Alec Wilder

Selected Works

131 selected works I. Contents of the Wilder Songbooks (TRO archive) songbook a 1. “Song, I Am Tired to Death” (James Stephens) 2. “Peggy Mitchell” (James Stephens) 3. “Mary Hynes” (James Stephens) 4. “Nancy Walsh” (James Stephens) 5. “Mary Ruane” (James Stephens) 6. “Sweet Apple” (James Stephens) 7. “A Woman Is a Branchy Tree” (James Stephens) 8. “Cinquains” (Adelaide Crapsey) 9. “Annabelle Lee” (Edgar Allan Poe) 10. “Feast” (Edna St. Vincent Millay) 11. “Autumn Chant” (Edna St. Vincent Millay) songbook b 1. “Wild Swans” (Edna St. Vincent Millay) 2. “The Tale of Mad Brigid” (James Stephens) 3. “Dirge” (James Joyce) 4. “Never Seek to Tell Thy Love” (William Blake) 5. “And It Was Windy Weather” (James Stephens) 6. “Song” (John Keats) 7. “Fairy Song” (John Keats) 8. “Wild Nights” (Emily Dickinson) 9. “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain” (Emily Dickinson) 10. “I Sing” (Emily Dickinson) 11. “Heart” (Emily Dickinson) 12. “My Friend” (Emily Dickinson) 13. “The Petal of a Rose” (James Stephens) 132 14. “Besides That” (James Stephens) 15. “Love” (Emily Dickinson) 16. “I Hide Myself” (Emily Dickinson) 17. “Have You Got a Brook?” (Emily Dickinson) 18. [untitled] 19. “The Ancient Elf” (James Stephens) songbook c 1. “The Holy Time” (James Stephens) 2. “Retreat” (poet unknown) 3. “Hesperus” (James Stephens) songbook d 1. “The Pit of Bliss” (James Stephens) 2. “The Merry Music” (James Stephens) 3. “The Watcher” (James Stephens) 4. “Goat Paths” (James Stephens) 5. “Minuette” (James Stephens) 6. “Fifteen Acres” (James Stephens) 7. [complete song without text] 8. “And It Was Windy Weather” (incomplete; see Songbook B/5) 9. “The Par-Boiled Ape” (James Stephens) II. Recording Sessions of the Alec Wilder Octet, 1938–40 (Source: Björn Englund, “Discography of the Alec Wilder Octet,” Names and Numbers 52 [January 2010]: 26–28.) 1938 December 19 (ARC Studios, New York) “A Debutante’s Diary” “Concerning Etchings” “A Little Girl Grows Up” “Neurotic Goldfish” 1939 March 31 (World Studios, New York) “Such a Tender Night” “Walking Home in Spring” a l e c w i l d e r | Selected Works 133 June 13 (World Studios, New York) “Sea Fugue Mama” “It’s Silk, Feel It” “She’ll Be Seven in May” December 28 (World Studios, New York) “Please Do Not Disturb” “The House Detective Registers” 1940 July 17 (Columbia Studios, New York) “Seldom the Sun” “Her Old Man Was Suspicious” “The Children Met the Train” “Pieces of Eight” August 7 (Columbia Studios, New York) “His First Long Pants” “Kindergarten Flower Pageant” “Dance Man Buys a Farm” “Bull Fiddle in a China Shop” III. Wilder’s Popular Songs, 1939–44 collaborations with william engvick 1939 “Don’t Leave Me” “It’s Over” (written for Ladies and Gents) “A Month in the Country” “A Season or Two Ago” “Such a Tender Night” (from the octet) “Walking Home in Spring” (from the octet) 1941 “Sleep, My Heart” “Who Can I Turn To?” 1942 “The Bowling Song” 1943 “At the Swing Shift Ball” “Happy Valley” “Lullaby” “Simple as A, B, C” “Singin’ as We Go” “’Tain’t a Fit Night Out” Written for Chance of a Ghost (revision of Ladies and Gents): “Anywhere Else but Here” “The Osteopathy Rag” 134 1944 Written for Don’t Look Now (revision of Ladies and Gents): “Give My Brain to Harvard” “Here Beside Me” “I’m So in Love with a Beautiful Girl” “I’m Starry-Eyed” “Will I Win—Will I Lose?” collaborations with william engvick and morty palitz 1941 “Moon and Sand” “J. P. Dooley III” 1943 “While We’re Young” wilder as lyricist 1940 “Out on a Limb” 1941 “It’s So Peaceful in the Country” 1942 “I’ll Be Around” 1943 “I Never Saw Her Again” “Is It Always Like This?” 1944 “Stop That Dancin’ up There” other collaborations 1939 “City Night” (lyric by William Engvick, music with Jack Jenney) 1942 “I’m Sleeping Late Today, General” (lyric by Billy Kaye) 1944 “On the Other Side of the Sky” (lyric by Eddie Pola) IV. Individual Songs by Wilder and Engvick and Some Contemporaneous Recordings, 1952–56 (Sources: David Demsey and Ronald Prather, with the assistance of Judith Bell, Alec Wilder: A Bio-Bibliography [Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1993], 68–89, 123–39; wilderworld .podomatic.com.) 1952 “Don’t Say Love Has Ended” (recording: Johnnie Ray with the Four Lads and Orchestra [Columbia 39814]) “Don’t Stop” “Good for Nothin’” (recording: Rosemary Clooney and Marlene Dietrich [Columbia 39812]) “I Can’t...