Blue Mountain Ballads

Song Collection

Paul Bowles may have been better known as a literary figure than as a composer, but he distinguished himself in both fields. Blue Mountain Ballads is his cycle of songs for piano and voice based on poems by his friend and mentor, the playwright Tennessee Williams.

Date: 1946Composer: Paul BowlesText: Tennessee Williams

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    The four poems, grouped under the same title given to the song cycle, and printed in the same order, appear in a book of Williams’s poetry called In the Winter of Cities (1956). Throughout the cycle, Bowles incorporates flowing melodies with accompaniments that are infused with jazz and rag rhythms typically associated with southern music.

    –Stephanie Poxon, Ph.D.

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    Sheet Music

    Blue Mountain Ballads

    Composer(s): Paul Bowles

    Song(s): 1. Heavenly Grass
    2. Lonesome Man
    3. Cabin
    4. Sugar in the Cane

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