I wrote the poem for this song while sailing from St Petersburg to Moscow. ‘The White Lake’ is Lake Beloye (Vologda Oblast). It is a universal ‘Hymn’ for Russian girls whose men were sent to fight in the many different Franco-Russian wars. Among my original compositions, this is one of a small number setting my own verse. 

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N.B. The final two words of the song are better spoken sotto voce rather than sung, like an inner whisper. For soprano and piano.