The Hatter's Diary
06 Aug 2025
In the latest Hatter post, which covers the compositions for 2025, I explained:William has temporarily proven a dead end. Long story short, a book on William Byrd was eventually deemed "lost in the mail." By the time I got my hands on a copy, I was no longer in the mood to read something drier than a caucus race. You can track that adventure here, where I take notes on much of Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum instead.
Wikipedia tells me that William Byrd married Juliana Birley in 1568, and they had at least 7 children. The only names we have for the children are Christopher, Elizabeth, and Thomas. Thomas Byrd, who was likely the second son of William Byrd, was the godson of Thomas Tallis, another successful English composer from the Renaissance. While "The Son" or "Son William" could be Christopher or Thomas to you, he is very clearly Thomas to me.
To outline the unknowns, I don't know if I'll keep Tommy's verses from the first composition or rewrite
it. At this point in time, I'm leaning towards rewriting it. I know that Father William's verses will not have piano accompaniment, but I'm not sure if the texture will be 3 or 4 voices. I'm leaning towards four, and the four characters would be William, The Caterpillar, Tommy, and Alice.
Byrd's Gradualia Book 1 begins with 32 motets for 5 voices, which I will ignore.
Motets for 4 Voices:
1. Cibavit Eos p. 116
2. Oculi Omnium p. 119
3. Sacerdotes Domini p. 123
4. Quotiescunque Manducabitis p. 124
5. Ave Verum Corpus p. 127
6. O Salutaris Hostia p. 129
7. O Sacrum Convivium p. 132
8. Nobis Datus Nobis Natus p. 134
9. Ecce Quam Bonum p. 139
10. Christus Resurgens p. 143
11. Visita Quæsumus Domine p. 148
12. Salve Regina p. 151
13. Alma Redemptoris Mater p. 155
14. Ave Regina Cœlorum p. 159
15. In Manus Tuas p. 168
16. Lætania p. 166
17. Salve Sola Dei Genetrix p. 169
18. Senex Puerum p. 172
19. Hodie Beata Virgo p. 174
20. Deo Gratias p. 176
Motets for 3 Voices:
1. Quem Terra Pontus p. 177
2. O Gloriosa Domina p. 181
3. Memento Salutis Auctor p. 183
4. Ave Maris Stella p. 186
5. Regina Cæli p. 192
6. Alleluia. Quae Lucescit p. 196
7. Hæc Dies p. 198
8. Angelus Domini Descendit p. 199
9. Post Dies Octo p. 200
10. Turbarum Voces p. 202
11. Adorna Thalamum Tuum Sion p. 205
Gradualia Book 2, if you were curious, contains 19 motets for 4 voices, 18 motets for 5 voices, and 9 motets for 6 voices. So far, I have very helpfully not reviewed my Fux, and gotten distracted by watching the early music video on castrati. I learned that castrati had abnormally long limbs and whiskerless faces, and that "the last castrato " Alessandro Moreschi (1858-1922) was the only castrati to have ever made recordings. My favorite recording of his seems to be Crucifixus.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Hatter's Diary
21 Feb 2026
Will you LOOK AT THAT. It is February, and half a year has slipped through my mercury-laden fingers. Since my last correspondence to myself, KLCC has died, my reaction to that was to become a violin studio pianist, I'm currently studying Timani for some reason, a family reunion is coming up in a month, I've committed to baking at the May Market again, and the Cheshire and I have just agreed that I must rewrite William sooner rather than later. So enough with the fancy pants plans and analysis.
I opened the score, and it looks like I had already drafted bits here and there. My intentions had been to put myself through my own counterpoint class, starting with Fux, but instead, I'm just going to start filling in the blanks.
It appears that we will need a soprano for Alice, the Cheshire will be Tommy, and in addition, we'll require two menfolk. It's time for bed, and I've already completed 11 of 21 sections.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Hatter's Diary
22 Feb 2026
This thing is writing itself - probably because it was actually already written five years ago. I had been preparing for battle for over a year, when all I needed to do was remember to put a hat on my head and magically transform into a monk with a quill in my hand. Which I did.
And while I was at my writing desk, I changed no more than a handful of notes for an alternate (rather demanding) ending of The Duchess' Lullaby. Until next time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23 Feb 2026
There was this whole SATB arrangement composed yesterday, but then the Cheshire steered me back towards more menfolk for a more motety sound. Which is nice. Now I have to rewrite a few more things, is all.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Hatter's Diary04 Mar 2026
And now, a letter to the Cheshire!
Oh, and in measure 5, I made "William" three eighth notes because it was funny.
The Hatter's DiaryI know you know the general structure of this piece, but in the interest of being thorough, and perhaps to share with our future cast members, I reiterate. There are four A sections (His Son, alto & piano) and four B sections (Father William, 3 part motets & viol). The A sections are varied duplicates of themselves, as are the B sections. As the B sections progress and word painting takes over, things go further awry in terms of proper counterpoint. B4 is filled with blatant parallels.
The timings of your entrances in the A section have changed: the entrance for A1 is on beat 1, A2 on beat 2 (syncopated!!), A3 on beat 3, and A4 on beat 4, which is both the hardest way to do it and the version you already know best. Some of the reasoning behind this edit is the idea of priming the audience to tune into your tritone, which I feel so far has been rather tragically unnoticed.
The timings of your entrances in the A section have changed: the entrance for A1 is on beat 1, A2 on beat 2 (syncopated!!), A3 on beat 3, and A4 on beat 4, which is both the hardest way to do it and the version you already know best. Some of the reasoning behind this edit is the idea of priming the audience to tune into your tritone, which I feel so far has been rather tragically unnoticed.
Oh, and in measure 5, I made "William" three eighth notes because it was funny.
His Son: Alto (G3 - E♭5)
The Ointment: Tenor (C3 - G4)
The Law: Baritone or Tenor (C3 - E♭4)
Father William: Baritone (G2 - D4)
The Caterpillar: Viol or Cello (C2 - C4)
Score:
MIDI:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10 Mar 2026
It's a fine morning to jot down a few notes for the rest of this year's songs, which are Humpty Dumpty's Poem and The White Queen's Riddle. I'll also map out what remains of our tonal planning, which was largely decided in 2024.
Humpty Dumpty's Poem is in the key of EGG, which is mostly E major, but also in G major and G whole tone. The poem is a duet between Humpty and Alice; Humpty sings all of the verses, which are in E. The recitatives are in G, but Alice, being of the interrupting sort, is stuck in G whole tone.
The structure is:
verse (winter), recit (can see)
verse (spring), recit (thank you)
verse (summer)
verse (autumn), recit (remember)
verse (fish)
verse (sea)
verse (because), recit (understand)
verse (say)
verse (grin)
verse (twice)
verse (new)
verse (thump)
verse (said)
verse (plain)
verse (clear), comment (no recit, but instructions to repeat the previous verse)
verse (clear), but fff
verse (proud)
verse (stiff)
verse (shelf)
verse (locked)
verse (shut), recit (is that all?)
Truth be told, the recits have been composing themselves in my sleep as of late. Can you imagine waking up to that? Meanwhile, the following words, which tell the tale of Humpty Dumpty in note letter names, will somehow present themselves.
bad egg gabbed
bad egg faced edge
bad egg dead
The White Queen's Riddle is much more straightforward. We already know it's in 6 sharps. Because the answer to the riddle is "oyster," it borrows (and transposes) the opening harmonies from The Walrus and the Carpenter, which means we'll be firmly rooted in d♯ minor. The similarity between the two pieces will be largely obscured by pronounced dance rhythms; I'm leaning towards a tango.
Additionally, we shan't forget that the White Queen experiences time backwards, so her melody will most certainly incorporate retrograde.
The finale to Stuff & Nonsense will be written in 2027. It is a suite in 6 short movements, written in the key of G major for "goose." And the rest of that is a cookie to crack for another year.
Once Stuff & Nonsense is completed, all that shall remain are three of the four bookends.
Bookends:
All in the Golden Afternoon
Child of the Pure Unclouded Brow
A Wasp in a Wig (unpublished)
A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky (composed 2023)
2028 will take care of two of them. A Wasp in a Wig will be in C major and A minor. Because A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky was in C major with glockenspiel in G major, Child of the Pure Unclouded Brow will be in A minor with glockenspiel in D minor. There is a symmetry to that.
In 2029, I will at last conclude the series with our opener, All in the Golden Afternoon. It will be a true homage to The Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach, of which he composed two volumes. Each volume presents Preludes and Fugues in the keys C, c, C♯, c♯, D, d, etc., ending in ... B, b.
All in the Golden Afternoon Tonalities
Notice that we begin and end in the same key like a real song instead of a series, but because of the looking glass aspect of it, we stay on b minor, the ending key of WTC, for not one, but two lines. (This point of reflection occurs in the middle of verse 4, which speaks of the dream-child moving through a land of wonders.)
It's my hope that the song will feel "beautifully unsettled," directly opposite the feeling of the quadrille, in which we are violently thrust into nearly random tonalities. It will drift, weaving through chromatic shifts and falling in and out of modalities. I am reminded of the time Dormie told me that hypnagogia is the transitional state between consciousness and sleep.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mar 2026
No comments:
Post a Comment