Ravel and MELISANDE

It's time to show my work, so here we go:

This is the first movement of the Ravel Sonatine. This represents (checks calendar) 22 days of work, and I'm hoping that by the end of the month I'll have learned the second Brahms Rhapsody at about the same stage of development, which is to say memorized but not necessarily polished.

That said, there are only nine days left before the end of January, and although I've already got about four days of work on the Brahms and the first two pages memorized, I'm anticipating a little overambition on my part. We'll see.

I also wanted to give you a bit more MELISANDE, and this time I'm going to give you the lyrics before the paywall and the music afterwards. Here's the current draft of Scene 4, and I hope you can figure out what's going on without my explaining it any further (although I should remind you that the King speaks in rhythm while everyone else sings):

Scene 4

No. 5 ADMINISTRATION

KING.

MY DEAR FORTUNA—

I TRUST YOU KNOW WHY I AM WRITING

IT’S BEEN SIXTEEN YEARS SINCE I BEGAT A DAUGHTER

AND AS HER FATHER

I NEGLECTED TO PROVIDE A FAIRY GODMOTHER.

WE HAD A CIVIL NAMING CEREMONY, CIVILIZED, 

I’M SURE YOU KNOW PRECISELY WHY I THOUGHT IT WISE

AND WHY I’VE SINCE ASSUMED IT WISER

TO RESUME THE OLD TRADITIONS, THOUGH I NEVER REALIZED

WE’D ONLY HAVE ONE CHANCE TO BRING A CHILD INTO FRUITION.

CHANCE IS A TRICKY THING, AS WELL YOU KNOW—

I KNOW IT BETTER NOW THAT I HAVE BEEN A FATHER ALL THESE YEARS.

AND SO I TRICKED IT BACK, ONE MOVE AHEAD OF EVERY HAIR THAT DOES NOT GROW UPON MY DAUGHTER’S.

SHE’S THOUGHT HER LIFE, THUS FAR, AS NOTHING BUT THE BEST

NO ARBITRARINESS ALLOWED; TO THE CONTRARY, SHE IS—

I CONFESS, I CAN NOT PRECISELY SAY. 

SHE’S GOOD AT CHESS, SHE KNOWS THE RULES OF COUNTERPOINT AND ARGUMENT

AND HOW TO SIT A HORSE AND HOW TO KEEP A CONVERSATION GOING

WHICH I ADMIT I DO NOT DO AS WELL AS SHE, AS WELL YOU KNOW

AND, WELL, I KNOW, MOST OF ALL, THAT SHE IS CAPABLE AND RATIONAL

NOTHING ELSE MATTERS

BUT THE QUEEN BELIEVES SHE OUGHT TO HAVE SOME HAIR

BELIEF, AS YOU KNOW, IS AN IMPEDIMENT TO KNOWLEDGE

WHICH IS WHY WE ARE OBLIGED TO STATE OUR PRIORS

OUR ENTIRE LIVES, BY WHICH I MEAN OUR MINDS, ARE BUILT ON SEDIMENT

THAT SHIFTS AS WE STEP CLOSER TO THE TRUTH—

(A PAGE enters, with a letter. This is not the same PAGE we saw previously, as pages tend to grow up and this PAGE is still quite young.)

KING.

IT SEEMS THAT I HAVE GOTTEN YOUR RESPONSE BEFORE I SENT MY LETTER

THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS WHEN I WRITE TO YOU.

WITH LOVE,

YOUR ALL-TOO-HUMAN GODSON. 

PAGE. A letter from your fairy godmother, your Majesty.

KING. Thank you.

(FORTUNA dictates as MALEVOLA plays. As before, this may be performed from the piano bench or elsewhere in the space.)

FORTUNA.

AS ALWAYS, YOU ASSUME I KNOW 

BOTH MORE AND LESS THAN YOU

BUT YOU FORGET THAT FAIRIES UNDERSTAND BELIEF.

THE OLD WAYS, WE PRESUME, MAY GO 

BOTH MORE AND LESS ANEW

AS IN AN HOURGLASS’S VALANCE—

AND THE REGRET THAT BURIES UNDER SAND

BECOMES RELIEF AS WE BEGIN AGAIN

AND TURN AND LEARN AND AND TURN AND LEARN AND TRY AT LAST FOR BALANCE.

KING. I can never make sense of her. 

PAGE. She has sent a second letter, your Majesty.

FORTUNA.

I AM NO MORE OR LESS NONSENSICAL THAN YOU ARE.

ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT

AND YOU MAY GET IT—

THAT’S WHAT A FAIRY GODMOTHER IS FOR.

(The KING writes rapidly.)

KING. Dear Fortuna, I would like to give the wish you gave me to my daughter. Is it possible that its powers may be transferred? With love—

PAGE. Do you want me to give you the third letter, your Majesty?

KING. Have you had it the entire time?

PAGE. I’m not sure, your Majesty. 

KING. Fairy rules, no doubt. Let’s see what it reads.

FORTUNA.

DO AS YOU LIKE WITH THE WISH.

WITH LOVE—

(FORTUNA returns to the piano.)

KING. Get the princess, get the queen, I’ll get the wish!

(The PAGE exits. The KING begins to, then turns back to his ink and paper.)

KING. Thank you.

(He signs the letter with a flourish.)

The score and a MIDI recording are below the paywall. The MIDI uses "breath sounds" to represent the King's spoken text, so you'll have to deal with that. Also, this song was originally called "To a Fairy Godmother" and renamed "Administration" after I realized I could title the first five musical numbers "Once Upon a Time," "Twice Trouble," "For You," "Adminstration," "A Sixteenth Birthday Wish" (formerly "I Want"), and "Exponential."

Enjoy!