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From: Laura McBurnie
To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
Subject: Re: Music for a While
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

On Fri, 14 Jan 2000, Christl B wrote:

> Dear Singers,
> Can anybody help me with the meaning of the text of Purcell's "Music for a
> while"?
>
> Who is Alecto? and what does it mean that the snakes drop (x9) from her head
> and the whip from out her hands? and who is the 'she'? (and who is the
> person who is singing this??)
> I only know this piece is from 'Oedipus'.

Hi Christl,

I don't know how much you know about the Oedipus legend, but a quick
rehash: he inadvertently kills his father then marries his mother, and
when everybody (including him) finds this out, his mother hangs herself
and he blinds himself. This is about the point where you'd hear Music for
a while.

Alecto is one of the Furies, also known as the Eumenides, a group of
vengeful female gods of the generation before Zeus's. They take revenge
on murder in the family, or incest. The Furies, especially Alecto, have
snakes for hair (like the Medusa), and all kinds of nasty weapons, like a
whip, for punishing their victims. Alecto is the "she" in the poem.

In other stories, Alecto has been charmed to sleep so that she will not
persecute a victim. Maybe that's what's happening here.

I don't know Purcell's Oedipus, just the legend and the Sophocles setting,
but I would guess that the person singing this is like the Chorus in Greek
tragedy- they do not take any part in the tragedy unfolding, but they
offer commentary and reactions to that tragedy.

hope that helps!

--
Laura McBurnie, Soprano
BMus Vocal Performance Student, Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada 902-496-0360 ICQ#1871734
http://is2.dal.ca/~lmcburni/lhome.html lmcburni-at-is2.dal.ca
Song in my head right now: "Music for a while"