Fair Phyllis
Paulus
Does anyone have a modernized text for this madrigal so that I can
understand it? I just cannot piece together the characters and what they are
doing.
And when I do finally understand who is hieing after whom and when this
hieing takes place etc, is there some deep hidden meaning that I am missing?
Paul
Leigh Wigglesworth
>Farmer's Madrigal 'Fair Phyllis I Saw Sitting All Alone' - there some deep
hidden meaning that I am missing?
Yes, probably.
It all depends on what you're missing.
Madrigals are overtly innocent, but as full of 'double entendre' as your
mind can expand to, and then some.
As young maidens at an exclusive girls' boarding school, we were allowed to
sing this as a refreshing pastorale. Our teachers apparently did not have
the life experience to understand the innuendi. For those that don't, fine.
For those that do, more power to their . . .
well, whatever.
Leigh Wigglesworth
Melbourne, Australia
Leigh Wigglesworth
>> Farmer's Madrigal 'Fair Phyllis I Saw Sitting All Alone' - >> Does
anyone have a modernized text for Fair Phyllis
Abel's exposition seems to miss (maybe intentionally) a fair slab of
"double entendre" as to Phyllis (the Greek name for un-erotic love) sitting
all alone, yet near the possibility of achieving great heights (the
mountain side).
And the shepherds did not have sufficient amatory skill to be able to
"find" her.
Goodness gracious me! How explicit is it necessary to get. But madrigals
were like that!
Well, my dictionary says that 'to hie' means to go quickly, and also to
strive or pant.
>Fair Phyllis I saw sitting all alone
>Feeding her flock near to the mountain side
>The shepherds knew not, they knew not whither she was gone
>But after, her lover, Amyntas hied.
It needs the extra comma, unless Amyntas was a woman which does not seem
very likely.
>Up and down he wandered whist she was missing,
>When he found her, O then they fell a kissing.
The use of the word 'fell' also has significance, although it can mean
'began', it can also mean calm down.
I'm tempted to think that maybe if someone doesn't understand it, then it
isn't the right thing to do to explain ! Madrigals are as innocent as the
mind of the singer. Heaven help me.
Leigh Wigglesworth
Melbourne, Australia
Leigh Wigglesworth
>are confusing 'phyllis' (the leafy one) with 'philia' (affection). An 'i'
>not a 'y' and one 'l' not two.
>
Dear Doreen in sumoland
I must admit to knowing little Greek - pretty obvious - and jumping to
conclusions is a common though dangerous Kanga-type activity. The thought
of Phyllis being 'the leafy one' is even more enchanting. I'm also sure
that the 'mons Veneris' would have well been in the forefront of those
sophisticated and lascivious singers when mentioning 'near to the mountain
side'. Do tell if 'Amyntas' has any particular connotation in Greek (or
Latin) - I've often wondered, but never been near a dictionary at the time
of wondering . .
I've also often wondered (with rather less possibility of checking) if
there was a particularly plain lass called Phyllis amongst Farmer's female
acquaintance - an 'eyesore' so to speak - now that one is probably TOO far
fetched, but then you never know.
Merry singing
Leigh Wigglesworth
Melbourne, Australia
Abel Teo
Generally, it goes like this, I saw Phyllis alone near to the mountainside.
On one else knew where she was. But after her lover by the name of Amyntas
took some effort wandering to find her, they kissed.
Actually there is a sexual connotation to the piece and it can also be
interpreted which goes that:
I spy Phyllis sitting alone the mountainside. No one knew where she was.
After a great flurry of sexual activity with her lover Amyntas - he exerted
(hied) lots of energy (all this while she was supposed to be missing). Up
and down he wandered over her body when he 'found' her (meaning sexual
intercourse). When they are done, they kissed.
Fair Phyllis I saw sitting all alone
Feeding her flock near to the mountain side
The shepherds knew not, they knew not whither she was gone
(The shepherds did not know where she went)
But after her lover, Amyntas hied.
Up and down he wandered whist she was missing,
When he found her, O then they fell a kissing.
:)
Abel Teo
Music Director
Sacred Voices
Andy Averill
"Leigh Wigglesworth" <wi...@vicnet.net.au> wrote in message
news:3.0.5.32.2001062...@mail.vicnet.net.au...
Geez, I don't know. Is it possible we dirty-minded 21st centurians are
reading a little too much into this rather routine if charming
shepherd-shepherdess number? You can make anything have a double meaning if
you work hard enough. "You'll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built
for two" -- well we all know what that really means.
There is ample evidence that if a composer of that period wanted to write a
bawdy song, he just went ahead and wrote it -- witness Mr. Purcell of the
Chapel Royal. Why go to all the trouble of using some sort of secret code
to add a subterranean layer of titillation? I don't buy it.
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Doreen Simmons
>Abel's exposition seems to miss (maybe intentionally) a fair slab of
>"double entendre" as to Phyllis (the Greek name for un-erotic love) sitting
>all alone, yet near the possibility of achieving great heights (the
>mountain side).
The rest of your comments are pretty much on target, but in this case you
are confusing 'phyllis' (the leafy one) with 'philia' (affection). An 'i'
not a 'y' and one 'l' not two.
~Doreen in sumoland~
~ Things they never teach you in textbooks:
"Kangaru-chan ga mienaku natta."--"Hai, Toronto ni ikichatta."
"The kangaroo has disappeared." -- "Yes, it's gone to Toronto." ~
Chris Tackett
a common word painting technique to suggest some sort of erotic
intent. Listen to where they go into three (and look at the text
associated with that part).
Besides, up and down, up and down, up and down... how many times does
that need to be repeated before you get that?
There's a long history of hiding bawdy content in an otherwise
innocent context. I think Fair Phyllis is as perfect an example of
that as there can be.
I heard a Gay Men's chorus sing it once- all they changed was Phyllis
to Phillip- everything else was the same and it worked pretty well.
They sang it absolutely straight (musically) and it was very funny.
I myself played I'm Just A Girl Who Can't Say No from Oklahoma for
communion in church last Sunday. Slow it down a little, invert the
melody, and almost nobody knows. The few that get it can't hide their
giggles, and the ones that don't only make the first group giggle all
the louder.
Chris Tackett
ctackett1 at qwest dot net
MK
Instructions are below, after I wax and wane a bit ;-)
My little group that I always brag about performed this one just
yesterday! It is a regular part of our program and always a crowd pleaser.
There is so much humor written into the music as well as the words that
you just have to hear it as well, for example there is a little short
little alto-soprano section when the women just naturally gotta sing like
little tattle tales na-na-na-na-naaa-nah!
In fact, we built our whole Renaissance Faire script around Looking For
Phyllis this year! In our little 30 min. show, we keep asking eachother
"Hath Anyone Seen Phyllis?" and - in the meanwhile - why not sing this
song and that song, and then finally one of the gossips (me) sez "Yunno no
one hath asked ME if I have seen Fair Phyllis" and then all the gossips
(all the women ;-) say "Here is where WE think she doth be!" and then we
just launch into Fair Phyllis. It made for a really fun program.
Well, anyway, there is a noteworthy composer file suitable for use as a
score on our Tahoe Choir Web site at
highsierra.com/tahoechoir/fairphyllis.nwc - it will not be there forever
so please go download it asap since I will probably clean up the
directories in a month or so - and you will need to get the noteworthy
player to view and read/play the score. It is is a free download at
http://ntworthy.com (well worth it to buy the full program too).
Enjoy!
MK
Chris Tackett wrote:
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P.O. Box 19338, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96151
Phone: (530) 577-5709
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MK
I am not sure if my news reader program can attach a file (meaning: I
don't know how tee hee). But, I am trying to attach it to this message,
so we'll see if it works. For those who need to find out how to play the
FairPhyllis.nwc please read previous post which includes instructions
below...
P.S. Glad you liked it!!! Madrigals are so full of fun.
Mary Kay
Warren Porter wrote:
> That was a delightful song! Have you considered putting it on their
> newsgroup? People quite frequently attach files like yours to their
> messages for other users of that program to look, listen, and comment
> on.
> --
> Warren Porter Remove digits
Chris Hunter
Warren Porter <wbp...@bellsouth3.net> wrote:
><!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
><html>
>Your file attached to the message as advertised.
Please don't post html to rec.music.makers.choral - it's an ASCII text
group like most of Usenet. The reason? Those of us with text newsreaders
find it extremely difficult to read your message through all the noise of
formatting strings.
I hope you're not the person who incited 'MK' to post that binary junk in
this thread? There's a hint that you are, hidden amongst the html rubbish
in your post.
cheers, Chris
Please replace 'spamfilter' with 'chris' for email replies to Usenet postings.
Warren Porter
> In article <3B448B68...@bellsouth3.net>,
> Warren Porter <wbp...@bellsouth3.net> wrote:
>
> ><!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
> ><html>
> >Your file attached to the message as advertised.
>
> Please don't post html to rec.music.makers.choral - it's an ASCII text
> group like most of Usenet. The reason? Those of us with text newsreaders
> find it extremely difficult to read your message through all the noise of
> formatting strings.
>
> I hope you're not the person who incited 'MK' to post that binary junk in
> this thread? There's a hint that you are, hidden amongst the html rubbish
> in your post.
If I did, I didn't intend to. I was trying to encourage her to post to a group
where attachments were expected and welcome. She was experimenting with posting
and I felt she needed some feedback as to how it worked. Of course, not all
experiments work and negative feedback is part of the process.
My apologies and please DON'T ATTACH FILES ON POSTINGS TO THIS NEWSGROUP.