Home Indexes Conclusion Statistical Summary Bibliography Profile Contact
The Music of Robert Louis Stevenson
Nights of Vailima
By J.F.M. Russell ©2019
Robert Louis Stevenson began studying the piano and composition at age 36 and learned the penny whistle two years later. He played the flageolet, a version of the whistle equipped with keys, almost until the end of his life. His arrangements and compositions include more than 120 pieces. This site describes his complete works through facsimiles, transcriptions, recordings, quotations and commentary.
"An interesting chapter in his life will be written when all his scattered pieces are brought together, and the musical side of his character unexpectedly revealed to the vast public that knows him now only as the winsome versifier and the accomplished romancer."
Robert Murrell Stevenson in Robert Louis Stevenson's Musical Interests, 1957.
Facsimile:
Transcription:
Recording:
Manuscript Location:
Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Cottage & Museum.
Source:
None.
Significant References in Works of R.L.S.:
St. Ives, 1909 via Google books, p. ix.
Comments:
This is Stevenson's only published, completely original work. The four songs found in the Prefatory note to the 1922 edition of Child's Garden either use a few measures of other composers as inspiration or are arrangements of folk songs. Vailima ("five waters") was Stevenson's last home in Samoa. No particular Samoan bird can be identified in the music, although there are similarities to several. This and Farewell to Tautira are among Stevenson's longest and most carefully written works. The many silences throughout the piece seem to indicate that there was an accompanying instrument, perhaps piano, which filled in the spaces, but no other part has been found.
The manuscript is the same as the published version except for 8 additional bars beginning at measure 42. Of his more than 30 original works, he signs only a few with the initials R.L.S., either to indicate he is to play the part or on a very clean copy he seems to intend for publication or as a gift.
In the Vailima letter above, Stevenson says some of the birds are "mimicking my name" and in the first few bars of his music it is easy to imagine them singing, “Rahh-bert Lou-is, Rahh-bert Ste-ven-son, Rahh-bert Lou-is ...”