After I had added The Robin’s Return to my PRB Piano Series, I came across this equally popular number from the time - one of those tunes that you know, perhaps, but can’t alsways put a name to!

In this particular transcription, I have tidied up the fingering, which was originally shown in English, rather than Continental Fingering, which meant changing from + 1 2 3 4 (thumb & 4 fingers) to 1 2 3 4 5, where the thumb is treated as a ’finger’.

I also have tidied up some of the notation, and just provided an alternative closing bar, hopefully to give the piece a slightly more ’final’ feel. In the original, while a lot of the octaves in the left hand were written out as such, the composer often reverted to putting a single note, with an ’8’ underneath it. In one of my much older ’rudiments’ book, it was clear that this means: play the note TOGETHER with the lower octave, rather than simply play the note an octave below, as some books today don’t make that distinction.

The composer usually referered to himself as E. Nevin - I don’t think ’Ethelbert’ is that bad a name, compared with, say, ’Endeavour’, as in Inspector Endeavour Morse!

Narcissus is, in fact, the fourth in a set of five Water Scenes by the composer.