From: Margaret Harrison
To: VOCALIST <vocalist>, Christl B
Subject: Re: Music for a While
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

Christl B wrote:

> Dear Singers,
> Can anybody help me with the meaning of the text of Purcell's "Music for a
> while"?

>From the booklet which came with my CD of Purcell songs (sung by Sylvia McNair, with
Christopher Hogwood):

"In 1679 John Dryden and Nathaniel Lee collaborated in a wildly exravagant version of
Sophcles' _Oedipus_. Purcell's music dates from the early 1690's. 'Music for a While' is
used by the prophet Tiresias to summon the ghost of the murdered Laius and learn the
origin of the curse which aflicts Thebes. The extraordinary tension, which must both
"beguile" and yet convey the unnaturalness of this conjuration, is inherent in the subtly
irregular construction of the ground on which the song is built."

Peggy

--
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
"Music for a While Shall All Your Cares Beguile"
mailto:peggyh-at-ix.netcom.com