[Sheet music] He Sleeps To-night by Lonesome Pine (A Soldier Story Ballad)

Sheet music for the song titled, 'He Sleeps Tonight by Lonesome Pine', with music composed by Joe Slater, using the pseudonym Felix Le Roy, and lyrics written by George Foster. This version of the song was included in the compilation titled 'Tivoli Annual No 38', published by Joe Slater Publishing Company, Sydney, and dates from about 1916. The song was first performed by Stanley Kirkby, supported by an ensemble of four singers.

Descriptions on the music itself indicate that this is a soldier story ballad, dedicated to the 'brave heroes who have fallen at the Dardanelles'. The lyrics of this song begin with a grieving mother who has learned her son died at Gallipoli and ends with the chorus line of how he now sleeps 'in a soldiers lonely grave.'

Joe Slater was an Australian composer who wrote a number of musical pieces under several pseudonyms. He also owned a publishing company, Joe Slater & Co, in Liechhardt, Sydney which later appears to have moved to Haymarket, Sydney. Amongst his compositions are the patriotic song 'As a mother loves her son', published in 1915, and 'Your eyes are the light of my world', which was published in its entireity in the Sunday Times, Sydney, on 15 February 1914. He remained active in theatre for most of his life and was also a keen cricketer who had played for Liechhardt, Sydney.

Towards the bottom of this page is a sound recording of this sheet music, or a parody, that was created as part of the Music and the First World War project. More information about this recording, including names of the performers, can be found on the catalogue record for the sound recording. A link to the catalogue record for the sound recording can be found at the bottom of this page, under the heading ‘Related objects’ where it can be identified with the prefix [sound recording].