IX
No better introduction to a discussion ofThe King’s Henchmancould be found than another quotation from Mr. Gilman, written in the “Tribune” on the occasion of the opera’s première at the Metropolitan:
“Thus we came to the end of the best American opera we have ever heard, and so easily the best of the ten produced by Mr. Gatti-Casazza at the Metropolitan that there is none other in the running. Mr. Taylor has woven a deft and often lovely sounding score about a superb poetic text—a text pithy and glamorous and full of character; rich in humor and dramatic force, rich in imagery that is often startling in its beauty and its swift felicity. And this text is apt for voices or for viols. It clamors for vocal utterance and for enforcement by the instruments of the mirroring orchestra.“Mr. Taylor’s score is in the worthiest sense theatrically planned and developed. It is obvious that he wrote with his eye on the stage, with his intelligence responsive to its tyrannous requirements. Furthermore, he has given musical voice to English words which, sung from the stage, are not only heard, but are expressive, and fitting, and often beautiful. The music, as music, “sounds”; it fills the ear, is richly textured, mellifluous, has grace and movement and flexibility. It is the writing of an expert craftsman, an artist of sensibility and warm responsiveness.”
“Thus we came to the end of the best American opera we have ever heard, and so easily the best of the ten produced by Mr. Gatti-Casazza at the Metropolitan that there is none other in the running. Mr. Taylor has woven a deft and often lovely sounding score about a superb poetic text—a text pithy and glamorous and full of character; rich in humor and dramatic force, rich in imagery that is often startling in its beauty and its swift felicity. And this text is apt for voices or for viols. It clamors for vocal utterance and for enforcement by the instruments of the mirroring orchestra.
“Mr. Taylor’s score is in the worthiest sense theatrically planned and developed. It is obvious that he wrote with his eye on the stage, with his intelligence responsive to its tyrannous requirements. Furthermore, he has given musical voice to English words which, sung from the stage, are not only heard, but are expressive, and fitting, and often beautiful. The music, as music, “sounds”; it fills the ear, is richly textured, mellifluous, has grace and movement and flexibility. It is the writing of an expert craftsman, an artist of sensibility and warm responsiveness.”
For her libretto, Miss Millay went to the England of the ninth century for her setting, and, in authentic Anglo-Saxon verbiage tells us the story of Eadgar, King of England, a widower who wishes a second wife. Like King Mark inTristan, he dispatches a trusted retainer, Aethelwold, to bring to him Aelfrida, daughter of the Thane of Devon, of whose beauty he has heard. Like Tristan and like John Alden, Aethelwold falls in love with the lady himself, and tragedy is inevitable.
It has often been remarked that the weaker the libretto, the better the opera. If any proof were needed to challenge so obvious a fallacy,The King’s Henchmanprovides it, for here is a poetic drama which of itself stands in perfect security. In the “Tribune” Elinor Wylie wrote, after reading the poem:
“If this is not lyric dialogue of the true poetic water, why then has it such a magic in it that it has turned me into a fool and my taste into untruth.”
“If this is not lyric dialogue of the true poetic water, why then has it such a magic in it that it has turned me into a fool and my taste into untruth.”
The story is grippingly told, the tragedy of it appalling, and the characters are limned with an insight that makes them real people, actuated by motives beyond their control.
Because of his wisdom in choosing his librettist, Taylor commenced his work with a drama that cried out for musical setting, for a tonal accompaniment to its atmosphere, and to the thoughts and actions of its people; and if in the making of it he has fallen under the spell of Wagner’s musical delineation of the kindred love-dramaTristan, or of Debussy, whose love scene inPelleasis akin to the forest scene inThe King’s Henchman, who can blame him, for who could have avoided it? Taylor himself has said:
“Its form has undoubtedly been influenced by the methods of past masters ...; as to that, I can only hope that its spiritual grandfather may turn out to be Wagner rather than Puccini.”
“Its form has undoubtedly been influenced by the methods of past masters ...; as to that, I can only hope that its spiritual grandfather may turn out to be Wagner rather than Puccini.”
The score ofThe King’s Henchmanmakes frequent use of theleit-motif, to represent both actual characters, and abstract conceptions. The short prelude opens with the King (Eadgar) motive:
music
This is frequently found, later in the action, in a broader, more lyric form:
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After a brief development, the curtain rises and reveals the hall of King Eadgar’s castle with the King and his nobles seated at the table, while Maccus, the harper, sings of deeds of valor. Then follows a choral response, with the words:
“Be the day far off, O harperWhen thy harp is unstrung!And thy hand still,And thy song sung.”
“Be the day far off, O harperWhen thy harp is unstrung!And thy hand still,And thy song sung.”
“Be the day far off, O harperWhen thy harp is unstrung!And thy hand still,And thy song sung.”
“Be the day far off, O harper
When thy harp is unstrung!
And thy hand still,
And thy song sung.”
The Aelfrida motive is first introduced while she is being discussed as the King’s prospective bride:
music
When Aethelwold is mentioned as the one to get her, we hear his sturdy motive:
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which is continued and developed while the knights dwell on his fitness for the task, for was it not true that
“He shunneth a fair maidAs she were a foul martenAnd should a wench but breathe upon him in the dark,He would bury himself till the smell of her were off him!”
“He shunneth a fair maidAs she were a foul martenAnd should a wench but breathe upon him in the dark,He would bury himself till the smell of her were off him!”
“He shunneth a fair maidAs she were a foul martenAnd should a wench but breathe upon him in the dark,He would bury himself till the smell of her were off him!”
“He shunneth a fair maid
As she were a foul marten
And should a wench but breathe upon him in the dark,
He would bury himself till the smell of her were off him!”
While they are talking about Aethelwold he enters, and the expedition is planned, the henchman receives his final instructions, the Archbishop gives his reluctant blessing, and, as the pledge is sealed we first hear the pledge motive:
music
which is quoted frequently throughout the opera. As the knights drink Aethelwold’s health and bid him godspeed, there comes a rousing choral arrangement of the only folk-song used in the entire work:
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Oh. Caesar great wert thou!And Julius was thy name!That furrowed thy way through a fallow spray,And to stormy Britain came!But I would not stand in thy stead,For I’d liefer be quick than dead!
and so on, through others of the Caesars involved in the Roman invasion of England: Claudius and Hadrian. The handling of voices and orchestra in this chorus is the most stunning choral writing Taylor has ever achieved. After this song, Aethelwold’s horse is brought in and he takes his departure as the curtain falls, and the orchestra sounds the Aethelwold motive as a salvo.