Ariel for unaccompanied soprano

The
English composer, Jonathan Dove, is closely associated with the human
voice. He is considered one of the most successful and resourceful
opera composers since Benjamin Britten. His early musical experience
came from playing the piano, organ and viola, but it is clear from
his setting of text that his knowledge of the expressive potential of
the human voice is rooted in his experience as a professional
repetiteur and concert accompanist.

His
interpretation of the text of Shakespeare’s late masterpiece, The
Tempest,
shows the composer’s rhetorical skill and his understanding of the
individual voice. Works for unaccompanied voice are rarely found in
concert; yet here, given Shakespeare’s association with soliloquy, it
is almost expected. Dove’s treatment of the solo vocal line in Ariel
for unaccompanied Soprano is
one of sheer mastery, captivating his audience in same way as the
playwright.

Ariel,
the airy
spirit
is Shakespeare’s most musical character and notable for his dramatic
use of

white
magic He can also sing, play the pipe and tabor, turn invisible and
control the elements. For the people of the Renaissance, music and
magic often went hand-in-hand and the close association of the spirit
with song and instruments only heightens his ethereal presence.

The
Tempest,
is set on an island full
of noises, sounds and sweet airs, that give delight, and

hurt
not,
in a play so infused with melody and song that its text has been
enticing

composers
throughout the ages. Four of the playwright’s songs are sung by Ariel
– Dove

uses
three of these, whilst also including passages, which Shakespeare did
not originally expect to be sung; to
create a character portrait of this most elusive magical creature.

The
song cycle consists of five movements: the first, Come
unto these yellow sands is
an original song from the play. Ariel appears as a water-nymph,
calming the stormy seas and lulling Ferdinand into a sense of calm.
The work opens with the singer mimicking the sound of the sea, whilst
soothing the storm and luring Ferdinand to shore. This calm is soon
unsettled in the second movement as Ariel gives his account of his
actions during the storm, leading into his extended version of the
playwright’s second song, Full
Fathom Five. Ariel
continues to lure Ferdinand with his singing, convincing him of his
father’s demise in the storm. The menacing Dong
dadang dong dada dung ostinato
leads
us to the final contrasting section where Dove uses text from much
later in the play, where Ariel declares his pity for the three
traitors.

The
third movement is a mournful, monosyllabic lament preceding the
jaunty fourth movement where
Ariel’s
‘Ah’s,’ depict the spirit’s excitement at the prospect of his
liberation. Ariel’s relief in achieving his long awaited freedom; is
marked by a sharp intake of breath in his final song ‘Where
the bee sucks.’ The
work closes as it began, with the Soprano mimicking the sea caressing
the shore.

Norah
O’Leary