Columbine’s Veil

Title: Columbine’s Veil
Composer: Greg Smith
Instrumentation: Piano
Product medium: PDF score



Background:
Pierrot, separated from his love Columbine, is weeping in his room. Overcome with sorrow, he falls asleep in the corner. Some friends of Pierrot come to visit. When they eventually find him, they fetch a nearby pianist and suggest waking Pierrot with a dance. However, the waltz fails to wake him up. Eventually Pierrot wakes. His friends tease him for sleeping through their “entertainment”, and tease him by seizing a portrait of Columbine. They continue to dance around the room, mocking Pierrot’s misfortune. The friends leave. The pianist, unaware that they had left, continues playing, but is hastily stopped by an ill-tempered Pierrot.

Once again alone, Pierrot contemplates suicide. He fetches a poison potion, but is interrupted by a knock on the door. It is his love Columbine. She is dressed in a wedding dress. Pierrot tears off her veil and his thoughts return to suicide. Columbine is ready to die with him, but only after they have have enjoyed some festivities. Although they enjoy some merry making, Pierrot remembers the goblet and his resolve to die, and sips the goblet. He invites Columbine to take a sip, but she hesitates. Pierrot dies, and Columbine flees.

At Columbine’s parents’ house, the wedding ball is taking place. The dance master announces a quadrille. Having started the music, the dance master notices that Columbine is not present to dance with her partner, Harlequin. The dance master, invites the other company to dance a minuet. Harlequin grows increasingly restless at the disappearance of his newlywed wife. Columbine enters and explains that she was tending to her attire. Harlequin doesn’t believe her. The guests continue to dance their minuet. Seeing that the situation may get out of control, the dance master starts a wild gallop as a distraction from the unrest of the newlyweds. A Moor appears to offer the guests a drink. When Columbine reaches to take a glass, the Moor disappears and sees the ghost of Pierrot holding her wedding veil. Columbine returns to Pierrot’s room to retrieve her veil. Columbine has followed her, and discovers the body of Pierrot. He locks Harlequin in a room with Pierrot’s body as revenge for her infidelity. Trapped and in despair, Harlequin drinks the poison and dies at Pierrot’s feet.

 Columbine's Veil (Greg Smith) - Sample Columbine's Veil (Greg Smith) - Sample Columbine's Veil (Greg Smith) - Sample

Posted

in

by

Greg

Tags:

, , ,

Featured Content

Delius on the role of music
“The chief reason for the degeneration of present-day music lies in the fact that people want to get physical sensations from music more than anything else. Emotion is out of date and intellect a bore. Appreciation of art which has been born of profound thought and intensity of experience necessitates an intellectual effort too exhausting […]
Accomplishing great things
“To accomplish great things we must first dream, then visualize, then plan… believe… act!” – Alfred Montapert, Author Cited at: QuotationsBook
The creative learning process
“Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.” — Arthur Koestler
Understanding the rules
“We think we understand the rules when we become adults but what we really experience is a narrowing of the imagination.” — David Lynch
Creativity
“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.” — Mary Lou Cook, American community activist and author Reagan, M., Phillips, B. (1995)  The All-American Quote Book. United States: Harvest House, p. 68.
Rachmaninoff on interpretation
As the talented student grows older he must seek within himself his interpretation.  Does he wish to know how to play the cantilena of Beethoven or Chopin? He must feel it himself!  Talent is feeling, the feeling that every player experiences in his innermost consciousness… It takes years of work to understand and think out […]
A Tear Hangs There (Tchaikovsky)
Composer:  Pytor Il’yich Tchaikovsky (arr. Greg Smith) Title: A Tear Hangs There (Слеза дрожит), Op. 6. No. 4 Instrumentation: Cello and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Don’t wish me luck
“From here on out, I declare that no one ever wish me again to ‘break a leg’”. Joyce DiDonato, American mezzo soprano, shortly after having broken a leg on stage in a production of The Barber of Serville at the Royal Opera House. DiDonato insisted on continuing the performance in a wheel chair. Source: Kirkup, […]
That’s a wrap
Electronic music composer Jeff Bryant never imagined that learning to knit would be part of his graduate coursework at California Institute of the Arts. But when his interface design instructor challenged him to build a non-boring MIDI controller device last fall, Bryant found an unlikely musical ally: red yarn. By weaving conductive thread into the […]
Art cannot change events. But it can change people.
“The point is, art never stopped a war and never got anybody a job. That was never its function. Art cannot change events. But it can change people. It can affect people so that they are changed…because people are changed by art – enriched, ennobled, encouraged – they then act in a way that may […]