SERENADE AND FUGUE
|
SERENADE:
"The Blinded Bird" by Thomas Hardy So zestfully canst thou sing? And all this indignity, With God's consent, on thee! Blinded ere yet a-wing By the red-hot needle thou, I stand and wonder how So zestfully thou canst sing! Resenting not such wrong, Thy grievous pain forgot, Eternal dark thy lot, Groping thy whole life long; After that stab of fire; Enjailed in pitiless wire; Resenting not such wrong! Who hath charity? This bird. Who suffereth long and is kind, Is not provoked, though blind And alive ensepulchred? Who hopeth, endureth all things? Who thinketh no evil, but sings? Who is divine? This bird. FUGUE: "Birds at Winter Nightfall " by Thomas Hardy Around the house the flakes fly faster, And all the berries now are gone From holly and cotoneaster Around the house. The flakes fly!--faster Shutting indoors that crumb-outcaster We used to see upon the lawn Around the house. The flakes fly faster, And all the berries now are gone! |
Notes:
"Serenade: was originally written for two sopranos to a poem by Ann Head; performed in Rockport, MA by Janet Wheeler, & Charlotte Regni Lord. This new version, uses a very sad poem by Thomas, about the inhumane practice of blinding birds in the hope that it will improve their singing. As a singer, I'm very glad that this practice has been discontinued. "Fugue" is an attempt to create a two part fugue. The fugue process is generally considerd to be exclusively for three or more contrapuntal voices. Hardy's poem: "Birds at "Winter Nightfall" is a Tiolet: a complex poetic form a triolet is an eight-line poem (or stanza) with a rhyme scheme of ABaAabAB: The first line is repeated in the fourth and seventh lines and the second is also the last line (the capital letters indicate repeating lines). It's similar to a rondeau, another French poetic form of repeated lines. |