The music follows the conversation between Romeo and Juliet on the morning after the first and only night they will have together. Juliet, hearing the Nightingale, says that it is still night and doesn’t want him to leave; Romeo, that it is the Lark they hear, it is the morning and he must leave.
Starting off with a slow languorous conversation, a simple melody is introduced on the piano as the two lovers slowly awake. In the distance, rolling thunder is heard, and the two-note theme of the Lark is heard for the first time. These two musical themes express each element of the scene, which is so heart rending because we know they will never be together in this world again.
The piano is the voice of this piece, each time the melody returns after the Lark theme, it becomes more developed as the lovers begin to wake up and their conversation is more animated. By the end, fast runs up and down the keyboard represent the caresses of the two lovers.
Each time the Lark theme returns, it is a little more ominous sounding, until finally the last one at the end of the piece sounds more like an alarm, a frantic call, while still based on the two-note motif of the Lark’s theme.
Capulet’s orchard and Juliet’s chamber:
enter Romeo and Juliet aloft at the window
Juliet
Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day.
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierc’d the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate tree.
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.
Romeo
It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
No nightingale. Look, love, what envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east.
Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
I must be gone and live, or stay and die.
Alexander - Piano
Charlie Anderson - Bass & Strings
Matt Flanders - Percussion
AVB Music 2019