Level 3 - Digital Download
SKU: A0.1166886
Composed by Suzy Robinson. Arranged by Suzy Robinson. 20th Century,Chamber,Contemporary. 5 pages. Suzy Robinson #767094. Published by Suzy Robinson (A0.1166886).
I wanted to write something based on a mediaeval mystery play and happened across an 11th Century version of the play of the Bridegroom – the tale of the wise and the foolish virgins. It was called Sponsus and is the oldest of this type of play written in both the vernacular and in Latin. What is even more extraordinary is that it is, in fact, a trilingual text in Latin, langue d'oc, and some words in the langue d'oïl. The passage which I have set is in langue d'oc, but for ease of singing I used a modern-French translation. This is scored for soprano, baroque violin, and viola da gamba. It can be performed at 415 or 440 ad libertum.
I am very taken by the patchwork nature of mystery plays which is part promenade, part liturgy, part staged, part audience participation. I hope that having set a straightforwardly strophic text and using instruments more often heard in Early Music, jigsaws well with the more modern angular and sometimes dissonant nature of the melodic lines of this piece. I love the play of languages, and the mixing up through words and music of past, present, and future, revealing that time is perhaps a circuitous exploration rather than a strictly linear trajectory. And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time..
