A line from Connie Converse

That’s a line from the song “House,” which Converse wrote and home-recorded for a friend’s short film. I came across this line while browsing Howard Fishman’s biography To Anyone Who Ever Asks : The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse (2023). There’s no trace of the song at Bandcamp, where Converse’s home recordings are available for, well, a song.

There’s wit in that seemingly sentimental line: “Hearts and Flowers” is the title of an 1893 song, music by Theodore Moses-Tobani, words by Mary D. Brine, with a melody adapted from Alphons Czibulka. That song is available: you can hear any number of lugubrious renditions at the Library of Congress’s National Jukebox. Or a reimagining for double-tracked guitars by Mahavishnu John McLaughlin. Or download the sheet music and try it yourself.