John Duke

Richard Cory and Selected Songs

John Duke (1899-1984) was one of the finest composers of art-songs that America has produced. His three settings of poems by Edward Arlington Robinson (Richard Cory, Miniver Cheevy and Luke Havergal) are among the best known and most often performed songs in the American Art-song repertoire. Paul Sperry has collected all of John Duke's songs that Carl Fischer published and we are pleased to offer them in all the keys in which they were originally available in this handsome collection. John Duke's emphasis in his songs is on American poets, melody and a romantic sense of harmony. These are songs written with unusual understanding for the capabilities of the human voice. To quote Paul Sperry's introduction, 'In short, he wrote beautiful songs that should be sung and played beautifully.'