Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
#2 from 'Erzählungen' (Stories) Op.31 (1887)
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Phillip Sear plays one of a set of five short pieces by the American composer and artist George Templeton Strong (1856–1948).
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Strong was born in New York City to a musically inclined family. Strong's early life was marked by musical training and a family tradition of involvement in the arts. He studied music at the Leipzig Conservatory and became friends with the American composer Edward MacDowell. After returning to the United States, Strong taught music but found the work to be stressful.
In 1897, Strong moved to Switzerland, where he dedicated himself to painting for several years. Around 1912, he resumed his musical career and spent the rest of his life in Geneva. Strong's work as a composer and painter reflects his Romantic style and his deep connection to European traditions.
Each piece in the set is headed by a poem (or extract). This one is headed by an extract from 'My Child', an incredibly sad poem from around 1840 by the American poet, Unitarian minister, reformer, and abolitionist John Pierpont (1785–1866). Here is the extract:
“I cannot make him dead!
His fair sunny head
Is ever bounding round my study chair;
Yet when my eyes, now dim
With tears, I turn to him,
The vision vanishes,—he is not there!
When, at the cool gray break
Of day, from sleep I wake,
With my first breathing of the morning air,
My soul goes up, with joy,
To Him who gave my boy;
Then comes the sad thought that—he is not there.”
In the poem, a bereaved father struggles to accept the death of his little boy. He keeps vividly “seeing” and hearing the child about the house—running round his study chair, coming down the stairs, lying in his bed—and then each time is jolted by the realization that the child is gone.
Incidentally, Pierpont was the great-uncle of the financier J.P. Morgan.
Thumbnail image created with Picsart ( tinyl.co/4WqE ).
#americanmusic #ghostlyapparitions
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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 ****
#2 from 'Erzählungen' (Stories) Op.31 (1887)
------------------------------------
Phillip Sear plays one of a set of five short pieces by the American composer and artist George Templeton Strong (1856–1948).
------------------------------------
Strong was born in New York City to a musically inclined family. Strong's early life was marked by musical training and a family tradition of involvement in the arts. He studied music at the Leipzig Conservatory and became friends with the American composer Edward MacDowell. After returning to the United States, Strong taught music but found the work to be stressful.
In 1897, Strong moved to Switzerland, where he dedicated himself to painting for several years. Around 1912, he resumed his musical career and spent the rest of his life in Geneva. Strong's work as a composer and painter reflects his Romantic style and his deep connection to European traditions.
Each piece in the set is headed by a poem (or extract). This one is headed by an extract from 'My Child', an incredibly sad poem from around 1840 by the American poet, Unitarian minister, reformer, and abolitionist John Pierpont (1785–1866). Here is the extract:
“I cannot make him dead!
His fair sunny head
Is ever bounding round my study chair;
Yet when my eyes, now dim
With tears, I turn to him,
The vision vanishes,—he is not there!
When, at the cool gray break
Of day, from sleep I wake,
With my first breathing of the morning air,
My soul goes up, with joy,
To Him who gave my boy;
Then comes the sad thought that—he is not there.”
In the poem, a bereaved father struggles to accept the death of his little boy. He keeps vividly “seeing” and hearing the child about the house—running round his study chair, coming down the stairs, lying in his bed—and then each time is jolted by the realization that the child is gone.
Incidentally, Pierpont was the great-uncle of the financier J.P. Morgan.
Thumbnail image created with Picsart ( tinyl.co/4WqE ).
#americanmusic #ghostlyapparitions
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 ****
