Hard Times Come Again No More (String Orchestra Gr. 2.5) - S. Foster

Published in 1854, just seven years before the start of the Civil War, Stephen Foster’s Hard Times Come Again No More asked us to consider the plight of those less fortunate than ourselves. Indeed, this timeless sentiment is one for all generations. This arrangement for strings includes brief solos for violin and cello.

Genre: String Orchestra | # of Players: 8-8-5-5-5
Series: Sapphire Orchestra Series
Level: 2.5 | Duration: 4:00

Instrumentation
Violin I
Violin II
Viola
Cello
Contrabass

Program Notes
Published in 1854, just seven years before the start of the Civil War, Stephen Foster’s Hard Times Come Again No More asked us to consider the plight of those less fortunate than ourselves. Indeed, this timeless sentiment is one for all generations.

Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
There’s a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh! Hard times come again no more.

Chorus:
’Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard Times, hard times, come again no more.
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh! Hard times come again no more.

While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door;
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh! Hard times come again no more.
Chorus

There's a pale weeping maiden who toils her life away,
With a worn heart whose better days are o’er:
Though her voice would be merry, ’tis sighing all the day,
Oh! Hard times come again no more.
Chorus

’Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,
’Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore
’Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
Oh! Hard times come again no more.
Chorus