{"id":477,"date":"2016-01-25T14:33:54","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T13:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/?page_id=477"},"modified":"2016-09-05T16:05:03","modified_gmt":"2016-09-05T14:05:03","slug":"some-dozen-or-sixteen-lines","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/contents-summaries\/three-elizabethan-partsongs\/part-1-complete\/some-dozen-or-sixteen-lines\/","title":{"rendered":"some dozen or sixteen lines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Death is not the only connection between the rev. Herbert\u2019s short(ened) sermon and one of the most famous tearjerkers in world literature. For\u00a0The Song of Willow<\/em>\u00a0as it is immortalized by William Shakespeare suffered the loss of a few lines as well. The score\u2019s source-indication emphasises strongly its origin as a folk song, in which quality it is still in existence; there is (or was) almost certainly a manuscript in RVW\u2019s own hand in the composer\u2019s private collection of traditional music. Still, this shortened and even incomplete version must be far better stuff than the original, for Vaughan Williams, chooses to use the<\/p>\n

words from Shakespeare\u2019s \u2018Othello\u2019<\/p>\n

and reverses the ones Shakespeare used for a title. Again the score is in three-quarters and this time the words are cut down to size even twice. The song in which Desdemona unwittingly foretells her untimely end, peters out in confusion as she doesn\u2019t remember it very well. This leaves Vaughan Williams little choise but to ignore the final four of Shakespeare\u2019s 13 lines. Meanwhile Desdemona\u2019s faulty memory in this rather long play is to be regarded as a blessing in disguise to both audience and pocket calculator; where the original version demands to sing 54 lines, the 1623 edition (the first complete works-edition, based on the lost original manuscripts) manages to have it printed in sixteen, some inserted dialogue included. This dialogue turns every single word in these sixteen lines into an integrated part of\u00a0\u2018Othello\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0story, which is very much contrary to the original song; which is refrain almost throughout. And leaves it to a modest twelve lines to cover the story it is telling. Because of this increase of the story lines to sixteen, one might say that in reducing\u00a0Virtue<\/em>Vaughan Williams exactly reverses the way Shakespeare deals with the\u00a0Song of Willow<\/em>. Pointing at the weeping willow\u2019s roots as\u00a0\u2018words from Othello\u2019<\/em>\u00a0also brings the words to attention RVW omitted. These final lines reveal why the poor soul is flowing fresh tears by the stream. And as causes are always preceding results, we are facing a reversion once again; of chronology this time. The cause, by the way, is love. So a common main subject now unites both Shakespeare-texts against Herbert\u2019s view on mortality.<\/p>\n

In short ;\u00a0Sweet Day and The Willow Song share the theme of approaching death, and\u00a0a reduction by four lines. They also have both their share of reversions, and\u00a0reducing Virtue from 16 to 12 lines RVW reverses Shakespeare\u2019s expansion\u00a0of The song of Willow by four story-lines. But the songs differ by subject, and\u00a0this unites\u00a0The Willow Song<\/i>\u00a0with\u00a0O Mistress Mine\u00a0<\/i>:<\/p>\n

Sweet Day
\n\u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013
\nThe Willow Song
\nO Mistress Mine
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

—<\/span><\/p>\n

—<\/span><\/p>\n

go to next chapter<\/a>\u00a0– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/span>\u00a0back to the previous chapter<\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Death is not the only connection between the rev. Herbert\u2019s short(ened) sermon and one of the most famous tearjerkers in world literature. For\u00a0The Song of Willow\u00a0as it is immortalized by William Shakespeare suffered the loss of a few lines as … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1075,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/477"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":879,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/477\/revisions\/879"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethanpartsongs.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}