During our NEH seminar, we (Patricia and Glen Wolfsen) worked on music and Tennyson. We Choose the Lady of Shallott because of its inherent musical structure and the words the text itself which suggested sounds with musical connotations. Here are some of the presentations made during the seminar.
AN OPENING QUOTE:
In fact, the image of the female in destress, her woes brought upon her by some SELF-IMMOLATING HIGH PRINCIPLE, ENTANGLEMENT IN HOPELESS LOVE, or CRUEL TURN OF FATE - "Beauth and anguish," as Tennyson was to put it later in his LEGEND OF FAIR WOMEN, "walking hand in hand the downward Slope of Death" - is one of the most strinking features of the psychological progression ........Maynard Mack: Life of Alexandar Pope (pp. 323-4)
Part I
Part I 1.17 "silent isle"
1.30 "hear a song"
1.35 "listening and hearing"
Part II 1.39-40 whispering curse
1.66 "silent nights"
1.67 "funeral music"
Part III 1.85 "bridle bells rang merrily"
1.89 "armour rung"
1.107-108 " 'Terra lirra' by the River Sang Sir Lancelot"
1.115 her curse cry
Part IV 1.139 "noise of the night"
1.143-46 singing her last song
1.153-4 singing and dying
1.158 "silent into Camelot"
1.163 questions
1.165 "Died the sound of royal cheer"
1.160-171 Lancelot final saying
The lady if framed in silence [1.17 & IV.158]. Center of Drama in the
poem are two songs: . . . . Lancelot's song [III. 107-8] ... (Between
these two: Curse cty [III.115]).... The Lady's song [III.143-154]
PARALLEL POEM: The Dying Swan (Rick's edition, p 15ff)
SPECIAL ANALYSIS: the chiasmus in lines 105-8 (Bloom:110-111), REVIEW OF
sound/music/silence and movement through the poem. QUESTION: What is the
Lady's song? .. Can we imagine it's meaning or sound? .. Why does she
sing it?.. Part II
Directly related to the awareness of the major musical aspects of the poem - a presentation of short musical selections that suggest a "resonance" with these aspects. - The Lady's opening song in Part I, 1.30 and her weaving and her mirror make up her activities before Lancelot arrives. These find a parellel int e weaving/mirror/magic music of the Norms in Wagner's Gotterdammerung. - Lancelot's sound and song moments as he rides toward and away from Shalllot find a parallel in Siegfried's "Rhein Journey" in Wagner's Gotterdammerung. - The Lady's last/dying/swan song suggests many selectionsa, depending on what kind of song it might have been. Here the quote from Mack applies:
In fact, the image of the female in destress, her woes brought upon her by some SELF-IMMOLATING HIGH PRINCIPLE, ENTANGLEMENT IN HOPELESS LOVE, or CRUEL TURN OF FATE - "Beauth and anguish," as Tennyson was to put it later in his LEGEND OF FAIR WOMEN, "walking hand in hand the downward Slope of Death" - is one of the most strinking features of the psychological progression ........
Her song as self-immolation suggests the Immolation scene from Wagner's Gotterdammerung. Entanglement suggests the Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan & Isolde, and Cruel Fate (with following release) suggests Death and Transfiguration by Richard Strauss.
Musical Selections/collections of settings of Tennyson by Composers or inspired by Tennyson.
Sound/silence words capitalized
Part I
On either side the liver lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the world and meet the sky;
And through the field the road runs by
To many-towered Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow,
Round an island there below
the island of Shallott.
Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Through the wave that runs ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four gray walls, and four grey towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the SILENT isle imbowers - SILENT
The Lady of Shallott.
By the margin, willow-veiled,
Slide the heavy barges trailed
By slow sorses; and unhailed
The shallop flitteth silken-sailed
Skimming down to Camelot:
But who hath seen her wave her hand?
Or at the casement seen her stand?
Or is she know in all the land?
The Lady of Shallott?
Only reapers, reaping early
In among the bearded barley,
Hear a SONG that ECHOS CHEERILY -SONG
From the river winding clearly,
Down to towered Camelot:
And by the moon the reapers weary,
Piling sheaves in the upland airy,
LISTENING, WHISPERS 'Tis the fairy -WHISPERS
Lady of Shalott.'
Part II
There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She had HEARD A WHISPER SAY, -WHISPER
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shallott.
And moving through a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
SHadows of the world appear.
There she sees the highway near
Winding down to Camelot.
Thre the river eddy whirls,
And there the surly village-churls,
And the red cloaks of market girls,
Pass onward from Shallott.
Sometimes a troop of damsels glad
An abbot on an ambling pad,
Sometimes a curly shepherd-lad,
Or long-haired page in crimson clad,
Goes by to towered Camelot;
And sometimes through the mirror blue
The knights come riding two by two:
She hath no loyal knight and true,
The Lady of Shallott.
But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often through the SILENT nights - SILENT
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And MUSIC, went through Camelot: - MUSIC
Or when the moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed;
'I am half sick of shadows,' SAID - SAID
The Lady of Shallott.
Part III
A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,
He rode between the barley-sheaths,
The sun came dazzling through the leaves,
And flamed upon the brazen greaves
Of bold Sir Lancelot.
A red-cross knight for ever kneeled
To a lady in his shield,
That sparkled on the yelow field,
Beside remote Shalott.
The gemmey bridle glittered free,
Like to some branch of stars to see
Hung in the golden Galaxy.
The bridge bells RANG merrily - RANG
As he rode down to Camelot:
And from his blazoned baldric slung
A mighty silver bugle hung,
And as he road his armour RUNG -RUNG
Beside remote Shalott.
All in the blue unclouded weather
Thick-jewelled shone the saddle-leather,
The helmet and the helmet-feather
Burned like one burning flame together,
As he rode down to Camelot.
As often through the purple night,
Below the starry clusters bright,
Some bearded meteor, trailing light,
Moved over STILL Chalott. - STILL
Hid broad clear brow in sunlight glowed;
On brunished hooves his war-horse trode;
From underneath his helmet flowed
As he rode down to Camelot.
From the bank and from the river
He flashed into the crystal mirror,
'TIRRA LIRRA' by the river - TIRRA LIRRA
SANG Sir Lancelot. - SANG
She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces through the toom,
She was the helmet and the plume,
She looked down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror cracked from side to side;
'The curse is come upon me,' CRIED -CRIED
The Lady of Shalott.
Part IV
In the stormy east-wind straining,
The pale yellow woods were waning,
The broad stream in his banks COMPLAINING, - COMPLAINING
Heavily the low shy raining
Over towered Camelot;
Down she came and found a boat
Beneath a willow felt afloat,
And round about the prow she wrote
The Lady of Shalott.
And down the river's dim expanse
Like some bold seer in a trance
Seeing all his own mischance
Did she look at Camelot.
And at the closing of the day
She loosed the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.
Lying, robed in snowy white
That loosely flew to left and right -
The leaves upon her falling light -
Through the NOISES of the night - NOISES
She floated down to Camelot:
And as the boar-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They HEARD her SINGING her LAST SONG, - HEARD, SINGING, LAST SONG
The Lady of Shalott.
HEARD a CAROL, mournful, holy - HEARD, CAROL
CHANTED LOUDLY, CHANTED SLOWELY, - CHANGED LOUDLY, CHANTED
Till her blood was frozen slowly, SLOWELY
And her eyes were darkened wholly,
Turned to towered Camelot.
For ere she reached upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
SINGING in her SONG she died, - SINGING, SONG
The Lady of Shalott.
Under tower and balcony,
By garden-wall and gallery,
A gleaming shape she floated by,
Dead-pale between the houses high,
SILENT into Camelot. - SILENT
Out upon the wharfs they came,
Knight and burgher, lord and dame,
And round the prow they read her name,
The Lady of Shalott.
WHO IS THIS? AND WHAT IS HERE? - QUESTION
And in the lighted palace near
Died the SOUND of royal cheer; - SOUNG
And they crossed themselves for fear,
All the knights at Camelot:
But Lancelot mused a little space;
He SAID, 'SHE HAS A LOVELY FACE;
THE LADY OF SHALOTT.'
Tennyson PICTURES sound in his lyrical and meditatice poems. Sometimes it is done as acounstical effect in a scene or action doubling a visual one.
As for the Lady of Shalott: (we have already looked at the overall picture), most the the sound in the poem is what is heard by the outside world. The "song that echoes cheerily/From the river winding clearly,/Down to towered Camelot" is the Lady's, and Tennyson wisely altered, in 1842, the original lines (46-48) of the 1832 version: "She lives with little joy or fear./Over the water, running near,/The sheepbell tinkles in her ear." The effect of the revision was to make the FIRST sond that reaches her the sound of Lancelot's bridle-bells and the ringing armor. And when she actually sees him, she hears the song. The acoustical and scenic effect are one.
This song serves as "resonance". It is a literary resonance with Autolycus's song from THE WINTER'S TALE; (it's erotic content), and it resonates as a phonetic mirror imatge int he poem.
The mirror image is a literary device, CHAISMUS. It is formed in a favorite Tennysonian form: abba.
In lines 105 to 108 we have
river (a)
mirror (b) = Chiasmus with river
lirra (b)
river (a)
(or in its usual cross format):
river (a) mirror (b)
lirra (b) river (a)
[From the bank and from the river
He flashed into the crystal mirror,
'Tirra lirra,' by the river
Sang Sir Lancelot.]
The river is itself a mirror (the word rhyming with itself), the sound and light mirror each other, the "tirra lirra" flashes into her HEARING as Lancelot and Lancelot's image flash into the Lady's mirror. Sound thus answers sound, and image answers image.
It is ONLY after this SONG that the Lady is moved to "move out" so to speak.
This idea of resonance leads us into the next segment.
The music of the Lady's song is undefined. Her song is ony a suggestion to us.
The following segment offers possible musical resonances with the amjor parts of the poem that suggest music for a composer (in whatever format), by theme or by possibility.
All the main words that are about sound, silence, or music have been lifted from the poem and placed on the right of where they occur for easy reference. With these words in place, a quick scan of the poem reveals an over-alpl archetecture that can serve as structure (bones) for a composer. First we note where these words are placed, and whree they are for apart and where they are clustered. We also note repetitions of exact words and repetitions of similar words close together.
"Silence" [frames] the poem's drama(?) of the Lady of Shalott (along with the word "STILL") in the center of the drama. Words of sound/music/song begin to cluster just at the end of part III, and then continue to do so in part IV. Thus: as a basic over-all structure a composer can frame the silence in same/similar musical content/effect and build textrure/intensity where the words cluster.
Also, the 5th and 9th lines are ALWAYS Camelot/Shalott. At the very least, this formal poetic device should be reflected in the musical setting in some way . . . and of course, the rhyme scheme itself is often a prefered reference for composers as markers for musical cadences.
Whats follows are suggestiong that a composer might want to consider (among others) that provide musical unity to a setting, and provide the listener meaningful repitition that gives a sense of wholeness and closure (i.e., that the work is a unit.) In the case of this particular poem, such a GESTALT may NOT be the best approach - because of the words of Lancelot at the end of the poem. Depending on what the feeling is of the meaning ofhis words, musical ambiguity may be an appropriate reflection of Lancelot's final comment.
Part I
On either side the liver lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the world and meet the sky;
And through the field the road runs by
To many-towered Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow,
Round an island there below
the island of Shallott.
Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Through the wave that runs ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four gray walls, and four grey towers, [ because the word SILENCE
overlook a space of flowers, frames the Lady, beginning
And the SILENT isle imbowers here, the music can be thin and
The Lady of Shallott. spare both here and at the end
of her journey to Camelot. ]
By the margin, willow-veiled,
Slide the heavy barges trailed
By slow sorses; and unhailed
The shallop flitteth silken-sailed
Skimming down to Camelot:
But who hath seen her wave her hand?
Or at the casement seen her stand?
Or is she know in all the land?
The Lady of Shallott?
[ this first reference to her song
Only reapers, reaping early may be best a theme/texture songlike
In among the bearded barley, and latent with her later death-
Hear a SONG that ECHOS CHEERILY song elements, so that it's
From the river winding clearly, later use in the death-song will
Down to towered Camelot: recall this first hearing ]
And by the moon the reapers weary,
Piling sheaves in the upland airy,
LISTENING, WHISPERS 'Tis the fairy [ actual spoken words might be
Lady of Shalott.' personified by assigning the singing
to a soloist ]
Part II
There she weaves by night and day [ parellel use of whispers could
A magic web with colours gay. offer the same evocatoin of mystery
She had HEARD A WHISPER SAY, is each case. ]
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shallott.
And moving through a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
SHadows of the world appear.
There she sees the highway near
Winding down to Camelot.
Thre the river eddy whirls,
And there the surly village-churls,
And the red cloaks of market girls,
Pass onward from Shallott.
Sometimes a troop of damsels glad
An abbot on an ambling pad,
Sometimes a curly shepherd-lad,
Or long-haired page in crimson clad,
Goes by to towered Camelot;
And sometimes through the mirror blue
The knights come riding two by two:
She hath no loyal knight and true,
The Lady of Shallott.
[ Conglomeraton of silence/funeral
But in her web she still delights can be used to let this section
To weave the mirror's magic sights, refer musically to the opening
For often through the SILENT nights silence of the poem. and the song
A funeral, with plumes and lights that expands later from the first
And MUSIC, went through Camelot: to the death-song at Part IV.]
Or when the moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed;
'I am half sick of shadows,' SAID [ let this quote remain in this
The Lady of Shallott. same musical context ]
Part III
A bow-shot from her bower-eaves, [ part III and IV will be more
He rode between the barley-sheaths, ful/intense than I & II - the
The sun came dazzling through the leaves, composer has to be careful to
And flamed upon the brazen greaves pace and time these sections so only
Of bold Sir Lancelot. the most important points of intensity
A red-cross knight for ever kneeled are not lost in too rich a texture] :
To a lady in his shield,
That sparkled on the yellow field,
Beside remote Shalott.
The gemmey bridle glittered free, [ Part III music will contrast
Like to some branch of stars to see in brightness with I & II ]
Hung in the golden Galaxy.
The bridge bells RANG merrily - RANG
As he rode down to Camelot: [ musical "picture painting"
And from his blazoned baldric slung and parallel sonority with
A mighty silver bugle hung, rang/rung.
And as he road his armour RUNG
Beside remote Shalott.
All in the blue unclouded weather
Thick-jewelled shone the saddle-leather,
The helmet and the helmet-feather
Burned like one burning flame together,
As he rode down to Camelot.
As often through the purple night,
Below the starry clusters bright,
Some bearded meteor, trailing light, [ remind listener through musical
Moved over STILL Shalott. reference that Shalott is yet still]
Hid broad clear brow in sunlight glowed;
On brunished hooves his war-horse trode;
From underneath his helmet flowed [ from here must build to the
As he rode down to Camelot. most bright and climactic musical
From the bank and from the river segment of the entire setting.
He flashed into the crystal mirror, climaxing in the utterance of
"tirra lirra" which could well
'TIRRA LIRRA' by the river be personified in a terryfying
male solo voice ]
SANG Sir Lancelot.
She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces through the toom,
She was the helmet and the plume,
She looked down to Camelot. [Would it not be an appropriate
Out flew the web and floated wide; musical device here, that her solo
The mirror cracked from side to side; personificating voice be identified
'The curse is come upon me,' CRIED musically with the 'tirra lirra'
The Lady of Shalott. theme? ]
Part IV
In the stormy east-wind straining,
The pale yellow woods were waning,
The broad stream in his banks COMPLAINING,
Heavily the low shy raining [ A basic change here will return
Over towered Camelot; to the musical mood of part I of
Down she came and found a boat the poem. ]
Beneath a willow felt afloat,
And round about the prow she wrote
The Lady of Shalott.
And down the river's dim expanse
Like some bold seer in a trance
Seeing all his own mischance [ the music of her first song should
Did she look at Camelot. be the root musical context of this
And at the closing of the day section; with a more overt setting
She loosed the chain, and down she lay; of that song theme/texture as
The broad stream bore her far away, this section enters the actual
The Lady of Shalott. singing ]
Lying, robed in snowy white
That loosely flew to left and right -
The leaves upon her falling light - [ what musical reference from
Through the NOISES of the night earler in the poem here? ]
She floated down to Camelot:
And as the boar-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among, [ An interlude, of only
They HEARD her SINGING her LAST SONG, instrumental music of the
The Lady of Shalott. "wordless" song here
HEARD a CAROL, mournful, holy [ lengthen the words capitalized
CHANTED LOUDLY, CHANTED SLOWELY, "melismatically"; i.e., more notes per
Till her blood was frozen slowly, syllable to capture slowness, and let
And her eyes were darkened wholly, the song "DIE" musically ]
Turned to towered Camelot.
For ere she reached upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
SINGING in her SONG she died,
The Lady of Shalott.
Under tower and balcony,
By garden-wall and gallery, [ backgorund song continues here
A gleaming shape she floated by, only in instruments: the text
Dead-pale between the houses high, perhaps only spoken, not sung ...
SILENT into Camelot. and recapture here the music used
Out upon the wharfs they came, at the very beginning to protray
Knight and burgher, lord and dame, silsnce of Shalott, yet let it's
And round the prow they read her name, context mix with reminders
The Lady of Shalott. of her song.
WHO IS THIS? AND WHAT IS HERE? - QUESTION
And in the lighted palace near
Died the SOUND of royal cheer; - SOUNG
And they crossed themselves for fear,
All the knights at Camelot:
But Lancelot mused a little space;
He SAID, 'SHE HAS A LOVELY FACE;
THE LADY OF SHALOTT.' [ This ending lets the composer choose a treatment in muysic that can only be selected when he/she is satisfied with their understanding of the meaning of this poetic ending. Clusure/wholeness verses ambiguity. Musical references chosen from earlier in the poem resonate powerfully here, so it they are used, they may be used to full effect ].