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From CD #1:
Yes, Let Me Like a Soldier Fall

Music by Wm. Vincent Wallace;
words by Edward Fitzball

Liner Notes

This piece is referred to in "The Dead," the last story of Dubliners, whose Mr. Browne introduces the subject of an Italian tenor of bygone years who had once sung five encores to this song, "introducing a high C every time." It is part of a continuing pattern of references to past events and deceased people throughout the story, especially to singers of long ago who (in the opinion of the company) far surpassed the vocalists contemporary to the time of the story. The introduction of the high C would probably have come at the end of Don Caesar's aria via a gratuitous alteration of the music to please the audience through a transposing of the last two notes of the song up an octave, since the original score calls only for a middle C. Nevertheless, the song is a part of the death metaphor that runs throughout the story.
[from CD liner notes, contributed by Prof. Zack Bowen]

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