Friday July 18 2014 Air Soprano
L’Allegro
And ever against eating cares, Lap me in soft Lydian airs Married to immortal verse, Such as the meeting soul may pierce In notes, with many a winding bout Of linked sweetness long drawn out; With wanton heed, and giddy cunning, The melting voice through mazes running, Untwisting all the chains that tie The hidden soul of harmony.
Lydian airs: Soothing Lydian music. The ancient kingdom of Lydia was in the northwestern region of present-day Turkey. It flourished in the seventh and sixth centuries BC. Possibly melodies using the Lydian scale or mode.
Air Soprano
L’Allegro
Orpheus’ self may heave his head From golden slumbers on a bed Of heap’d Elysian flow’rs, and hear Such strains as would have won the ear Of Pluto, to have quite set free His half-regain’d Eurydice.
Orpheus: In Greek mythology, an extraordinary musician who was the son of the god Apollo and the muse Calliope. When he played the lyre, his music was so beautiful that even the rivers would change their courses to listen to it. The god of the Underworld, Pluto (Greek name, Hades), was so enthralled with his music that he allowed Orpheus to attempt to lead his wife, Eurydice, out of the Underworld. But he failed because he disobeyed an order from Pluto not to look back at her until they reached the upper world. Elysian: Heavenly. Pluto: Roman name for Hades, the Greek god of the underworld. Eurydice: See Orpheus above.
Air Tenor
L’Allegro
These delights if thou canst give, Mirth, with thee I mean to live.
Mirth: The speaker of the poem addresses Euphrosyne, one of three sister deities in Greek mythology: Aglaia, goddess of splendor and brightness; Euphrosyne, goddess of joy; and Thalia, goddess of festivity and good cheer.
Chorus
L’Allegro
These delights if thou canst give, Mirth, with thee we mean to live.
Recitative Soprano
Il Penseroso
But let my due feet never fail To walk the studious cloister’s pale, And love the high-embowed roof, With antic pillars’ massy proof, And storied windows richly dight, Casting a dim religious light.
Chorus & Solo Chorus
Il Penseroso
There let the pealing organ blow To the full voic’d quire below, In service high and anthems clear!
Soprano
Il Penseroso
And let their sweetness, through mine ear, Dissolve me into ecstasies, And bring all Heav’n before mine eyes!
Air Soprano
Il Penseroso
May at last my weary age Find out the peaceful hermitage, The hairy gown and mossy cell, Where I may sit and rightly spell Of ev’ry star that Heav’n doth show, And ev’ry herb that sips the dew; Till old experience do attain To something like prophetic strain.
Solo & Chorus Soprano
Il Penseroso
These pleasures, Melancholy, give, And I with thee will choose to live.
Chorus
Il Penseroso
These pleasures, Melancholy, give, And we with thee will choose to live.
The speaker asks Melancholy to let him walk the outer hallways of a cloistered convent with dim light coming through stained-glass windows. While an organ plays and a choir sings, he would “dissolve into ecstasies” and have a vision of heaven.
hermitage: In old age, the speaker would ask for a hermit’s cell. hairy gown: Hair shirt, which monks and other religious persons wore to cause themselves discomfort. This discomfort helped them to repent for their sins and distance themselves from worldly pleasure.
continued…
51