Une Petite Plaisance (2018)

Scored for soprano and flute, on an epithalamium by Keller Cushing Freeman. About 3:55; range D4 to A5. $10 for score, flute part, & demo; order here. Taking a cue from the many figures from Greek mythology included in Edmund Spenser’s Epithalamion, a public ode to his bride written for their wedding in 1594, this poem is musically rendered in modes (i.e., musical pitch scales) that would have been familiar to the ancient Greeks.  Plato, in his writings concerning the doctrine of ethos – the effects of various sorts of musical sounds on the human character – warned against the use of certain modes that could render a person “soft,” an especially important concern for men about to go into battle.  For this setting I have deliberately chosen modes that would have been on Plato’s list to be avoided, as described in the ancient Greek Aristoxenian tradition: Lydian (corresponding to the modern-day major) and Hypolydian (corresponding to the modern-day lydian, i.e. a major scale with the 4th note raised a half step).  Though few today would accept any theory of musical scales having a drug-like effect on human beings, it seemed appropriate for a celebration of marriage to play along anyway and encourage the celebrants to be “soft.”  Phrases in which the poem rejects traditional or hackneyed sentiments are set in a less settled sounding modified Dorian mode (the modern-day phrygian dominant).  The tone overall is one of lightheartedness and joy in the little things.