Music Monday ~ Speaking Low

One evening last week we accidentally happened upon a strange little film of a 1955 TV live presentation (on the poster it's listed as a "Legendary Telecast") of the 1940s musical play "One Touch of Venus". The musical was also made into a 'proper' movie starring Ava Gardner. This presentation, with Janet Blair as Venus is in a rather blurry black and white, very dated, but interesting due to its history, and one particular song: "Speak Low".

"One Touch of Venus" was a musical - music written by Kurt Weill, lyrics by none other than Ogden Nash; book by S. J. Perelman and Nash, based on the novella The Tinted Venus by Thomas Anstey Guthrie... [Note from your friendly blogger - it also smacks of Thorne Smith's style in "Nightlife of the Gods", but a tad less bawdy. The title with single line synopsis was the reason I decided to investigate. "This sounds like one of Thorne Smith's I said to husband - who agreed. We are both fans of that mostly forgotten author of quirky fantasy tales.]

Ogden Nash, as I wrote in 2006 (one of my very early blog posts was about him)

"always had a burning ambition to write for musical comedy. He eventually attained his dream when he provided the lyrics for Kurt Weill's classic "Speak Low" in collaboration with my next subject S.J Perelman, who was to become his lifelong friend. Nash and Perelman co-authored the show "One Touch of Venus" from which the song came. "Speak Low" was to become the show's signature number, but there are many more, including "Very, Very, Very" which, satirically, takes off on targets from fine art to free love. As the Nash lyric explains, "It's a minor peccadillo/To patronize the wrong pillow." "

SO..."Speak Low" is my tune for this Music Monday - one version sung by a female, one by a male.





Speak low when you speak, love
Our summer day withers away too soon, too soon
Speak low when you speak, love
Our moment is swift; like ships adrift, we're swept apart too soon

Speak low, darling, speak low
Love is a spark lost in the dark too soon, too soon
I feel wherever I go
That tomorrow is near, tomorrow is here and always too soon

Time is so old and love so brief
Love is pure gold and time a thief

We're late, darling, we're late
The curtain descends, everything ends too soon, too soon
I wait, darling, I wait
Will you speak low to me? Speak love to me and soon

Time is so old and love so brief
Love is pure gold and time a thief

We're late, darling, we're late
The curtain descends, everything ends too soon, too soon
I wait, darling, I wait
Will you speak low to me? Speak love to me and soon
Speak low.