In the days leading up to our concert, Together We Sing, the author of our programme notes has provided an alternative look at the pieces featured on Saturday 6th June. This is the final post to round off the series. We are very grateful to the anonymous author, David!
The Pied Piper
How do you set a poem to music?
Robert Browning’s 1842, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, was written to amuse Willy, the young son of his friend, William Macready, while he was recovering from an illness. In it, an enigmatic piper agrees, for a fee, to rid a town of its rats, but when, job done, the townspeople refuse to cough up, he takes his revenge … So far, so good, except that the text, based on a medieval legend first recorded in 1384, is more than 2,000 words long and takes at least 15 minutes just to read out loud.
And it is complicated. Hamelin, which lies on the banks of the river Weser in Lower Saxony, is overrun by rats that destroy food, attack pets, and even threaten children. Then, one day, a mysterious figure appears, wearing a coat of red and yellow and carrying a magical pipe, and offers to rid the town of its rats. For a thousand guilders. A deal is done, and, playing his pipe, the piper leads the rats out of the town to the Weser where they all drown. However, now ratless, the townspeople refuse to pay up and so, playing his pipe again, the piper, leads their children away, never to return.
The poem explores a number of themes, including justice and retribution and the power of music and magic, while blending historical references with imaginative storytelling, vivid imagery and sound. And, a quarter-of-an-hour later, it leaves Willy in no doubt as to the lessons to be drawn from it:
So, Willy, let you and me be wipers
Of scores out with all men - especially pipers:
And, whether they pipe us from rats or from mice,
If we've promised them aught, let us keep our promise.
But, how do you even start to set that to music as Gordon Jacobs did in 1958? Well …
(Editor: sorry, you have reached your word limit.)
Leave a Reply