[Vwoolf] larks and Cymbeline

[Jeremy Hawthorn]

The lark could also be the first of the Mrs Dalloway echoes from "Cymbeline" - "Hark hark the lark" is from this play I think.

Jeremy 
________________________________________
From: vwoolf-bounces+jeremy.hawthorn=ntnu.no at lists.service.ohio-state.edu [vwoolf-bounces+jeremy.hawthorn=ntnu.no at lists.service.ohio-state.edu] on behalf of Stuart N. Clarke [stuart.n.clarke at btinternet.com]
Sent: 18 September 2013 11:02
To: woolf list
Subject: [Vwoolf] "Allerseelen" & Scrope Purvis

"Allerseelen": I have discussed this at length in the "Virginia Woolf
Bulletin": there is no reason to think that she is singing the words in
Strauss's setting.

"Scrope Purvis": he has been discussed at length in VWB28!  By Irena
Ksiezopolska: "The Secret Life of Minor Characters in 'Mrs. Dalloway'".  She
thinks his name is an anagram.  I'm not especially convinced, but it is a
very odd name.  My suggestion was "corpus sprevi" = I have rejected the
body!

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: Martin, James
Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2013 9:48 AM
To: Toni McNaron ; woolf list
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] larks

When I first read it, I thought of "The Lark Ascending" - thus a motion
going up - and then the plunge, which is, of course, Septimus's fate. The
duality of the two main characters is there from the start. Septimus dies so
that others might live. The high priestess role of Clarissa at her party has
been written about in the secondary literature.
Ralph Vaughn-Williams's "The Lark Ascending" was composed in 1914 but, on
account of WWI, wasn't performed until June 14, 1921 under Adrian Boult.
Marie Hall was the solo violinist, a "very charming woman, very small and
jolly and with a great sense of humour." Did VW know her? Did she go to that
concert? Did she know the music? I'll bet she did.
In the poem on which the tone poem was based, one finds the lines:
[...]And ever winging up and up,
Our valley is his golden cup,
And he the wine which overflows
To lift us with him as he goes:
- this reference is intoned in the opening bars of the piece, in which the
melody in the violin soars upwards.
Also found in the poem are these lines, which make me think of Virginia's
demise:
All intervolv'd and spreading wide,
Like water-dimples down a tide
Where ripple ripple overcurls
And eddy into eddy whirls;

Being interested in music history, I have found numerous other references in
Mrs. Dalloway to works from the classical catalog. There is the woman near
the Tube singing "Allerseelen" by Richard Strauß, a direct reference to the
day of the year when spirits from the past (Sally, Peter) walk the earth.
In The Voyage Out, there is a reference to Opus 112 by Beethoven. Look in
the catalog of his works and you will see that it is "Calm Sea & Prosperous
Voyage" and follows directly the composer's last three piano sonatas (Rachel
was playing a late sonata - probably the opening of op. 109).  Remaining for
a moment in the late opus numbers of the mad king Ludwig van, we see Op. 117
"King Stephen" (more than just "incidental music" for Virginia Stephen?).
Op. 113 is "The Ruins of Athens" - could this have sparked Woolf's naming of
the passing warship, Euphrosyne (one of the Greek charities)?
Then there is Op. 128, "Der Kuß". The lyrics refer to a woman being kissed
against her will by a man. She threatened to scream if he did it. He did it
and did she scream? Yes, long afterwards. The girl's name was Chloe, a Greek
name.

Ich war bei Chloen ganz allein,
Und küssen wollt ich sie:
Jedoch sie sprach,
Sie würde schrein,
Es sei vergebne Müh.

Ich wagt es doch und küßte sie,
Trotz ihrer Gegenwehr.
Und schrie sie nicht?
Jawohl, sie schrie,
Doch lange hinterher.

And need I mention that this reference comes right before Rachel and Richard
(Dalloway!) talk about love, "a word that seemed to unveil the skies for
Rachel"? Please remind me, someone, when he kissed her!

Such fun!
Jim

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: vwoolf-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:vwoolf-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu] Im Auftrag von Toni
McNaron
Gesendet: Dienstag, 17. September 2013 15:27
An: woolf list
Betreff: Re: [Vwoolf] larks

I agree with Michael Davis in that both the bird and the playful gaminess is
going on in the reference.  I also think about the fact that larks, when
they flourished, were often the very first birds to greet the dawn, hence
they were seen as excited about another day in which they could make
beautiful music, fly around, eat bugs, etc.  So a imagine larks as
exuberant, hence perhaps how the verb "to lark" came into existence in the
first place.

Toni McNaron



_______________________________________________
Vwoolf mailing list
Vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf