Evensong, No. 5 from Cobweb Castle (1908)
Sheet music for solo piano by Liza Lehmann (1862-1918).
[This piece is not to be confused with Lehmann's song also called Evensong (Fold your white wings, dear angels). ]
Liza Lehmann was a prolific English composer at the turn of the 20th century. It is the fifth in a piano suite entited Cobweb Castle, 'redolent of cosy nights by the fireside, lost romances and half-remembered, slightly scary, ghost stories. As the imagery of the title implies, these six pieces are frozen in time. Like a lost castle in a dark secret wood, they are just beyond our reach.'
[ https://landofllostcontent.blogspot.com/search/label/Liza%20Lehmann ]
Evensong, played at a steady cantabile, paints a picture of a late afternnon service in a rather dimly-lit church, with the quiet, melancholic playing of the church organ. It is hymn-like, but perhaps more of a nocturnal meditation, rather than liturgical. As with other pieces in the piano suite, it contains musical hints of Elgar (1857-1934).
This solo piano edition from Fullscore Publishing is in the Piano Praxis series; it has been newly engraved (but not rearranged), with inspiration from the BBC's 100th anniversary of broadcasting Choral Evensong in October 2026. Read more about the great Anglican choral tradition (including renowned pianist Stephen Hough's comments on the joys of Evensong) in our blog piece here [opens in new tab].
Recordings
Hear Liza Lehmann's lovely tune recorded by pianist Michael Stairs on his CD Oh Dear! What Can the Matter Be? on Spotify, or YouTube [both links open in new tabs; the latter is a more ponderous performance].
A follow-the-score version is also on YouTube here.
Portrait of the composer above: Syracuse University Libraries, from the blog piece The “Straight-Backed, High-Nosed, Stiff-Necked, Great British Young Lady”: Music and Art of Liza Lehmann. Excerpt:
Liza Lehmann was one of the most prolific song composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and an influential vocal pedagogue. Lehmann published some 334 songs and cycles – the most by any female composer in Great Britain and the United States during that period. She was elected the first president of the Society of Women Musicians and published several volumes on song and recitative practice and pedagogy. The success of her writings was supported in part by her already established reputation as a singer, with early encounters with Verdi, Liszt and Clara Schumann proving to be influential in both respects. Read more here.
Born in London, she was the daughter of painter Rudolf Lehmann and music teacher Amelia Chambers. After vocal studies with Alberto Randegger and Jenny Lind, and composition studies with Hamish MacCunn, she made her soprano singing debut in 1885. She pursued a concert career for a decade before marrying musician Herbert Bedford in 1894 and focusing on composition. Lehmann wrote songs, children's music, and stage works, including the song cycle In a Persian Garden (1896). She was also a professor of singing at the Guildhall School of Music in London.
[ https://landofllostcontent.blogspot.com/search/label/Liza%20Lehmann ]
Sheet music cover image: Evensong in the choir stalls (the Quire) in St Paul's Cathedral, London. Photo: Nigel Edmund-Jones.
Other Fullscore Publications
Carefully selected lyrical pieces (including many others by women composers) for solo piano are included in the printed sheet music collectio series Songs without Words, published by Fullscore Publishing, available only from Amazon.
Songs without Words, Book 1, 2 (+ a combination album of 1 & 2), and 3 (Just a Gigue or so...) are all available only from Amazon globally. Link: tinyurl.com/hs7mp85s
Other pieces for intermediate piano players are available as free pdf downloads from fullscoremusic.co.uk
