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Essay on the Vocal Textures in 'Thule, the Period of Cosmography and The Andalusian Merchant'
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Essay on the Vocal Textures in 'Thule, the Period of Cosmography and The Andalusian Merchant'
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How does the music show the meaning of the text in the Weelkes? - CCEAThe piece begins with the monophonic, repeated Bb semibreve in Soprano 1. This motif reflects the high
island of mystery the text, “Thule” presents. The next line “the period of cosmography” sees a lack of bass
in the texture and a rising scalic, dotted motif. The composition of this motif and its polyphonic treatment
reflects the study of the stars and sky mentioned in the text. Also, the parallel 3rds and 6ths add to the
celestial nature of the music that matches the text.
The next symbiotic pairing of text and music is seen in the rising 4 th and stately dotted motif used to mimic
the boasting Hecla in the text “Doth vaunt of Hecla”. The change to Cm and contrary quaver movement in
3rds and 6ths clearly paints the picture of “sulphurious fire”. A sense of it oncoming is added by using
different sets of vocal pairings in the repetition of this motif in Eb (first time it is sopranos, alto and tenor 1
whereas the second is Sopranos and tenor 2 and bass.) The next portion of text “doth melt the frozen
climb” sees block chords (hence slowing down the harmonic pulse) and homophony ‘freezing’ the music in
its tracks, hence mimicking the text. The close of this section sees the text “And thaw the sky” that sees the
movement increase as the music thaws with the depicted image. This movement comes apart from vocal
pairings in 3rds singing an ascending quaver motif in close imitation of one another. The lack of bass adds a
similar lightness as earlier hence linking back to the sky. Also, the act of thawing referenced in the text is
embellished as the Ab harmonic overlap moves back to more tonic dominant harmony that is seen
throughout the first section.
The next section sees a move to triple time hence embellishing the ‘Trinacrian Aetna”. The ascending
sequence that in the dovetailing soprano parts sees a sense of irony created between the music and the
text.
The next section of text reads “these things more wondrous” and this wonder is established in the music
through dynamic harmonic shifts. These harmonic shifts see a tonal shift from Db to Eb then a move to Ab
leading to a CmGMFM progression. A slower harmonic pulse reflects the awe the speaker experiences
in the text.
Within the next part of the extended madrigal we see close polyphonic stretto embellish the amount of
cargo the Andalusian Merchant carries on his journey on the text “Laden with cochineal and China dishes.”
We then see further word painting in the text that refers to our last volcano of the extended madrigal
“How strangely Fogo burns”. The strangeness described is reflected in the chromatic harmony that
contains major/minor oscillations, dominant 7ths, unrelated chord progressions, false relations, diminished
triads and an augmented triad. All these harmonic devices create tonal uncertainty that is resolved at the
close of this section in F major.
We then move to the sea in the text “amidst the ocean” that sees the first real move to homophony in ‘The
Andalusian Merchant’ which is accompanied by slow harmonic pulse caused by block tonic and dominant
chords (asserting the tonic key after previous harmonic uncertainty). The text “full of flying fishes” is
cleverly word painted with the alliteration of the text being shown by the descending quaver movement
that is closely imitated (hence also showing the quantity of fish). The motif is also inverted creating a sense
of the leaping fish described in the text.
The close of the madrigal sees the same content of wonder seen in ‘Thule’ but instead closes the extended
madrigal in the tonic key of Eb.
Daniel Sharpe 14R
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