Cora, the Indian Maiden's Song

"Cora, The Indian Maiden's Song"
"The Wild Free Wind"
Cover, sheet music, 1851
Song
Published	1851
Composer(s)	Alexander Lee
Lyricist(s)	Shirley Brooks
Language	English

"Cora, The Indian Maiden's Song" ("The Wild Free Wind") is a song written by Shirley Brooks for his burletta, The Wigwam, sometime before 1847. Alexander Lee composed the music. In the song, Cora, the Indian maiden, is praising the wind: "Oh! The wild free wind is a Spirit Kind, And it loves the Indian well." The song's chorus is:^[1]

It speeds her dart to the red deer's heart

As he bounds from his secret lair

And whether o'er sea or land it go, or land it go.

She loves to hear the wild wind blow,

To hear the wild wind blow.'

In the 1847 London presentation of The Wigwam, Mary Keeley played Cora where she received high praise for her rendering of the song.^[2]

References

1. Brooks, "Cora, The Indian Maiden's Song" (sheet music).
2. The Musical World, p. 108: "The frontispiece is accompanied by a lithograph, purporting to be a likeness of Miss Mary Keeley, as she appeared singing Mr. Alexander Lee's song in Cora, in The Wigwam. Were the song no better than the likeness, we could hardly have awarded it so much praise as we have done."

Bibliography

• Brooks, Shirley (w.); Lee, Alexander (m). "Cora, The Indian Maiden's Song" (Sheet music). New York: Firth, Pond & Co. (1851).
• The Musical World Vol. XXII (No. 7, Saturday, February 13, 1847). London: W.S Johnson (1847).