The lyrics to this piece are a poem written by Thomas Jefferson on his deathbed for his daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph. Jefferson died on July 4th, 1826, 50 years to the day after the Declaration of Independence he famously authored was issued. The "two seraphs" (or angels) he references in the final two lines are his wife Martha and daughter Polly (Martha Jefferson Randolph's mother and sister), both of whom had died decades earlier. The words are as follows:

Life's visions are vanished; its dreams are no more
Dear friends of my bosom, why bathed in tears?
I go to my fathers; I welcome the shore
Which crowns all my hopes, or which buries my cares

Then farewell my dear; my lov'd daughter adieu
The last pang of life is in parting from you
Two seraphs await me, long shrouded in death
I will bear them your love on my last parting breath

Jefferson's Deathbed Adieu

The Wendt brothers teamed up with Kaitlyn Atchison, an operatic soprano who recently completed her master's degree in music at the University of Idaho, to make this piano/organ/three-voice arrangement of Slumber, my Darling. It is uploaded in honor of both Independence Day and the 197th birthday of this song's composer, Stephen Foster, who is widely regarded as the greatest American songwriter of his era and was born on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence: July 4th, 1826.

Slumber, my Darling

The Bonny Shoals of Herring

My new piano/vocal arrangement of a somewhat lesser-known Bob Dylan classic.

Girl from the North Country

The Parting Glass duet

Lyrics:
I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair
Borne, like a vapor, on the summer air
I see her tripping where the bright streams play
Happy as the daisies that danced on her way

Many were the wild notes her merry voice would pour
Many were the blithe birds that warbled them o'er
I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair
Floating like a vapor on the soft summer air

---

I long for Jeanie with the day-dawn smile
Radiant in gladness; warm with winning guile
I hear her melodies like joys gone by
Sighing 'round my heart for the fond hopes that die

Sighing like the night wind, and sobbing like the rain
Wailing for the lost one who comes not again
I long for Jeanie, and my heart bows low
Nevermore to find her where the bright waters flow

Oh, I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair
Floating like a vapor on the soft summer air

Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair

'Tis the last rose of summer, left blooming alone
All her lovely companions are faded and gone
No flower of her kindred; no rosebud is nigh
To reflect back her blushes, or give sigh for sigh

I'll not leave thee, thou lone one, to pine on the stem
Since the lovely are sleeping, go sleep thou with them
Thus kindly I scatter thy leaves o'er the bed
Where thy mates of the garden lie scentless and dead

Cody Wendt

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