The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
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CPDL #15659: NoteWorthy Composer
- Editor: Richard Woodroffe (added 2007-12-13). Score information: A4, 95 pages, 1.41 MB Copyright: Personal
- Edition notes: File Sizes: PDF: 1.41 MB (large file), MIDI: 189 KB, NWC: 62 KB.
General Information
Title: The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Composer: Charles Hubert Hastings Parry
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Soloists:
Genre: Secular music
Language: English
Instruments: Piano
Published: 1905
Description:
External websites:
On-line copy of Public Domain score here.
Original text and translations
English text
- Robert Browning
- The Pied Piper of Hamelin
- A child's story.
- I.
- Hamelin town's in Brunswick,
- By famous Hanover city;
- The river Weser, deep and wide,
- Washes its wall on the southern side
- A pleasanter spot you never spied;
- But when begins my ditty,
- Almost five hundred years ago,
- To see the townsfolk suffer so
- From vermin, what a pity!
- II.
- Rats!
- They fought the dogs and killed the cats,
- And bit the babies in the cradles,
- And ate the cheeses out of the vats,
- And licked the soup from the cook's own ladles.
- Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
- Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,
- And even spoiled the women's chats
- By drowning their speaking
- With shrieking and squeaking
- In fifty different sharps and flats.
- III.
- At last the people in a body
- To the town hall came flocking:
- "'Tis clear," cried they, "our mayor's a noddy;
- And as for our corporation—shocking
- To think we buy gowns lined with ermine
- For dolts that can't or won't determine
- What's best to rid us of our vermin!
- Rouse up, sirs! Give your brains a racking
- To find the remedy we're lacking,
- Or, sure as fate, we'll send you packing!"
- At this the mayor and corporation
- Quaked with a mighty consternation.
- IV.
- An hour they sat in council;
- At length the mayor broke silence
- "For a guilder I'd my ermine gown sell;
- I wish I were a mile hence!
- It's easy to bid one rack one's brain—
- I'm sure my poor head aches again,
- I've scratched it so, and all in vain.
- Oh for a trap, a trap, a trap!"
- Just as he said this, what should hap
- At the chamber door but a gentle tap!
- "Bless us," cried the mayor, "what's that?"
- (With the corporation as he sat
- Looking little though wondrous fat;
- Nor brighter was his eye, nor moister
- Than a too-long-opened oyster,
- Save when at noon his paunch grew mutinous
- For a plate of turtle green and glutinous),
- "Only a scraping of shoes on the mat
- Anything like the sound of a rat
- Slakes my heart go pit-a-pat!"
- V.
- "Come in!"—the mayor cried, looking bigger:
- And in did come the strangest figure!
- His queer long coat from heel to head
- Was half of yellow and half of red,
- And he himself was tall and thin,
- With sharp blue eyes, each like a pin,
- And light loose hair, yet swarthy skin,
- No tuft on cheek nor beard on chin,
- But lips where smiles went out and in;
- There was no guessing his kith and kin:
- And nobody could enough admire
- The tall man and his quaint attire.
- Quoth one: "It's as my great-grandsire,
- Starting up at the trump of doom's tone,
- Had walked this way from his painted tombstone!"
- VI.
- He advanced to the council table:
- And, "Please your honors," said he, "I'm able,
- By means of a secret charm, to draw
- All creatures living beneath the sun,
- That creep or swim or fly or run,
- After me so as you never saw!
- And I chiefly use my charm
- On creatures that do people harm,
- The mole and toad and newt and viper;
- And people call me the Pied Piper."
- (And here they noticed round his neck
- A scarf of red and yellow stripe,
- To match with his coat of the selfsame check;
- And at the scarf's end hung a pipe;
- And his fingers, they noticed, were ever straying
- As if impatient to be playing
- Upon this pipe, as low it dangled
- Over his vesture so old-fangled.)
- "Yet," said he, "poor piper as I am,
- In Tartary I freed the Cham,
- Last June, from his huge swarms of gnats;
- I eased in Asia the Nizam
- Of a monstrous brood of vampire bats:
- And as for what your brain bewilders,
- If I can rid your town of rats
- Will you give me a thousand guilders?"
- "One? fifty thousand!"—was the exclamation
- Of the astonished mayor and corporation.
- VII.
- Into the street the piper stepped
- Smiling first a little smile,
- As if he knew what magic slept
- In his quiet pipe the while;
- Then, like a musical adept,
- To blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled,
- And green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled,
- Like a candle flame where salt is sprinkled;
- And ere three shrill notes the pipe uttered,
- You heard as if an army muttered;
- And the muttering grew to a grumbling;
- And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling;
- And out of the houses the rats came tumbling.
- Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,
- Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats,
- Grave old plodders, gay young friskers,
- Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,
- Cocking tails and pricking whiskers,
- Families by tens and dozens,
- Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives—
- Followed the piper for their lives.
- From street to street he piped advancing,
- And step for step they followed dancing,
- Until they came to the river Weser,
- Wherein all plunged and perished!
- —Save one who, stout as Julius Caesar,
- Swam across and lived to carry
- To rat-land home his commentary:
- Which was, "At the first shrill notes of the pipe,
- I heard a sound as of scraping tripe,
- And putting apples, wondrous ripe,
- Into a cider-press's gripe:
- And a moving away of pickle-tub-boards,
- And a leaving ajar of conserve-cupboards,
- And a drawing the corks of train-oil-flasks,
- And a breaking the hoops of butter-casks:
- And it seemed as if a voice
- (Sweeter far than by harp or by psaltery
- Is breathed) called out, 'Oh rats, rejoice!
- The world is grown to one vast drysaltery!
- So munch on, crunch on, take your nunchion,
- Breakfast, supper, dinner, luncheon!'
- And just as a bulky sugar-puncheon,
- All ready staved, like a great sun shone
- Glorious scarce an inch before me,
- Just as methought it said, 'Come, bore me!'
- —I found the Weser rolling o'er me."
- VIII.
- You should have heard the Hamelin people
- Ringing the bells till they rocked the steeple.
- "Go, cried the mayor, "and get long poles,
- Poke out the nests and block up the holes!
- Consult with carpenters and builders,
- And leave in our town not even a trace
- Of the rats!" when suddenly, up the face
- Of the piper perked in the market place,
- With a "First, if you please, my thousand guilders!"
- IX.
- A thousand guilders! The mayor looked blue;
- So did the corporation too.
- To pay this sum to a wandering fellow
- With a gypsy coat of red and yellow!
- "Beside," quoth the mayor with a knowing wink.
- "Our business was done at the river's brink;
- We saw with our eyes the vermin sink,
- And what's dead can't come to life, I think.
- So, friend, we're not the folks to shrink
- From the duty of giving you something for drink,
- And a matter of money to put in your poke;
- But as for the guilders, what we spoke
- Of them, as you very well know, was in joke.
- Beside, our losses have made us thrifty.
- A thousand guilders! Come, take fifty!"
- X.
- The piper's face fell, and he cried,
- "No trifling! I can't wait. Beside,
- I've promised to visit by dinner time
- Bagdat, and accept the prime
- Of the head cook's pottage, all he's rich in,
- For having left, in the caliph's kitchen,
- Of a nest of scorpions no survivor:
- With him I proved no bargain driver,
- With you, don't think I'll bate a stiver!
- And folks who put me in a passion
- May find me pipe after another fashion."
- XI.
- "How?" cried the mayor, "d'ye think I brook
- Being worse treated than a cook?
- Insulted by a lazy ribald
- With idle pipe and vesture piebald?
- You threaten us, fellow? Do your worst,
- Blow your pipe there till you burst!"
- XII.
- Once more he stepped into the street
- And to his lips again
- Laid his long pipe of smooth straight cane;
- And ere he blew three notes (such sweet
- Soft notes as yet musician's cunning
- Never gave the enraptured air)
- There was a rustling that seemed like a bustling
- Of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling,
- Small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering
- Little hands clapping and little tongues chattering,
- And, like fowls in a farmyard when barley is scattering
- Out came the children running.
- All the little boys and girls,
- With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls,
- And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls,
- Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after
- The wonderful music with shouting and laughter.
- XIII.
- The mayor was dumb, and the council stood
- As if they were changed into blocks of wood,
- Unable to move a step, or cry
- To the children merrily skipping by,
- —Could only follow with the eye
- That joyous crowd at the piper's back.
- But how the mayor was on the rack,
- And the wretched council's bosoms beat,
- As the piper turned from the High Street
- To where the Weser rolled its waters
- Right in the way of their sons and daughters
- However he turned from South to West,
- And to Koppelberg Hill his steps addressed,
- And after him the children pressed;
- Great was the joy in every breast.
- "He never can cross that mighty top!
- He's forced to let the piping drop,
- And we shall see our children stop!"
- When, lo, as they reached the mountain side,
- A wonderous portal opened wide,
- As if a cavern was suddenly hollowed;
- And the piper advanced and the children followed,
- And when all were in to the very last,
- The door in the mountain side shut fast.
- Did I say, all? No! One was lame,
- And could not dance the whole of the way;
- And in after years, if you would blame
- His sadness, he was used to say,—
- "It's dull in our town since my playmates left!
- I can't forget that I'm bereft
- Of all the pleasant sights they see,
- Which the piper also promised me.
- For he led us, he said, to a joyous land,
- Joining the town and just at hand,
- Where waters gushed and fruit trees grew,
- And flowers put forth a fairer hue,
- And everything was strange and new;
- The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here,
- And their dogs outrun our fallow deer,
- And honeybees had lost their stings,
- And horses were born with eagles' wings:
- And just as I became assured
- My lame foot would be speedily cured,
- The music stopped and I stood still,
- And found myself outside the hill,
- Left alone against my will,
- To go now limping as before,
- And never hear of that country more!"
- XIV.
- Also, alas, for Hamelin!
- There came into many a burgher's pate
- A text which says that heaven's gate
- Opes to the rich at as easy rate
- As the needle's eye takes a camel in!
- The mayor sent East, West, North, and South,
- To offer the piper, by word of mouth,
- Whatever it was men's lot to find him,
- Silver and gold to his heart's content,
- If he'd only return the way he went,
- And bring the children behind him.
- But when they saw 'twas a lost endeavor,
- And piper and dancers were gone forever,
- They made a decree that lawyers never
- Should think their records dated duly
- If, after the day of the month and year,
- These words did not as well appear,
- "And so long after what happened here
- On the twenty-second of July,
- Thirteen hundred and seventy-six:"
- And the better in memory to fix
- The place of the children's last retreat,
- They called it the Pied Piper's Street,
- Where any one playing on pipe or tabor
- Was sure for the future to lose his labor.
- Nor suffered they hostelry or tavern
- To shock with mirth a street so solemn;
- But opposite the place of the cavern
- They wrote the story on a column,
- And on the great church window painted
- The same, to make the world acquainted
- How their children were stolen away,
- And there it stands to this very day.
Lyric ends - Poem continues ------
- And I must not omit to say
- That in Transylvania there's a tribe
- Of alien people who ascribe
- The outlandish ways and dress
- On which their neighbors lay such stress,
- To their fathers and mothers having risen
- Out of some subterranean prison
- Into which they were trepanned
- Long time ago in a mighty band
- Out of Hamelin town in Brunswick land,
- But how or why, they don't understand.
- XV.
- So, Willy, let me and you be wipers
- Of scores out with all men—especially pipers!
- And whether they pipe us FROM rats or FROM mice,
- If we've promised them aught, let us keep our promise.
Lyrics: Robert Browning, 1888.