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. ... 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'd divide, And burn in many places. ...
The Tempest Songbook
Song Cycle by Kaija Saariaho (1952 - 2023)
1. Ariel's Hail Sung Text
Note: this is a multi-text setting
Text 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
... 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 ... .
Text 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
2. Caliban's Dream
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 sleep again.
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in The Tempest, Act III, Scene 2 (Caliban)
See other settings of this text.
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
3. Miranda's Lament
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 the face of sky
Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer! ... 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 pitying heart
There's no harm done.
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), appears in The Tempest, Act I, Scene 2
Go to the general single-text view
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot)
4. Prospero's Vision
You do look, my son, in a moved sort, As if you were dismay'd: be cheerful, sir. ... 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; ... a turn or two I'll walk, To still my beating mind.
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), appears in The Tempest, Act IV, Scene 1 (Prospero)
Go to the general single-text view
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
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.
Text 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.
Text 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]