Arial: All hail, great master! Grave Sir, hail! I come To answer thy best pleasure; be it to fly, To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride On the curled clouds, -- to thy strong bidding task Ariel and all his quality. [Prospero: Hast thou, spirit, Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade thee?]1 Ariel: I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak, Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin, I flamed amazement: sometime [I'ld]2 divide, And burn in many [places;]3 [on the topmast, The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly, Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the precursors O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary And sight-outrunning were not; the fire and cracks Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune Seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble, Yea, his dread trident shake.]1
The Tempest Songbook
Song Cycle by Kaija Saariaho (1952 - 2023)
1. Ariel's Hail [sung text checked 1 time]
Note: this is a multi-text setting
Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in The Tempest, Act I, Scene 2 (Ariel)
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot)
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Andrea Maffei) , no title, first published 1869
1 omitted by Saariaho.
2 Saariaho: "I'd"
3 Saariaho: "places."
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
[I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking; So fun of valour that they smote the air For breathing in their faces, beat the ground For kissing of their feet; yet always bending Towards their project.]1 Then I beat my tabour, At which, like unbacked colts, they pricked their ears, Advanced their eyelids, lifted up their noses As they smelt music. So I charmed their ears [That calf-like they my lowing followed through Toothed briars, sharp furzes, pricking goss and thorns, Which entered their frail shins. At last I left them I'th' filthy-mantled pool beyond your cell, There dancing up to th' chins, that the foul lake O'er-stunk their feet]1.
Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in The Tempest, Act IV, Scene 1 (Ariel)
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo)
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Andrea Maffei) , no title, first published 1869
1 omitted by Saariaho.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
2. Caliban's Dream  [sung text checked 1 time]
Be not afeard: the isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices, That, if I then had wak'd after long sleep, Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open and show riches Ready to drop upon me; that, when I wak'd, I cried to [dream]1 again.
Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in The Tempest, Act III, Scene 2 (Caliban)
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot)
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Andrea Maffei) , no title, first published 1869
1 Saariaho: "sleep"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
3. Miranda's Lament  [sung text checked 1 time]
Miranda: If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them. The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch, But that the sea, mounting to [th' welkin's cheek]1 Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffered With those that I saw suffer! [ A brave vessel Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her Dashed all to pieces. ]2 O, the cry did knock Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished! Had I been any god of power, I would Have sunk the sea within the earth, or ere It should the good ship so have swallowed, and The fraughting souls within her. Prospero: Be collected: No more amazement: tell your [piteous]3 heart There's no harm done.
Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), appears in The Tempest, Act I, Scene 2
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot)
1 Saariaho: "the face of sky"
2 Omitted by Saariaho.
3 Saariaho: "pitying"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
4. Prospero's Vision  [sung text checked 1 time]
You do look, my son, in a moved sort, As if you were dismay'd: be cheerful, sir. [Our revels now are ended.]1 These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vex'd; [Bear with my weakness; my, brain is troubled: Be not disturb'd with my infirmity: If you be pleased, retire into my cell And there repose:]1 a turn or two I'll walk, To still my beating mind.
Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), appears in The Tempest, Act IV, Scene 1 (Prospero)
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot)
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Andrea Maffei) , no title, first published 1869
1 omitted by Saariaho.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
5. Ferdinand's Comfort [sung text not yet checked]
Note: this is a multi-text setting
Where should this music be? i' th' air or th' earth? It sounds no more;--and sure it waits upon Some god o' th' island. Sitting on a bank, Weeping again the king my father's wrack, This music crept by me upon the waters, Allaying both their fury and my passion, With its sweet air: thence I have follow'd it,-- Or it hath drawn me rather,--but 'tis gone. No, it begins again.
Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in The Tempest, Act I, Scene 2 (Ferdinand)
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Andrea Maffei) , no title, first published 1869
Full fathom five thy father lies, Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell: [Ding-dong.]1 Hark! now I hear them, - ding-dong bell.
Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in The Tempest, Act I, Scene 2
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Lidy van Noordenburg) , "Vijf vadem diep", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Erkki Pullinen) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (Guy de Pourtalès)
- FRE French (Français) (Maurice Bouchor)
- GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (David Paley) , "Voll Faden fünf", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- IRI Irish (Gaelic) [singable] (Gabriel Rosenstock) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Tuo padre giace a una profondità di cinque tese", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Andrea Maffei) , no title, first published 1869
- NOR Norwegian (Bokmål) (Arild Bakke) , "På fem favner", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- SWE Swedish (Svenska) (Anonymous/Unidentified Artist)
1 omitted by Ives.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]