A Piper (1923), with words by Seumas O’Sullivan (1879–1958), was one of Head’s most popular songs during his lifetime. Its dancing piano part, flecked with impish chromatics, is combined with a sprightly melody and rises to a lush harmonic climax at ‘all the world went gay, went gay, / For half an hour in the streets today’.
from notes by Andrew Burn © 2012
