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Timothy Hoekman
Timothy Hoekman Music
The Fair Singer
A lively dialogue between voice and flute.
soprano and flute
“The Fair Singer” is a setting for soprano and flute of Andrew Marvell’s 17th-century poem of the same title. The poem presents a kind of battle of the sexes scenario in which the object of the poet’s desire has the advantage, since her physical beauty is complemented by the beauty of her singing voice. The flute represents the beautiful singer, whose music is sometimes gentle, other times playful or even teasing, while the singer presents the words of the poet.
Text
To make a final conquest of all me,
Love did compose so sweet an enemy,
In whom both beauties to my death agree,
Joining themselves in fatal harmony;
That while she with her eyes my heart does bind,
She with her voice might captivate my mind.
I could have fled from one but singly fair:
My disentangled soul itself might save,
Breaking the curlèd trammels of her hair;
But how should I avoid to be her slave,
Whose subtle art invisibly can wreath
My fetters of the very air I breathe?
It had been easy fighting in some plain,
Where victory might hang in equal choice.
But all resistance against her is vain,
Who has the advantage both of eyes and voice,
And all my forces needs must be undone,
She having gainèd both the wind and sun.
-Andrew Marvell
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