I've reproduced below the part of Oedipus we're talking about, because nobody could make sense out of this discussion without it. It's a scene where Tiresias and his daughter Manto are trying to raise the ghost of king Laius. The parts in italics are sung (I don't know if the italics will come through on the list, so I've written in typography indications. I actually start my excerpt in the middle of a song ( "Pour in blood" etc.), although I'm not sure that Purcell set it to music.
David Tayler wrote: > I'm not sure I see a seamless connection to the action in the play, but > as you say, it is "on point": the business of raising the dead. The > lyric refers to a group, in the plural, and evokes a particular scene. Yes; I assume you mean "your cares" and "your pains" > Many of the plays plugged in preexisting musical numbers, and then the > question becomes, is there some slightly forced text to allow the > plugin, or did the author(s) imagine it as an organic element in the > narrative. And here the line "Am I but half obeyed? infernal gods, Must > you have musick too?" seems a bit contrived, as if added in to plug in > the song. Tiresias likely meant "must you have instrumental musick in addition to the song I just sang?" "Musick" in Restoration theater meant "instrumental musick." Notice the next cue is "Musick First. Then Song." And sure enough, Purcell gives us an instrumental interlude, then "Hear, you sullen powers," and then "Musick for a while," and finally the ensemble/chorus "Come away/Laius! Laius!" I don't see much evidence of "Music for a While" being plugged in from some other source. And of course, if I were the producer of the next production of Oedipus and I were convinced that "Music for a While" was a plugin, I still don't think I'd cut it. Thousands of rabid Purcell fans would demand their money back. > But we don't have the breadcrumb trail, like a sketch. I'm > not sure I see Alecto as the guardian of the underworld either, as the > Furies were known as avengers. But maybe I need to reread Ovid in > Dryden's translation. There are several more verses, and I suppose one > could try to fit the other words to the tune........I resisted the > impulse as the song seems so perfect the way it is. But you could also > reconstruct a chorus and make it a whole scene with all the verses. There are other verses to "Musick for a While" that aren't in Oedipus? Or are you talking about the "Come away" sequence that comes right after it? Purcell set those parts to other music. ITALIC: Tir. Pour in blood, and blood like wine, To mother Earth and Proserpine: Mingle milk into the stream; Feast the ghosts that love the steam; Snatch a brand from funeral pile; Toss it in to make them boil: And turn your faces from the sun: Answer me, if all be done? All Pr. All is done. [Peal of Thunder; and flashes of Lightning; then groaning below the stage. END ITALIC Man. O, what laments are those? Tir. The groans of ghosts, that cleave the heart with pain, And heave it up: they pant and stick half-way.[The Stage wholly darkened. Man. And now a sudden darkness covers all, True genuine night, night added to the groves; The fogs are blown full in the face of heaven. Tir. Am I but half obeyed? infernal gods, Must you have musick too? then tune your voices, And let them have such sounds as hell ne'er heard, Since Orpheus bribed the shades. ITALIC: Musick First. Then Song. 1. Hear, ye sullen powers below: Hear, ye taskers of the dead. 2. You that boiling cauldrons blow, You that scum the molten lead. 3. You that pinch with red-hot tongs; 1. You that drive the trembling hosts Of poor, poor ghosts, With your sharpened prongs; 2. You that thrust them off the brim; 3. You that plunge them when they swim: 1. Till they drown; Till they go On a row, Down, down, down: Ten thousand, thousand, thousand fathoms low. Chorus. Till they drown, &c. 1. Musick for awhile Shall your cares beguile: Wondering how your pains were eased; 2. And disdaining to be pleas'd; 1. Till Alecto free the dead >From their eternal bands; Till the snakes drop from her head, And whip from out her hands. 1. Come away, Do not stay, But obey, While we play, For hell's broke up, and ghosts have holiday. Chorus. Come away, &c. [A flash of Lightning: The Stage is made bright, and the Ghosts are seen passing betwixt the Trees. 1. Laius! 2. Laius! 3. Laius! 1771. Hear! 2. Hear! 3. Hear! Tir. Hear and appear! By the Fates that spun thy thread! Cho. Which are three. Tir. By the furies fierce and dread! Cho. Which are three. Tir. By the judges of the dead! Cho. Which are three. Three times three! Tir. By hell's blue flame: By the Stygian Lake: And by Demogorgon's name, At which ghosts quake, Hear and appear! [The Ghost of Laius rises armed in his chariot, as he was slain. And behind his Chariot, sit the three who were murdered with him. END ITALICS Ghost of Laius. Why hast thou drawn me from my pain below, To suffer worse above? to see the day, And Thebes, more hated? Hell is heaven to Thebes. For pity send me back, where I may hide, In willing night, this ignominious head: In hell I shun the public scorn; and then They hunt me for their sport, and hoot me as I fly, blah, blah, blah... -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
