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The Pierrot of the Minute

by Gabriele Cardinali

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  • Streaming + Download

    Libretto available for download as a bonus track
    (abridged version by G. Cardinali)
    Purchasable with gift card

     

1.
[PIERROT] My journey's end! This surely is the glade Which I was promised: I have well obeyed! A clue of lilies was I bid to find, Where the green alleys most obscurely wind; Where tall oaks darkliest canopy o'erhead, And moss and violet make the softest bed; Where the path ends, and leagues behind me lie The gleaming courts and gardens of Versailles; The lilies streamed before me, green and white; I gathered, following: they led me right, To the bright temple and the sacred grove: This is, in truth, the very shrine of Love!
2.
[A very gentle music floats out from the temple. Pierrot starts back; he shows extreme surprise; then he returns to the foreground, and crouches down in rapt attention until the music ceases. His face grows puzzled and petulant.]
3.
[MOON MAIDEN] Who is this mortal Who ventures to-night To woo an immortal? Cold, cold the moon's light, For sleep at this portal, Bold lover of night. Fair is the mortal In soft, silken white, Who seeks an immortal. Ah, lover of night, Be warned at the portal, And save thee in flight!
4.
[MOON MAIDEN] Take up thy destiny of short delight; I am thy lady for a summer's night. Lift up your viols, maidens of my train, And work such havoc on this mortal's brain That for a moment he may touch and know Immortal things, and be full Pierrot. White music, Nymphs! Violet and Eglantine! To stir his tired veins like magic wine. What visitants across his spirit glance, Lying on lilies, while he watch me dance? Watch, and forget all weary things of earth, All memories and cares, all joy and mirth, While my dance woos him, light and rhythmical, And weaves his heart into my coronal. Music, more music for his soul's delight: Love is his lady for a summer's night.
5.
[PIERROT] Sweet contemplation! how my senses yearn To be thy scholar always, always learn. Hold not so high from me thy radiant mouth, Fragrant with all the spices of the South; Nor turn, O sweet! thy golden face away, For with it goes the light of all my day. Let me peruse it, till I know by rote Each line of it, like music, note by note; Raise thy long lashes, Lady! smile again: These studies profit me. [MOON MAIDEN] Refrain, refrain!
6.
[MOON MAIDEN] What is Love? Is it a folly, Is it mirth, or melancholy? Joys above, Are there many, or not any? What is love? [PIERROT] If you please, A most sweet folly! Full of mirth and melancholy: Both of these! In its sadness worth all gladness, If you please! [MOON MAIDEN] Prithee where, Goes Love a-hiding? Is he long in his abiding Anywhere? Can you bind him when you find him; Prithee, where? [PIERROT] With spring days Love comes and dallies: Upon the mountains, through the valleys Lie Love's ways. Then he leaves you and deceives you In spring days.
7.
[They continue playing, until Pierrot catches her hand.] [PIERROT] (laughing) 'Tis done. I win my forfeit at the last. [He tries to embrace her. She escapes;] [He chases her round the stage;] [She eludes him.]
8.
[The light changes, it grows daylight: and music imitates the twitter of the birds. They stand gazing at the morning: then Pierrot sinks back upon his bed, he covers his face in his hands.]
9.
[MOON MAIDEN] Sleep! Cast thy canopy Over this sleeper's brain, Dim grow his memory, When he awake again. Love stays a summer night, Till lights of morning come; Then takes her winged flight Back to her starry home. Sleep! Yet thy days are mine; Love's seal is over thee: Far though my ways from thine, Dim though thy memory. Love stays a summer night, Till lights of morning come; Then takes her winged flight Back to her starry home.
10.
[MOON MAIDEN] Who is this mortal Who ventures to-night To woo an immortal? Cold, cold the moon's light, For sleep at this portal, Bold lover of night. Fair is the mortal In soft, silken white, Who seeks an immortal. Ah, lover of night, Be warned at the portal, And save thee in flight!
11.
[MOON MAIDEN] Take up thy destiny of short delight; I am thy lady for a summer's night. Lift up your viols, maidens of my train, And work such havoc on this mortal's brain That for a moment he may touch and know Immortal things, and be full Pierrot. White music, Nymphs! Violet and Eglantine! To stir his tired veins like magic wine. What visitants across his spirit glance, Lying on lilies, while he watch me dance? Watch, and forget all weary things of earth, All memories and cares, all joy and mirth, While my dance woos him, light and rhythmical, And weaves his heart into my coronal. Music, more music for his soul's delight: Love is his lady for a summer's night.
12.
[MOON MAIDEN] Sleep! Cast thy canopy Over this sleeper's brain, Dim grow his memory, When he awake again. Love stays a summer night, Till lights of morning come; Then takes her winged flight Back to her starry home. Sleep! Yet thy days are mine; Love's seal is over thee: Far though my ways from thine, Dim though thy memory. Love stays a summer night, Till lights of morning come; Then takes her winged flight Back to her starry home.

about

A mini opera based on a play by E. Dowson

Tracks 1-9: MIDI mockup — w/o spoken parts

Additional tracks:
Tracks 10-11 performed live by Emily Hansen at St Paul's Episcopal Church (Salt Lake City) on May 6th, 2023
Track 12 performed by Flavia Failoni, recorded on June 3, 2022

Video mockup also available at vimeo.com/816532931

Piano/Chamber orchestra reductions also available.

Synopsis:
Pierrot enters a glade in the park of the Petit Trianon at twilight,
led thither in obedience to a mysterious message, which bids him
come to sleep one night within these precincts if he would
encounter Love. Half whimsical, half fearful, he wonders why he,
so careless, thoughtless, and gay, should now be filled with wistful
longing; and in the fast-falling darkness he lies down on a couch
of fern, and falls asleep. A Moon-maiden descends the steps of the
Temple of Love, and, bending over the sleeper, kisses him. He
awakes and throws himself at her feet in rapt devotion, though she
warns him that the kisses of the Moon are of a fatal sweetness, and
that

"Whoso seeks her she gathers like a flower
He gives a life, and only gains an hour."

But Pierrot, reckless, demands the pure and perfect bliss, though
life be the price to pay. With gay laughter and sprightly jest they
learn together the lore of Love; but daybreak approaches, the
birds awaken, and the Moon-maiden must leave him. Together they
gaze at the coming dawn; then Pierrot, sinking back on his couch,
falls softly asleep once more, and the Moon-maiden vanishes.

Instrumentation:
2(pic).2.2.2 / 3.3.3.1 / timp.1perc / hp.cel / str

Piano reduction available.

credits

released August 14, 2022

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Gabriele Cardinali Italy

Award-winning self-taught composer.

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