Purcell : Funeral Sentences and other music for Queen Mary (Vocal and Choral Masterworks)

For a brief period, from 1689 to 1702, the royal houses of Britain and Holland were linked in the person of William III (1650–1702), also widely known as "William of Orange," the sovereign Prince of Orange, and Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from the 1670s. In 1677, he married his cousin Mary II (1662-1695), the eldest daughter of his maternal uncle James, Duke of York, the younger brother and later successor of King Charles II. He ruled Britain alongside his wife and popular histories usually refer to their reign as that of "William and Mary". A staunch Protestant, William participated in several wars against the powerful Catholic French ruler Louis XIV in coalition with both Protestant and Catholic powers in Europe. Many Protestants heralded William as a champion of their faith.

The couple had become betrothed when Mary was only fifteen. They were married in St James's Palace by Bishop Henry Compton on 4 November 1677. Mary accompanied her husband on a rough sea crossing to the Netherlands later that month, after a delay of two weeks caused by bad weather. On 14 December, they made a formal entry to The Hague in a grand procession. Mary's animated and personable nature made her popular with the Dutch people, and her marriage to a Protestant prince was popular in Britain. She was devoted to her husband, but he was often away on campaigns. Within months of the marriage Mary was pregnant; however, on a visit to her husband at the fortified city of Breda, she suffered a miscarriage, which may have permanently impaired her ability to have children.

In early 1689, Mary ascended the thrones of the British lands thanks to the Glorious Revolution, in which her Roman Catholic father, James II, was deposed. William of Orange became her co-regent.

Mary was tall (180 cm) and apparently fit; she regularly walked between her palaces at Whitehall and Kensington. In late 1694, however, she contracted smallpox. She sent away anyone who had not previously had the disease, to prevent the spread of infection. She suffered from a dangerous strain and died at Kensington Palace shortly after midnight on the morning of 28 December, at the young age of 32.

Mary II

William, who had grown increasingly to rely on Mary, was devastated by her death, and said that "from being the happiest" he was "now going to be the miserablest creature on earth". She was widely mourned in Britain. During a cold winter, in which the Thames froze, her embalmed body lay in state in Banqueting House, Whitehall. On 5 March, she was buried at Westminster Abbey. Her funeral service was the first of any royal attended by all the members of both Houses of Parliament.

This concert contains several Mary-related pieces of music, including her funeral music.

(1) Henry Purcell - My heart is inditing (Anthem for the coronation of King James II)
The coronation of King James II (the father of Mary) on 23 April 1685 was an opulent affair. Trumpeters, drummers and kettle-drummers led the procession to Westminster and the magnificent service in the Abbey was accompanied by a large instrumental ensemble. Nine anthems were sung - the final one, during the crowning of the queen, was Purcell’s specially-composed setting of "My heart is inditing of a good matter." This anthem was ‘performed by the whole consort of voices and instruments’. It must have made a splendid climax to a fine pageant.   

(2) Henry Purcell - Celebrate this festival (Ode for the birthday of Queen Mary)
Purcell composed six of his finest odes to honor the birthdays of Queen Mary in successive years from 1689. "Celebrate this festival" (1693) contains writing on all scales, from eloquent chamber music to joyous choruses with strings, trumpet and oboes. This is a very substantial piece.

(3) Henry Purcell - The Queen's funeral march Z.860
The March, in C minor, was written for a quartet of "flatt trumpets," which, as slide trumpets, could play notes outside of the harmonic series and thus in a minor key.

(4) Thomas Morley - The first dirge anthem "I am the resurrection and the life"
We know now that Purcell's three Funeral Sentences were not written for the funeral of Queen Mary in 1695. Following the tradition of the English court, it was pieces by Thomas Morley, originally written for the funeral of Elizabeth I, that were sung there. Text:

I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord:
he that believeth in me,
yea, though he were dead,
yet shall he live.
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me
shall never die.

I know that my redeemer liveth,
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.
And though after my skin, worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God:
whom I shall see for myself
and mine eyes shall behold,
and not another.

We brought nothing into this world,
and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away.
blessed be the name of the Lord.

(5) Thomas Morley - The second dirge anthem "Man that is born of a woman".
Text:

Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery.
He cometh up, and is cut down like a flower;
He fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay.
In the midst of life we are in death:
Of whom may we seek for succour, but of Thee, O Lord,
Who for our sins art justly displeased?
Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty,
O holy and most merciful Saviour,
Deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.

(6) Henry Purcell - Canzona Z.860
Following the March is the Canzona, also in C minor. "Thou Knowest Lord" is in E-flat major and is a stirring hymn-like setting with all the voice parts moving in the same rhythm. Text:

Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts;
Shut not thy merciful ears unto our pray'rs;
But spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty.
O holy and most merciful Saviour,
Thou most worthy Judge eternal,
Suffer us not at our last hour,
For any pains of death to fall away from Thee. Amen.

(7) Thomas Morley - The third dirge anthem "I heard a voice from heaven"
Text:

I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me,
Write, From henceforth, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord:
Even so, saith the Spirit: for they rest from their labors [and their works do follow them].

(8) Henry Purcell - Music for the funeral of Queen Mary: Man that is born of a woman; In the midst of life; Thou knowest Lord.
When the much-loved Queen Mary II died on 28 December 1694, Purcell adapted his 1680-82 funeral service for her funeral. Purcell's earlier setting of the fourth sentence of the Burial Service, "Man that is born of a woman", introduces a melancholy theme. Purcell brings tension to the phrase with "hath but a short time to live", and the melody rises and falls with the words "he cometh up and is cut down like a flower". The music stays in the key of C minor throughout and is of a desolate starkness. The text:

Man that is born of a woman
hath but a short time to live,
and is full of misery.

He cometh up, and is cut down like a flower;
he fleeth as it were a shadow,
and ne'er continueth in one stay.

With "In the midst of life we are in death", an earlier setting of the fifth sentence, Purcell begins with a soprano part that is passed on to the choir. The music portrays with chromaticism an air of anguish. It can be seen as an expression of man's dismay in the face of death. The text:

In the midst of life we are in death:
of whom may we seek for succor,
but of thee, O Lord,
who for our sins art justly displeased?

Yet, O Lord, O Lord most mighty,
O holy and most merciful Savior,
deliver us not into the bitter pains
of eternal death.

There are two earlier versions of "Thou Knowest Lord"; it reminds one of the chorales of Bach reassuring the faithful and gently leading them back to confidence and faith. The text:

Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts;
shut not thy merciful ears unto our pray'rs;
but spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty.

O holy and most merciful Savior,
thou most worthy Judge eternal,
suffer us not, at our last hour,
for any pains of death, to fall from thee. Amen.

(9) Henry Purcell - O dive custos (Elegy on the death of Queen Mary)
O dive custos Auriacae (sung in Latin) "shows Purcell’s florid and strongly Italianate vocal style, with the voices intertwining jagged melodic inter­vals amongst passages containing chains of discords" (from the liner notes in the Hyperion CD of this work).

Listen to Vox Luminis conducted by Lionel Meunier ( (1) and (2) are played before the break, the funeral music in the second part of the concert, starting at 50:00):

Choral Masterworks

Charpentier: Te Deum (Vocal and Choral Masterworks)

The "trumpet prelude," the eight introductory bars of Charpentier's Te Deum, was used as a signature tune for "Eurovision" broadcasts (the annual New Year's Concert from Vienna and Eurovision Song Contests) on TV when I was young, so this is really familiar music - in fact, it is also music that deserves a much better fate!

The "Te Deum" (of which there are also great settings by Zelenka, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Berlioz, Verdi, Bruckner, Dvořák, Britten, Kodály, and Pärt among the better known) is a Latin Christian hymn with ancient antecedents, going back at least to the 4th century. The Te Deum was (and still is often) sung at solemn thanksgiving services of a national character. "Te Deum" are the first two words of the phrase "Te Deum laudamus," Latin for "We praise Thee, O God".

Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Te Deum (H. 146) in D major is a "grand motet versaillais" (a musical form born at the court of Louis XIV). It was composed between 1688 and 1698, during the composer's stay at the Jesuit church of Saint-Louis, in Paris, where he was musical director. The work is written for four-part chorus, eight soloists, and an instrumental ensemble including strings, flutes, oboes, trumpets and timpani.

The instrumental introduction (the one misused as Eurovision melody) precedes the first verse sung by the bass alone. The choir and other soloists gradually join in. Charpentier's music follows the Latin text: the choir predominates in the first part (verses 1-10, praise to God, celestial dimension), and the soloists in the second part (verses 10-20, Christological part, secular dimension). In the following verses, nos. 21-25, soloists and choir alternate, and the final verse is a large fugue for choir with a short trio of soloists in the central episode.

From the beginning of the famous instrumental "Marche en rondeau" to the end of the final "In te Domine speravi" Charpentier bases his composition on the trumpet key of D major, a key considered as glorious and victorious (see my article about "Music in D Major" at this blog). The Te Deum has always been associated with times of national rejoicing (victories, a monarch's recovery from illness, royal births) and it has been suggested that this masterpiece was part of the celebrations which followed the French victory in a battle at at Steinkerque on August 3, 1692.

Following the rediscovery of this Te Deum by the musicologist Carl de Nys in 1953, it has been numerous times recorded.

Listen to: B'Rock Orchestra, Vox Luminis & Lionel Meunier

Choral Masterworks

Biber: Missa Salisburgensis (Vocal and Choral Masterworks)

Biber is not completely unknown, but also not exactly famous - you have to be an aficionado of high Baroque music and especially violin music to know him (he wrote a great cycle of violin sonatas called "Mystery Sonatas"). Biber was one of the many musicians who came from the Czech lands and sought their fortune in the cultural capitals of Austria. Salzburg was an independent bishopric that played an important role in the Counter-Reformation, with monasteries and numerous Baroque churches built. In 1731, more than 20,000 Protestant citizens were expelled from the city and found new homes in Prussia. This "Catholic fortress" was the Salzburg in which Biber and later Mozart and his father worked and the Missa Salisburgensis is the major statement of all it stood for.

Big, bigger, biggest... The Missa Salisburgensis à 53 voci is the largest-scale piece of sacred Baroque music, an archetypal work of the Colossal Baroque that is now universally accepted to be by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644-1704). The manuscript score of this Mass was rediscovered in the 1870s in the home of a greengrocer in Salzburg, Austria. It has been said to have narrowly escaped being used to wrap vegetables, the fate of old newspapers and almost old music as well. At that time, the manuscript was also attributed to several other composers, but based on modern methods of analyzing handwriting and watermarks it has now been proven that the Mass must have been written for the 1682 commemoration of the 1100th anniversary of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, and stylistic analysis clearly points to Biber as the composer.

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber received his musical education in a Jesuit grammar school in Silesia and took further lessons from Johann Heinrich Schmelzer. His first known composition dates from 1663, a Salve Regina for soprano, violin, viola da gamba, and organ. After a first employment as court musician of the Moravian bishop of Olomouc, Biber from 1670 entered the service of Archbishop in Salzburg. In the next decades he would climb to the positions of Vice Kapellmeister and Kapellmeister. He was considered a brilliant violin virtuoso; for his compositional work, Emperor Leopold I awarded him a title of nobility, which meant that he was allowed to call himself "Biber von Bibern." His monthly income at that time was 60 guilders, with free housing, wine, bread and firewood.

Biber wrote masses, two requiems, numerous violin sonatas, and table music. Except the Missa Salisburgensis, most of his sacred works are virtually unknown. In many of his works for the violin, Biber used scordatura (the retuning of individual strings) to achieve special sound effects and to enable difficult fingerings in the lower registers and on empty strings. Of few violinists and composers before his time are double stops, triple and quadruple chords found as frequently as in Biber! His most famous work for the violin is the collection of Sonatas called "Mystery Sonatas" or "Rosary Sonatas."

The huge Missa Salisburgensis is a polychoral composition which takes advantage of the multiple organs and various locations at balconies available for groups of singers and musicians performing in Salzburg Cathedral. The vocal parts feature in concerto (soloists) and in cappella (the full choir) parts across the sixteen vocal lines. However, several times in the Mass, the composer "collapses" all the voices into simple four part harmony (SATB) and uses some of the instrumental groups, the cornetto and trombone choir, in particular, to play in unison with the human voices. The work is in C major throughout – necessitated by the use of ten clarino trumpets fixed in C. There are 53 vocal and instrumental parts, leading to an outsize score of 82 by 57 centimeters!

Missa salisburgensis is noble music, which splashes up in big waves against the tall church walls. Listen to a performance by Václav Luks Collegium 1704:

Choral Masterworks

Buxtehude: Membra Jesu Nostri (Vocal and Choral Masterworks)

Sometimes it seems as if Dietrich Buxtehude (ca. 1637-1707) - the great North German composer and organist who forms the link between Sweelinck and Bach - is only remembered for the fact that Bach, as a young man of 20, walked from Arnstadt to Lübeck, a distance of more than 400 kilometers, to hear the outstanding resident organist of the Marienkirche play and "to understand a thing or two about his art. In fact, Bach studied with him for several months. In other years, other great composers such as Handel, Matheson, and Telemann made the same pilgrimage to Lübeck.

Dietrich Buxtehude wrote a wide variety of music - from beautiful works for harpsichord to masterpieces for organ and, most importantly, 100 vocal compositions. He also began a series of concerts separate from church services, called Abendmusik, to provide musical entertainment for the city's bourgeoisie. Buxtehude's style greatly influenced other composers (such as Bach), and he is considered one of the most important composers of the mid-Baroque period in Germany.

Compared to Bach, Buxtehude's style has an essential simplicity, especially in his cantatas: understated, elegant, and all the more beautiful for it (though he didn't write the unforgettable melodies of Bach at his best). His surviving church music is praised for its high musical qualities rather than its progressive elements.

Buxtehude's most famous vocal work, Membra Jesu Nostri, a cycle of seven cantatas from 1680, is strange music, or rather the idea behind the music is strange: music about the different parts of the body of the crucified Christ, namely the feet, knees, hands, side, chest, heart, and head. The music is in good taste, but the (Latin) lyrics sometimes border on necrophilia...

The full Latin title, Membra Jesu nostri patientis sanctissima, means "The most holy parts of the suffering (body) of our Jesus. The text consists of stanzas from the medieval hymn Salve mundi salutare, a poem once attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux but probably written by Arnulf of Louvain (d. 1250). Buxtehude selected three stanzas from the poem for each part and added an appropriate biblical text for the concertos.

Each cantata in Membra Jesu Nostri is divided into six sections: an instrumental introduction; a concerto for instruments and five voices (SSATB), except for the fifth and sixth cantatas, which use only three voices; three arias for one or three voices, each followed by an instrumental ritornello; and an exact reprise of the concerto. In the last cantata, a final Amen chorus replaces the reprise.

The mood is quiet and contemplative, in contrast to the usual passion narrative. It has the clear emotional intensity found in Lutheran chorales. But the sensitive textual setting also shows a debt to the expressive power of Venetian music.

This work might well be called the first Lutheran oratorio.

See this Wikipedia page for the text.

Listen to a performance by Schola Cantorum Basiliensis conducted by René Jacobs:



As a bonus, here is Buxtehude's most beautiful soprano aria, from the cantata "Herr, wenn Ich nur Dich Hab'", sung by Laura Heimes, with Voices of Music:




Choral Masterworks

Allegri: Miserere (Vocal and Choral Masterworks)

Allegri's Miserere is as famous as it is short. The a cappella composition is also shrouded in mystery, leading some to believe that the widely known version may not be the authentic one. (I have my doubts about the famous "high C" in the second half of the 4-voice falsobordone - it smacks of 19th century romanticism rather than the cooler 17th century.) But as it is, the music has an ethereal beauty. The piece is written for two choirs of five and four voices, singing alternately and coming together for the 9-part polyphonic conclusion.

"Miserere" refers to a setting of Psalm 51, one of the penitential psalms, which begins with "Have mercy on me, O God". According to tradition, the psalm was composed by David as a confession to God after his sin with Bathsheba. David's confession is seen as a model of repentance in both Judaism and Christianity, with the belief that those who confess their sins and pray to God, as David did, will be forgiven, while those who ignore their sins will be punished.

The Miserere was sung during the Tenebrae services of Holy Week and at Lauds in the three days before Easter. During the Tenebrae services, the candles in the chapel were gradually extinguished until the Miserere was sung in near darkness. Allegri's version of the piece alternates between plainchant and harmonized chant.

Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652), a singer in the Papal Chapel, is best known for his composition of the Miserere. The piece was commissioned by Pope Urban VIII and performed annually in the Sistine Chapel during the Tenebrae services of Holy Week. Its mystique has been enhanced by rumors of unwritten performance traditions and secret ornamentation. Several myths have grown up around the piece, such as the idea that the Pope forbade copying the work, punishable by excommunication. This is not true. Another myth is that the 14-year-old Mozart visited Rome and, after hearing the work performed, proved able to write out the text and composition. But the fame of the piece made it de rigeur for those on the Grand Tour in the 18th and 19th centuries to hear the work in the Sistine Chapel during Holy Week. Many have commented on the beauty and uniqueness of the piece. In fact, the work was transcribed by Felix Mendelssohn and Franz Liszt, and various other 18th and 19th century sources, with or without ornamentation, survive.

Allegri's Miserere remains one of the most widely known and beloved a cappella choral works in the canon.

Listen to the Tenebrae, directed by Nigel Short, and filmed at St. Bartholomew the Great, London.

Choral Masterworks

Monteverdi: Vespers of the Blessed Virgin (Vocal and Choral Masterworks)

Published in Venice in 1610, Claudio Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine (The Vespers of the Blessed Virgin) is notable for its grandeur and opulence. It is a composition on an unprecedented scale, blending grand public music with intimate solo songs and using various colorful obbligato instruments in a daring and virtuosic manner.

Claudio Monteverdi is best known as the composer of some of the earliest and most remarkable works in the Western operatic genre, including L'Orfeo, Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria, and L'Incoronazione di Poppea. He also wrote religious and liturgical music, of which the "Vespro della Beata Vergine" is part of the first volume published in 1610.

At the time, Monteverdi was serving as Maestro di Capella at the court of Vincenzo I Gonzaga of Mantua. He dedicated the "Vespro della Beata Vergine" to Pope Paul V and personally traveled to Rome to present it, hoping to gain an appointment to the Papal Chapel in Rome, as evidenced by his demonstration of a wide range of styles and techniques. Although he did not receive the appointment, he was later appointed to the prestigious position of Maestro di Capella at the San Marco Basilica in Venice in 1613, where he spent the rest of his life.

During Monteverdi's time, the Catholic Church had a strong devotion to the Virgin Mary, and much music was dedicated to her. The "Vespro della Beata Vergine" sets texts for various Marian feasts and includes a sonata and non-liturgical motets interspersed among the psalms. As vespers (evening prayers), the pieces were written with Roman Catholic evening prayers in mind, which were performed around sunset and included thanksgiving for the day that had just passed.

What sets Monteverdi's Vespers apart is the inclusion of 4 concerti sacri and a sonata sopra Sancta Maria, in addition to the 5 psalms, hymn, and Magnificat. These additional parts serve as alternatives to the usual antiphons and provide great liturgical coherence through related keys and the use of the cantus firmus, a Gregorian plainchant used as a fixed voice in the psalms, hymn, sonata, and Magnificat. The musical forces required are considerable, including seven solo singers and a large chorus that can be divided into up to ten voices, as well as a richly varied orchestra with virtuoso parts for violins and cornetti. The final orchestration is determined by the conductor, allowing for variations in each performance.

PDF with Latin text and English translation.

Listen to the Venice Monteverdi Academy and Orchester Lorenzo da Ponte under the direction of Roberto Zarpellon (at the Musik Sommer Festival Pustertal (Südtirol) in the Stiftskirche Innichen):



Choral Masterworks

George Frideric Handel: Susanna, oratorio

I became interested in Handel's oratorio Susanna because of the painting "Susanna and the Elders" by Artemisia Gentileschi. Although I have written about it before, I think it is only right to include Susanna also in this list of great choral masterworks.

The story of Susanna is included in the Book of Daniel, although in the Protestant tradition it is considered as an apocryphal chapter in that book. It is set during the captivity of the Jewish tribes in Babylon.

Susanna, a fair Hebrew wife (whose husband is apparently temporarily away from home), was secretly desired by two Elders of the community, who plotted together to seduce her. When Suzanna took a bath in her garden, having sent her attendants away, the lecherous voyeurs hid themselves and secretly observed her. When she made her way back to her house, they emerged and threatened that, unless she gave in to their desires and had sex with them, they would publicly accuse her of adultery - the penalty for which was death. But Suzanna spurned their vile proposal and refused to be blackmailed. The "pious" Elders duly made their false accusation, claiming that they had caught Suzanna while she was having a tryst with a young man in her garden. Suzanna was charged and condemned to die, but at the last minute the youthful Daniel - the future prophet - interrupted the proceedings, demanding that the Elders should be questioned to prevent the death of an innocent. The two men were separately questioned about the details of what they saw - and they disagreed about the sort of tree under which Susanna supposedly met her lover. Thus Susanna's innocence was established and instead the false accusers were put to death.

The above paragraph has been cited from my blog article on the painting "Susanna and the Elders" by Artemisia Gentileschi. Susanna's story became the subject of paintings by many artists, including Lorenzo Lotto, Guido Reni, Rubens, Van Dyck, Tintoretto, Rembrandt and Tiepolo. Handel is the only composer who wrote music on this subject. That was in the summer of 1748 and the work was premiered the next season at Covent Garden Theater, London. 

After a series of patriotic oratorios celebrating victory in the Jacobite rebellions, including Judas Maccabaeus and Joshua, Handel turned to a lighter style with Susanna. The oratorio is scored for a small orchestra of strings with oboes and bassoons, with trumpets appearing only at the end of the work. Some of the solo vocal pieces are in the simple style of popular English ballad opera. There are touches of comedy in Handel's musical characterizations of the lecherous Elders, while the steadfastness, purity and courage of the heroine Susanna are vividly portrayed. The aria "Crystal streams", sung by Susanna while she longs for her absent husband and seeks relief from the summer heat by bathing in a garden stream, is in particular notable. 

Here is a great performance by Les Arts Florisants, conducted by W. Christie. The complete libretto is hosted at Stanford University.

Choral Masterworks

Johann Sebastian Bach: Coffee Cantata "Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht"

It is often said that Bach didn't do opera. True, perhaps - but his Coffee Cantata  "Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht" is nothing else than a chamber opera, especially when the dramatic possibilities are brought out as skillfully as in this superb performance by the Netherlands Bach Society. And don't tell me that Bach didn't have humor!

Bach was also apparently a coffee enthusiast - so much so that he wrote a composition about the beverage. The Coffee Cantata was written circa 1735 for a musical ensemble called The Collegium Musicum based in Zimmerman’s coffee house in Leipzig - since 1723, the regular performance venue for the best amateur music ensemble of the city, of which Bach acted as leader from 1729 on. The whole cantata seems very much to have been written with the local audience in mind. The culture of drinking coffee spread over Europe from the beginning of the eighteenth century, first to the noble elite and then to the middle classes. Coffee houses sprang up everywhere. In Leipzig, there were more than ten.

Coffee is strongly linked with the Netherlands. From the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Dutch East India Company set up its own coffee plantations in Java, as an alternative to importing coffee from Yemen. This meant that the Dutch were the main suppliers of coffee to Europe at the time Bach wrote his cantata.

In Bach’s day, drinking coffee was not without controversy. The effects of the beverage were unknown as yet and the (male) protectors of morality feared that it would make women not only too headstrong, but also induce an erotic mood in them. Sexual innuendo is never far away in this cantata.

The protagonist is a young vivacious woman named Liesgen who loves coffee. Her killjoy father is, of course, dead set against his daughter having any kind of caffeinated fun. So he tries to ban her from the drink. Liesgen bitterly complains:

    Father sir, but do not be so harsh!
    If I couldn’t, three times a day,
    be allowed to drink my little cup of coffee,
    in my anguish I will turn into
    a shriveled-up roast goat.

    Ah! How sweet coffee tastes,
    more delicious than a thousand kisses,
    milder than muscatel wine.
    Coffee, I have to have coffee,
    and, if someone wants to pamper me,
    ah, then bring me coffee as a gift!

She is prepared to give up parties and fashionable clothing in order to sustain her coffee-drinking habit, but when her father says she will never get a husband, she appears to give in. “Ah, a husband!”, she swoons. But actually, of course, she makes sure that she gets both - daughter and father reconcile when he agrees to have a guaranteed three cups of coffee a day written into her marriage contract.

Do watch this wonderful performance! It was recorded at Radio Kootwijk at De Hoge Veluwe, a national park in the central part of the Netherlands. Performers of the Netherlands Bach Society are: Shunske Sato, violin and direction; Lucie Chartin, soprano; Jan-Willem Schaafsma, tenor; Mattijs van de Woerd, bass; and Marc Pantus, theater concept, direction and design.

German libretto at Wikisource.

Choral Masterworks

Antonio Vivaldi, Juditha Triumphans

Juditha Triumphans (1717) is the only oratorio by Vivaldi that has come down to us. The work is on a Biblical theme, but one from the Apocrypha, and despite the allegory, it belongs rather to the opera house than the church. Moreover, it is a story about murder and revenge that has very little of a sacred nature, so I put it at the head of my secular cantatas. It is believed that the book as we know it is the Greek translation of a Hebrew or Aramaic original, dated around 100 BCE. The author deliberately makes many historical errors in the introduction. Nebuchadnezzar was not a king of Assyria, but the Babylonian king who conquered Judea in the sixth century BCE.

After listening again to Juditha Triumphans (I also have it on Hyperion CD with the King's Consort under Robert King) I am convinced that this is an incredibly beautiful piece of music - it is unbelievable that it is so little known and that some people can be satisfied by repeatedly listening to The Four Seasons instead.

Judith with the Head of Holophernes, by Cristofano Allori, 1613

Vivaldi wrote the oratorio for the youthful female virtuosi of the Ospedal della Pieta, the famous girls' orphanage in Venice where Vivaldi was Music Director and for which much of his music was composed (such as his Gloria). The orphanage allowed Vivaldi lots of experimentation, such as the use of extravagant instrumentation, including clarinets, a chalumeau, mandolin and violas "all' inglese," viola d'amore and four theorbos, in addition to the instruments of the normal baroque orchestra. The vocal writing for an all-female cast is both agile and intense, the choruses have a thrilling martial quality. This a stunningly colorful work. 

The story tells how Judith, a Jewish widow, saves her people from the army of Nebuchadnezzar. The city of Betulia is besieged by the legendary Holofernes, an army commander who was commissioned by Nebuchadnezzar II to conquer the entire world. The huge Assyrian army moves west and seems invincible. The Israelites closed the passes, built fortifications on all the high mountain peaks, and erected obstacles in the plains. Then Holofernes cuts off the water supply to the city, in the hope that the inhabitants will perish of thirst and surrender.

The townspeople become parched and despair of a happy ending. The beautiful, wealthy widow Judith and her servant Abra secretly make their way to the camp of general Holofernes pretending to sue for peace. Holofernes falls in love with Judith, and, after giving a feast in her honor in his tent, he falls into a drunken sleep. Judith seizes the opportunity and beheads him with his own sword.

"Then she came to the pillar of the bed, which was at Holofernes' head, and took down his fauchion (short sword) from thence, And approached to his bed, and took hold of the hair of his head, and said, Strengthen me, O Lord God of Israel, this day. And she smote twice upon his neck with all her might, and she took away his head from him. And tumbled his body down from the bed, and pulled down the canopy from the pillars; and anon after she went forth, and gave Holofernes his head to her maid; And she put it in her bag of meat..."

[Gentileschi, Judith Slaying Holofernes]

Judith and Abra manage to escape back to their town. The besiegers become confused when they see Holofernes' head displayed on the city wall, and the citizens immediately attack and drive away the leaderless and demoralized Assyrians. The story of Judith is one of the few in the Bible where the power of woman exceeds that of man.

Many artists were inspired by the dramatic story of Judith. Donatello was the first artist to cast a bronze sculpture, for the palace garden of the Medici; Michelangelo painted Judith in a corner of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. Lucas Cranach, Botticelli, Paolo Veronese and Caravaggio also painted Judith. The gory theme was very popular around 1600, especially among Caravagists: Cristofano Allori created the work Judith with the Head of Holofernes around 1610, which depicts Judith with Holofernes' head in her left hand (see above). Caravaggio himself also painted the canvas Judith beheading Holofernes. Judith beheads Holofernes is a famous painting by the Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi (see above). More recently, Gustav Klimt painted a Judith holding the head of Holofernes; he even made two paintings about her, Judith I and Judith II. 

[Klimt, Judith I]

Vivaldi was not the first to treat the theme of Judith in music. Alessandro Scarlatti wrote La Giuditta in 1693, an oratorio first performed in Naples. Vivaldi's Judita triumphans dates from 1717. The work was a commission following the victory of the Venetians in Corfu over the Turks. In 1771, as a 15-year old, Mozart compose the dramatic opera La Betulia Liberata on the same subject. 

See Juditha Triumphans performed in the Dom in Brixen by the Venice Monteverdi Academy Choir (and soloists) and the Chamber Orchestra Lorenzo Da Ponte conducted by Roberto Zarpellon. Note that the text is in Latin!

Here is the rage aria "Armatae face et anquibus" by Holofernes' steward Vagaus, when he discovers the body of his master minus its head, in a wonderful performance by Cecilia Bartoli:

:

Choral Masterworks

Reading The Tale of Genji (54): The Floating Bridge of Dreams (Yume no Ukihashi)

 

Yume no Ukihashi

Title
Waley has "The Bridge of Dreams", Seidensticker and Tyler have "The Floating Bridge of Dreams", and Washburn has "A Floating Bridge in a Dream".

Usually the chapter titles in Genji are based on poems spoken by one of the characters, but here there is no such direct connection. According to the commentary by Fujiwara no Teika, the title refers to an anonymous waka poem: "The world is something like a floating bridge of dreams, and I am lost in thoughts of longing while crossing it".

Chronology
This chapter continues without a break from the previous one and takes place in Kaoru's 28th year.

Position in the Genji
Kaoru visits the Bishop of Yokawa to inquire about Ukifune, whom he thought was dead. When he learns that she is still alive, he sends her young stepbrother to beg her to return, but she refuses, insisting that she has renounced the world. Kaoru never sees her again in the novel, and is left wondering if this is all a ruse because she has found another lover.

"Yume no Ukihashi" is the 54th and final chapter of The Tale of Genji and the 10th and final chapter of Uji jujo, the Ten Chapters of Uji (which I playfully like to call "Kaoru Monogatari"). For some readers and critics, however, this last chapter seems to end rather abruptly, so that it is sometimes debated whether the author intended to continue the novel, but stopped writing in the middle - for whatever reason.

I myself do not think such an assumption is necessary. The story of Kaoru and Ukifune (and thus also of him and the three Uji sisters) is finished - Ukifune has shown her strength of character and decided that she doesn't want to have anything to do with Kaoru, Niou or other men anymore - it's a very strong ending that the female protagonist turns away from affairs of the heart, because they only bring sadness and restlessness. She has truly renounced the world of "samsara". Kaoru, on the other hand, as the final words about his never-ending jealousy and the nonsensical idea that Ukifune must have another lover show, is still bound to the samsaric cycle of attachment and desire because he cannot control his longing (and this despite being a more "philosophical" type than Niou!). In other words, the story is over and the novel ends on a fitting Buddhist note.

Something that is also often pointed out is that this chapter ends with the unique phrase "tozo hon ni habemeru" "This seems to be what is in the book". Tyler (p. 1120) thinks that this is either a copyist's final note (certifying that the copy is correct) or a standard closing line for a story (it also occurs at the end of The Tale of the Hollow Tree). I think the idea that it is a copyist's interpolation is correct - such a phrase would be atypical of Murasaki Shikibu.

[Yume no ukihashi, by Tosa Mitsunobu. Harvard Art Museums]

Synopsis

Accompanied by Kogimi, Ukifune's half-brother who is still a boy, Kaoru visits Yokawa, the western district of Mt. Hiei, to ask the bishop in detail about the rumor "of the woman who took holy orders in Ono". Kaoru is convinced that the woman in question must be Ukifune and is deeply shocked. Seeing Kaoru's excitement, the bishop regrets that he so quickly agreed to Ukifune's request to take religious vows. When Kaoru asks him to lead him to Ono, where Ukifune lives, the Bishop refuses, but entrusts Kogimi with a letter to her.

That night, the torches of Kaoru's party descending from Yokawa can be seen from the hermitage in Ono. Ukifune takes refuge in chanting the Nenbutsu (invocation of Amida Buddha) to forget the memory of Kaoru.

The next day, Kaoru adds his own letter to the bishop's, and Kogimi takes both letters to Ono. The bishop's letter instructs Ukifune to restore her relationship with Kaoru and, by returning to a secular life with him, to erase his sin of obsessive attachment. Kaoru's letter says that he forgives her and asks her to remember her brother Kogimi. Reading this, Ukifune is unsettled, but in the end, for fear of losing her newfound tranquility, she refuses to see her younger brother. She returns the letters unanswered, saying that it was "a case of mistaken identity.

Upon hearing the report from Kogimi, who returned to the capital empty-handed, Kaoru suspects that someone else is hiding Ukifune from the world (another lover?) - just as he once hid her in Uji.

Genji-e
The scene above shows Ukifune in the hermitage in Ono, with two female attendants - Ukifune is recognizable by her cropped nun's hair. In the upper right corner, we see a column of men, presumably Kaoru and his attendants, carrying flaming torches, descending from Mt. Hiei and passing by the hermitage. Passing by and not meeting - this is how the story ends.

Reading The Tale of Genji

 

 

Reading The Tale of Genji (53): Practicing Calligraphy (Tenarai)

 

Tenarai

Title

Waley, Seidensticker and Tyler all have "(The) Writing Practice"; Washburn translates "Practicing Calligraphy."

Tyler notes that "tenarai" is not just practicing calligraphy by copying out model examples, but also writing out poems, including new ones of one's own, for pleasure or consolation. In the second part of this chapter Ukifune consoles herself in this way.

Chronology

Set in the same period as the previous chapter, and extending somewhat beyond it into Kaoru's 28th year.

Position in the Genji

In this chapter, the Bishop of Yokawa and his party discover Ukifune, who is near death. They nurse her back to health, at which point she decides to become a nun. Later the Bishop speaks of Ukifune to the Akashi Empress. Via her ladies-in-waiting Kaoru learns that Ukifune is still alive.

[Tenarai, by Tosa Mitsunobu. Harvard Art Museums]

Synopsis

Ukifune, who had attempted suicide after being driven into a corner due to the dilemma whether to choose Niou or Kaoru, is laying in a coma at the foot of a big tree along the Uji River. She is rescued by the Bishop of Yokawa, an esteemed Tendai prelate from Mt Hiei, who happens to come by with his party.

The Bishop has come down from his mountain retreat to prepare an empty villa in Uji as a temporary rest stop, because his mother and younger sister, who are both nuns, have been on a pilgrimage to Hasedera and his mother, who is in her 80's, has fallen ill.

The Bishop's younger sister looks on Ukifune as a substitute for the daughter she herself has lost. She nurses her to the best of her ability and grows attacched to the young woman. She takes her back to her dwelling in Ono, at the foot of Mt Hiei, while the Bishop returns to the mountain.

After being moved to the nun's hermitage, Ukifune recovers consciousness at last in late summer. When she realizes that she has failed in committing suicide, she longs to take the Buddhist Vow and become a nun. She stubbornly refuses to reveal her identity to the Bishop and his sister, pretending to suffer from amnesia. She spends her days doing writing practice, copying out melancholic poems. The poems she writes herself show that she is committed to renunciation, but still struggling with her attachment to Niou and Kaoru.

In autumn, a captain who has been the husband of the nun's dead daughter, visits the hermitage at Ono in remembrance of his wife. He is attracted to Ukifune when he sees her back view and pursues her relentlessly, making Ukifune wish more than ever to be free once and for all from affairs of the heart.

In the Ninth Month, when the Bishop's sister is away, Ukifune implores the Bishop, who happens to have come to Ono from his mountain retreat, to administer holy orders. The Bishop does as she wishes and Ukifune becomes a nun, cutting off her long and lustrous black hair. The Bishop's sister is shocked and saddened to see the young lady in religious garb, but she also senses that Ukifune has at last found peace.

When the Bishop later visits the Akashi Empress, he happens to mention the story of finding a young woman and making her a nun. Next year, the ladies-in-waiting of the Akashi Empress tell Kaoru that Ukifune may still be alive. In order to confirm that, Kaoru visits the Bishop along with Kogimi, Ukifune's younger maternal half-brother.

Genji-e

The scene illustrated above shows Ukifune practicing calligraphy. Note Ukifune's newly cropped hair which signifies that she has taken the tonsure.

Reading The Tale of Genji

 

 

Reading The Tale of Genji (52): Mayflies (Kagero)

 

Kagero

Title

Waley translates "The Gossamer-Fly", Seidensticker "The Drake Fly", Tyler "The Mayfly" and Washburn "Ephemerids". 

The title of this chapter has been derived from the waka poetry composed by Kaoru when he recalled his relationship with three sisters of Uji. "I couldn't catch mayflies even though I saw them flying about. When I looked again, they had already disappeared and I didn't know where they had gone." As it refers to the three Uji sisters, I think the chapter title should be in plural form.

Chronology

This chapter follows immediately on the previous one and takes place in Kaoru's 27th year.

Position in the Genji

Ukifune is presumed to have drowned herself in the river over her inability to resolve her choice between Kaoru and Niou. Empress Akashi commissions a reading of the Lotus Sutra at the Rokujo, where Kaoru becomes attracted to her daughter, the First Princess, Onna Ichi no Miya.  

[Kagero, by Tosa Mitsunobu. Harvard Art Museums]

Synopsis

At the disappearance of Ukifune, the whole Uji villa is thrown into an uproar. Ukon, Ukifune's lady-in-waiting, has found a letter her mistress has written and addressed to her mother the night before, and they all realize that Ukifune may have thrown herself into the Uji River. Ukifune's mother Chujo no Kimi rushes to the scene and is deeply shocked. In order to keep up appearances, Ukifune's funeral is held on the same night without her remains.

Kaoru, who has been confining himself at Ishiyamadera Temple to pray for the health of his mother, the Third Princess, comes to know the incident only after the funeral. He rails against his own wretched fate. Niou, too, is out of his mind for days and confines himself at his residence under the pretext of illness. Seeing Niou's situation, Kaoru realizes that his friend and Ukifune have indeed been lovers.

Kaoru proceeds to Uji and hears the story from Ukon. He consoles Chujo no Kimi, who is in deep sorrow, by promising her that he will patronize Ukifune's younger brothers. Kaoru organizes the Buddhist memorial service for the forty-ninth day after Ukifune's death.

In summer, when the lotus blossoms are at their height, the Akashi Empress commissions a formal reading of the Lotus Sutra. During the event, Kaoru 

catches a glimpse of the First Princess, elder sister of his principal wife (and also daughter of the Akashi Empress and sister of Niou), and is struck by her regal beauty. He asks his own wife, the Second Princess, to put on similar clothes, but she still can't compare to her elder sister. He begins to visit the First Princess from time to time.

At the mansion of the First Princess, Kaoru also meets a daughter of Genji's younger half-brother, the late Prince Shikibu, who is now in the service of the princess. Had the Prince lived, the daughter now would have been married to the Crown Prince. Struck by the uncertainty of life that has brought her to this situation, Kaoru is led to reflect on the sad and ephemeral fates of Oigimi and Ukifune. while gazing at mayflies in the evening.

Genji-e (Information from JAANUS)

Scenes frequently chosen for illustration include: 1. in the Fifth Month, Kaoru breaks off a branch of orange blossoms (tachibana) to send to Naka no Kimi as a hototogisu cries overhead; 2. in the Sixth Month at the Rokujo mansion, Kaoru spies on the First Princess who is dressed in a white gossamer robe and red trousers as she and her ladies are chipping away at a large block of ice (the illustration shown above); 3. at the end of summer, Kaoru disturbs several ladies who are at calligraphy practice; they flee, leaving several sprays of flowers on the lid of a writing box.

Reading The Tale of Genji

 

 

Reading The Tale of Genji (51): Ukifune (A Drifting Boat)

 

Ukifune

Title

Waley keeps "Ukifune;" Seidensticker translates "A Boat upon the Waters," Tyler "A Drifting Boat" and Washburn "A Boat Cast Adrift". Ukifune is the nickname of the unrecognized daughter of the Eighth Prince. Literally, Ukifune means "A Boat Set Adrift"; as usual, her real name is not specified. 

Chronology

This chapter takes place in spring when Kaoru is 27.

Position in the Genji

Ukifune is a daughter of the Eighth Prince Hachi no Miya and half-sister to Oigimi and Naka no Kimi. In this chapter Niou continues his pursuit of Ukifune. One night when Kaoru is away from Uji, Niou allows himself to be mistaken for Kaoru and thereby seduces Ukifune. Returning from the capital Kaoru eventually realizes the situation. Ukifune finds herself in love with both men and contemplates suicide as the only solution.

[Ukifune, by Tosa Mitsunobu. Harvard Art Museums]

Synopsis

Niou can not forget the young woman he has seen by chance at his Nijo mansion. Naka no Kimi keeps the whole story from him, but on New Year's Day, he sees a letter sent to Naka no Kimi from Uji and so discovers Ukifune's whereabouts - and the fact that she is now Kaoru's mistress.

One night, Niou secretly visits Uji, sneaks into Ukifune's bedroom disguised as Kaoru, and sleeps with her. Discovering that it was Niou, Ukifune is dumbfounded, and upset over the entanglement with her sister’s husband and the scandal that will inevitably ensue. She is horrified by her gross negligence, but Niou is very much in love with her and also stays the next day with her in Uji.

Ukifune then gradually warms to Niou's passionate character, so different from the reserved and indecisive Kaoru.

In the Second Month, after a long absence, Kaoru again calls at Uji and, happy to see how mature Ukifune has become, promises to bring her to the capital.

When Niou learns that Kaoru's feelings toward Ukifune are still continuing, he races through the deep snow to Uji. There he boards a boat with Ukifune and crosses the river to a house on the other shore where they can be alone. Along the way, he instructs the boatman to stop at a small island in the river, where he composes a poem vowing eternal love:

the years may pass
but the heart that pledges
undying devotion
by the top of Orange Tree Isle
will never change

Ukifune's response is the source of her name:

the color
of Orange Tree Isle
may never change
but this drifting boat (ukifune)
knows not where it goes

(both poems tr. Janet Goff, Noh Drama and the Tale of Genji, p. 182-83)

They then spend two intoxicating days together in their hideaway.

Thereafter, Ukifune receives letters from both lovers announcing plans to take her to the capital. She is thrown into emotional turmoil.

In the Third Month, messengers from both men encounter each other at Uji. As a result, Kaoru learns of Niou's visit and presses Ukifune to tell him everything that has been going on between her and Niou. Ukifune is now back in his house in Uji and he puts the guards on high alert to keep Niou away,

Ukifune, caught in a dilemma between Kaoru and Niou, becomes increasingly distraught and finally decides to throw herself into the river. Her final parting poem is intended for her mother:

joining my own cry
to the dying echoes
of the sounding bell
tell her my life has ended
in this world of endless night.

(tr. Cranston, A Waka Anthology, Volume Two, p. 961)

This reminds me of the stories of Unai and the Maiden of Tegona, two women who happen to figure in similar stories that gave rise to several Manyoshu poems and also Noh plays: both girls, in their independent stories, are torn between two suitors, without being able to make a choice, and in the end they both commit suicide by jumping into the river...  weird stories, as to modern readers there seems to be no psychological justification for such a suicide. Perhaps it is an extreme example of what the Japanese call "enryo," "deference to others." Both stories seem to have haunted the imagination of the ancient Japanese, and Murasaki Shikibu must have known them and used this theme in her novel (see my article A Kobe Tragedy: The Story of Unai for more on one of these stories at this blog).

Genji-e (Information from JAANUS)

Scenes chosen for illustration include: 1 Naka no Kimi, Niou's wife, receiving a New Year's greeting from Ukifune along with a whiskered basket with an artificial pine branch and red berries attached, while Niou is present. 2 At the end of the First Month at Uji, Niou breaks through a reed fence and spies on Ukifune, her head pillowed on her arm and surrounded by her women who are sewing and spinning thread. 3 The most often depicted scene (also in the above): in the Second Month after a heavy snowfall when the moon is in the morning sky, Niou takes Ukifune out in a boat on the Uji river to Orange Tree Isle, accompanied by her maid and a boatman. 4 Niou taking Ukifune, dressed in white, to the house of the governor of Inaba across the river, where they watch the setting sun and write poems. 5 Ukifune weeping as a guardsman delivers a letter from Kaoru. 6 Outside Ukifune's residence in Uji at night, Niou, having been stopped from entering by Kaoru's guards, dismounting from his horse and speaking with Ukifune's servant Ukon.

Noh play

The Noh play Ukifune was written in the early 15th c. by a warrior-poet named Yokoo Motohisa, and was set to music by Zeami. It begins at Uji, where the waki, a priest, comes upon a woman in a brushwood boat who tells him Ukifune's story and disappears. The priest later goes to Ono, where Ukifune had been taken to live by a nun after being found dazed beneath a tree at Uji (this part will be told in the next chapters of the novel). In response to his prayers, the woman returns in her true form as the ghost of Ukifune and describes Ukifune's possession by an evil spirit, as  related in the Tenarai chapter (chapter 53).
This possession also provides the kernel for the second play about Ukifune, Kodama Ukifune, that takes place entirely at Ono.

Reading The Tale of Genji

 

 

Reading The Tale of Genji (50): The Eastern Cottage (Azumaya)

 

Azumaya

Title

Waley translates"The Eastern House", Seidensticker and Tyler "The Eastern Cottage" and Washburn has "A Hut in the Eastern Provinces". This term occurs in a poem  written by Kaoru when he visits the hidden dwelling of Ukifune. Azumaya is not so much a "hut in the Eastern Provinces," but rather a hut or cottage of the simple type one in that period usually found in the Eastern Provinces; it can also be a "garden pavilion." Here it is of course located in the capital Heiankyo.

Chronology

This chapter takes place in the 8th and 9th month when Kaoru is 26.

Position in the Genji

Ukifune and her mother go to the Nijo Mansion of Naka no Kimi. Ukifune attracts Niou's attention and he attempts to seduce her. Her mother therefore takes her away to a small villa (poetically referred to as an "Eastern cottage") at Sanjo. There Kaoru finds her and takes her to his own villa in Uji.

[Azumaya, by Tosa Mitsunobu. Harvard Art Museums]

Synopsis

Ukifune is the daughter of the Eight Prince and his secondary wife, Chujo no Kimi, but the father has not recognized his daughter. Chujo no kimi soon has remarried with the Vice Governor of Hitachi, and followed her husband to the East (of course also taking the young Ukifune with her), where she lives for a long time. Chujo no Kimi has several children by her second husband, but Ukifune, of noble blood and especially beautiful, is the one she cherishes most, and she often wishes for a good match for her.

Kaoru is interested in Ukifune, who resembles the late Oigimi, but is hesitant because of her low status as the stepdaughter of a provincial governor. Chujo no Kimi, learns from Ben no Kimi about Kaoru's feelings for her daughter, and though she is pleased, she is also reluctant to let her marry someone of such a different status. She feels a union with someone more equal in status would be preferable.

From among various suitors she then chooses Sakon no Shosho, Lieutenant of the Left Guards. But the Lieutenant has his eyes set on the fortune of the Vice Governor, and when he learns that Ukifune is only his stepdaughter, he breaks off the talks and instead begins courting one of the Vice Governor's own daughters. Vexed, Chujo no Kimi decides to have Ukifune live with her half-sister, Naka no Kimi.

Upon bringing her daughter to the Nijo Mansion, Chujo no Kimi is surprised to see how much better Naka no Kimi's condition is compared to that of Ukifune. She also realizes that her husband, the Vice Governor, pales in comparison to the handsome splendor of Niou and Kaoru. Now she decides after all to try to arrange a match between her daughter and Kaoru.

However, Niou happens to find Ukifune by chance in his house. One evening, after Niou returns from the palace where he has been attending to his ailing mother, the Akashi Empress, he seeks out his wife’s company only to find that she is occupied with the laborious process of having her hair washed. Bored, he wanders about, when his attention is attracted by a young serving girl unknown to him, and following her, he finds Ukifune - not knowing that she is Naka no Kimi's half-sister - and after the usual kaimami he forcefully tries to make love to her. Ukifune barely manages to escape when Niou is suddenly called back to the palace. Ukifune is mortified by the incident of being wooed by her sister's husband. Naka no Kimi, too, after hearing about the commotion, is heartbroken. When Chujo no Kimi hears about this incident, she is shocked and hides Ukifune in a small house she is having constructed in Sanjo. This called an "Eastern Corrage" not only because of the building style, but also because the guards she employs are all from the eastern part of Japan and speak a heavy dialect (now the Kanto area) where she has lived with her husband and Ukifune.

In the autumn, Kaoru learns of Ukifune's whereabouts from Ben no Kimi. He asks Ben no Kimi to act as an intermediary so that he can visit her - and now he sees the half-sister of the dead Oigimi for the first time. The next morning, he takes Ukifune in his carriage to Uji.

Genji-e (Information from JAANUS)

1) The illustration used above depicts Ukifune at the Nijo residence of her half sister, Naka no Kimi, while Naka no Kimi's husband, Niou, is spying on her via kaimami. (2) On an autumn morning, Ukifune's mother watches Niou playing with his young son before leaving for court; 3) Ukifune and Naka no kimi look at illustrated romances (e-monogatari), while Ukon, a lady-in-waiting, reads the accompanying text out loud; and 4) Kaoru visits Ukifune at the small villa in Sanjo, where he hears peddlers at dawn walking about with their wares balanced on the tops of their heads. While waiting there, Kaoru refers to an Eastern-type cottage called "azumaya" in a poem.

Reading The Tale of Genji

 

 

Reading The Tale of Genji (49): The Ivy (Yadorigi)

 

Yadorigi

Title

Waley translates "The Mistletoe," Seidensticker and Tyler "The Ivy" and Washburn has "Trees Encoiled in Vines of Ivy."

"Yadorigi" is another name for "tsuta", "ivy." In the poem by Kaoru to Ben no Kimi it is also a pun on "yadoru," "to inhabit".

Chronology

This chapter takes place between the spring when Kaoru is 25 years old to the summer of the next year when he is 26.

Position in the Genji

In this chapter, Prince Niou marries Roku no Kimi, daughter of Yugiri, much to the regret of Naka no Kimi. Kaoru, in turn, continues to make advances toward Naka no Kimi, because her older sister Oigimi, who is now dead, was the unrequited love of his life. Rejecting him, Naka no Kimi tells him of the existence of their half-sister Ukifune, who also resembles the late Oigimi. After being married to the reigning emperor's second daughter Onna Ni no Miya (The Second Princess), Kaoru returns to Uji and sees Ukifune for the first time.

[Yadorigi, by Tosa Mitsunobu. Harvard Art Museums]

Synopsis

During a game of go, the current emperor hints to Kaoru that he wishes to entrust Princess Ni no Miya to him. She has no guardian, as her mother has died just before her coming-of-age ceremony. Kaoru, who has difficulty forgetting Oigimi, agrees reluctantly as he cannot refuse the Emperor's wish.

When Yugiri learns this, he decides to marry his daughter Roku no Kimi to Prince Niou. The 16th day of the Eight Month is set as the date of the marriage ceremony. This comes as a great shock to Naka no Kimi. After his marriage to Roku no Kimi, Niou falls in love with her beauty, and his visits to Naka no Kimi become fewer and fewer, so that she bitterly regrets ever having left Uji. Kaoru sympathizes with her and gradually his feelings turn to love. But in fact, around the Fifth Month Naka no Kimi has become pregnant and when Kaoru sees her maternity sash, he abandons his amorous notions.

Upon his return to his residence, Niou catches the suspicious scent of Kaoru's natural fragrance on his wife. He questions her, but in the end finds himself more in love than ever.

One day, Kaoru tells Naka no Kimi that he wants to have a portrait made of Oigimi and conduct religious services in her memory. Naka no Kimi then tells him of her half-sister, Ukifune. That autumn, Kaoru pays a visit to Uji and questions Ben no KImi about Ukifune's background, asking her to act as go-between.

Towards the end of autumn, Niou again becomes suspicious of Naka no Kimi's relationship with Kaoru, but her loveliness as she plays the lute rekindles deep feelings of love in him. In the Second Month of the following year, Naka no Kimi gives birth to a baby boy.

In the Fourth Month, on his way back from a pilgrimage to Hasedera, Kaoru visits Uji and happens to catch a glimpse of Ukifune (yes, kaimami again!). He is moved by her beauty which is very much like that of Oigimi. 

Genji-e (Information from JAANUS)

Scenes chosen for illustration include: Kaoru playing a game of go with the emperor who obliquely offers him the hand of his daughter; Kaoru, about to go by carriage to visit Naka no Kimi, standing in his garden where morning glories (asagao) and maiden flowers (nadeshiko) are blooming (as in the above illustration); Niou playing the biwa beside the pregnant Naka no Kimi, who leans against an armrest and compares her half-abandoned state to the autumn grasses in the garden below.  　 

Reading The Tale of Genji