Editing Song cycle (section)

==English, Scottish, and American song cycles==
Perhaps the first English song cycle was [[Arthur Sullivan]]'s ''[[The Window (song cycle)|The Window; or, The Song of the Wrens]]'' (1871), to a text of eleven poems by [[Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson|Tennyson]]. In the early 20th century, [[Ralph Vaughan Williams|Vaughan Williams]] composed his famous song cycle, the ''[[Songs of Travel]]''. Other song cycles by Vaughan Williams are ''The House of Life'' on sonnets by [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] and ''[[On Wenlock Edge]]'' on poems from [[A. E. Housman]]'s ''[[A Shropshire Lad]]'', the latter originally for voice with piano and string quartet but later orchestrated. The composer and renowned [[Lied]]er accompanist [[Benjamin Britten]] also wrote song cycles, including ''[[The Holy Sonnets of John Donne]]'', ''[[Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo]]'', ''[[Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente]]'', and ''[[Winter Words (song cycle)|Winter Words]]'', all with piano accompaniment, and the orchestral ''[[Les Illuminations]]'', ''[[Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings]]'', and ''[[Nocturne (Britten)|Nocturne]]''.

''Raising Sparks'' (1977) by the Scottish composer [[James MacMillan]] (1997) is a more recent example. 
[[Trevor Hold]] wrote numerous song cycles, including many setting his own words, such as ''The Image Stays'' (1979), ''River Songs'' (1982) and ''Book of Beasts'' (1984).<ref>Potter John. Trevor Hold obituary, ''The Guardian'', 26 February 2004</ref> 
The English composer [[Robin Holloway]]'s many song cycles include ''From High Windows'' ([[Philip Larkin]]) (1977), ''Wherever We May Be'' ([[Robert Graves]]) (1980) and ''Retreats and Advances'' ([[A.S.J. Tessimond]]) (2016). His pupil [[Peter Seabourne]]'s five song cycles include ''Sonnets to Orpheus'' (2016) setting eleven poems of [[Rainer Maria Rilke]]. [[Stephen Hough]] has written three cycles: ''Herbstlieder'' (Rilke) (2007), ''Dappled Things'' (Wilde and Hopkins) (2013), and ''Other Love Songs'' (2010) for four singers and piano duet. [[Graham Waterhouse]] composed several [[Song cycles (Waterhouse)|song cycle]]s, based on texts by [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]], [[James Joyce]], and Irish female writers, among others.

American examples include [[Samuel Barber]]'s ''[[Hermit Songs]]'' (1953), ''Mélodies Passagères'', and ''Despite and Still'', and [[Songfest: A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra|''Songfest'']] by [[Leonard Bernstein]], ''Hammarskjöld Portrait'' (1974), ''Les Olympiques'' (1976), ''Tribute to a Hero'' (1981), ''[[Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens]]'' (1989), ''Next Year in Jerusalem'' (1985), and ''A Year of Birds'' (1995) by [[Malcolm Williamson]], [[Maury Yeston]]'s ''[[December Songs]]'' (1991), commissioned by Carnegie Hall for its centennial year celebration, ''[[Honey and Rue]]'' by [[André Previn]] (composed for the American soprano [[Kathleen Battle]]). [[David Conte]]'s ''American Death Ballads'' (2015). [[Alex Weiser]]'s song cycle in [[Yiddish]] and English, ''and all the days were purple'' (2019), was a 2020 finalist for the [[Pulitzer Prize]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/alex-weiser|title=Finalist: and all the days were purple, by Alex Weiser|website=Pulitzer.org|accessdate=21 November 2021}}</ref>