TikTok: tiktok.com/@pianogems
****See all my latest videos here: tinyurl.com/phillip210 ****
