Dramatised Dramatised Dramatised Dramatised S S HEET S S HEET HEET HEET P1 P1 P1 P1 presentation presentation presentation presentation Westminster Abbey, 1695 a few hours after the funeral of Henry Purcell. After everyone has left, three choristers, Baker, Croft and Jenkins (aged approximately 10 or 11) have sneaked back into the Abbey and are talking over the day’s events. CROFT We really shouldn’t be here now. Dr Blow will be furious if he finds us. BAKER No one knows we’re here, it will be fine. Just don’t make too much noise! CROFT Isn’t it strange how all the sounds of London disappear when you’re inside the Abbey? BAKER You can’t hear carriages clattering on the streets, or get deafened by the city waits’ trombones. CROFT And the tradesmen yelling from the markets. JENKINS ( shouting like a market trader ) Noo oysters, noo oysters, come and get yer oysters, fresh ‘errings! BAKER Shut up, Jenkins! CROFT Even the church bells seem muffled. JENKINS You can’t smell the horse manure on the streets, or the overflowing toilets. C & B tog. Shut up , Jenkins! JENKINS ( aside ) I can smell you, though. CROFT I’m glad it’s quiet in here. After the funeral, I don’t feel like going out into the city. JENKINS But the funeral wasn’t quiet – we sang all the way through it. CROFT That was a different. And it was right to sing Mr Purcell’s music at his funeral. BAKER He wrote it for Queen Mary, you know. We didn’t expect to be singing it again so soon. CROFT I think we’ll miss Mr Purcell. BAKER Jenkins certainly will – he’ll miss the shouting when he sings the wrong notes, and he won’t have a clue what’s going on now Mr Purcell’s not there to make him pay attention. JENKINS I don’t sing the wrong notes! CROFT But he was usually kind to us. And you could forget all his shouting when we sang his music.
Happy Birthday, dear Henry: Dramatised Presentation BAKER You could forget everything when we sang his music. CROFT It was so ... exquisite. BAKER Exquisite? CROFT That’s what Dr Blow called it. JENKINS It made people cry – I saw them, and it wasn’t just the ladies. CROFT And his harmony was so ... unusual. BAKER Especially when Jenkins tried to sing one anthem when everyone else was singing another. JENKINS That wasn’t my fault – Williams gave me the wrong book! CROFT Dr Blow says that England has never seen such a fine composer; that no one can fill his place. He says it’s a tragedy Mr Purcell died so young. JENKINS He was 36 ! BAKER That is young – so my mum says. She should know; she’s 37. CROFT I suppose it was a short life. But a lot happened to him in 36 years. BAKER A lot happened to England. Just think, when Mr Purcell was born, England didn’t have a king. JENKINS Did we have a queen then? BAKER No, stupid, we didn’t have a king or a queen. We had a Lord Protector – Oliver Cromwell – but he died and then everyone decided we should get the king back. JENKINS What, King Charles? The one they had before? BAKER No! He was executed – in front of his own palace. The new king was Charles II – King Charles’ son. He was in Holland. CROFT So he came back – on Oak Apple Day – and everyone had a holiday and feasted and danced and the children played and sang ... BAKER ... except for the people who’d cut off old King Charles’ head. They were worried. Music: Oliver Cromwell lay Music: Oliver Cromwell Music: Oliver Cromwell Music: Oliver Cromwell lay lay lay buried and dead buried and dead buried and dead buried and dead (Song 1) (Song 1) (Song 1) (Song 1) CROFT But if the new King Charles hadn’t come back, we wouldn’t be here. JENKINS Why not? BAKER Because when Cromwell was Lord Protector, music was banned in churches and all the theatres were closed. 2
Happy Birthday, dear Henry: Dramatised Presentation CROFT So we couldn’t have been in the Abbey choir and Mr Purcell couldn’t have been our master and play the organ and he couldn’t even work with Mr Dryden in the theatre. BAKER Exactly; and when Charles came back, the new choir here in the Abbey had to practise all day and all night for weeks to be ready for his coronation. My dad sang in the choir then, and so did Mr Purcell’s father. JENKINS What? His father was the same age as your dad? BAKER Of course not; my dad was a boy like us. Mr Purcell’s father was one of the Gentlemen Singers. But he got sick and died when Mr Purcell was only five. JENKINS My mum says their dingy old house was a breeding ground for disease. BAKER And then the plague came. Music: Everyone Music: Everyone sings Ring a Ring a Roses sings Ring a Ring a Roses (Song 2) (Song 2) Music: Everyone Music: Everyone sings Ring a Ring a Roses sings Ring a Ring a Roses (Song 2) (Song 2) CROFT Poor people were the first to catch the sickness, but it quickly spread to wealthier places. BAKER That soon made the rich leave the city. Music: Half the group sings Ring a Ring a Roses Music: Half the group sings Ring a Ring a Roses Music: Half the group sings Ring a Ring a Roses Music: Half the group sings Ring a Ring a Roses CROFT First you get a headache, then a fever, and a rash over all your body. BAKER Then ... you die. CROFT Hardly anyone got better – most died in a week. Music: A quarter of the group sings Ring a Ring a Roses Music: A quarter of the group sings Ring a Ring a Roses Music: A quarter of the group sings Ring a Ring a Roses Music: A quarter of the group sings Ring a Ring a Roses CROFT Mr Purcell said the dead cart rattled down the street every day, taking hundreds of bodies to the grave pits. Music: One voice sings Ring a Ring a Roses Music: One voice sings Ring a Ring a Roses Music: One voice sings Ring a Ring a Roses Music: One voice sings Ring a Ring a Roses BAKER But eventually people stopped getting ill and dying quite so much, and then all the rich folk came back. CROFT Just in time for another disaster. Music: A few voices sing London’s Burning Music: A fe Music: A fe Music: A fe w voices sing London’s Burning w voices sing London’s Burning w voices sing London’s Burning (Song 3) (Song 3) (Song 3) (Song 3) JENKINS I know about this. I’ve been to that Mr Wren’s monument. It was on September 2, 1666. Late at night, a fire broke out in a baker’s shop on Pudding Lane. CROFT It was so windy that houses nearby caught light too. Then whole streets went up in flames. Music: More voices sing London’s Burning Music: More voices sing London’s Burning Music: More voices sing London’s Burning Music: More voices sing London’s Burning 3
Happy Birthday, dear Henry: Dramatised Presentation BAKER Yet again, the rich people began to leave. Everywhere was panic and pandemonium. Even St Paul’s Cathedral burned to the ground. MUSIC: All voices sing London’s MUSIC: All voices sing London’s Burning, in canon. Burning, in canon. MUSIC: All voices sing MUSIC: All voices sing London’s London’s Burning, in canon. Burning, in canon. JENKINS Over thirteen thousand houses were destroyed. It says so on that monument. CROFT Mr Purcell and his family were lucky, though. The fire burned out a mile from their house. It didn’t destroy the Abbey either. BAKER That didn’t stop old Mr Dolben, the Dean, marching my dad and the other choristers out to face the flames – like they were fighting an army, not a fire. Dean Dolben, they called him – they say his mind turned on the battlefield at Marston Moor; never realised the Civil War actually ended. JENKINS So by the time he was seven, Mr Purcell had lost his father and lived through a plague and a fire. CROFT And then he became a singer in the choir of the Chapel Royal. JENKINS Where’s that then? Is it as big as Westminster Abbey? BAKER It’s not a place at all – it’s a group of people. CROFT They sing the services for the kings and queens, wherever they happen to be – in London, at Windsor, or anywhere. JENKINS So Mr Purcell learned music in a choir school, like we do? CROFT Yes. He must have been taught to sing, to play the organ and the violin, just as we are. BAKER I suppose he learned to read and write in English and Latin like us as well. CROFT He said he composed his first anthems at the Chapel Royal, too. JENKINS It’s no surprise they’re so gloomy, then; he was probably bored stiff. C & B tog. Jenkins! Music: Hear our Prayer Music: Hear our Prayer Music: Hear our Prayer Music: Hear our Prayer (Song 4) (Song 4) (Song 4) (Song 4) BAKER But he couldn’t stay in the choir forever. CROFT No, when his voice changed he had to leave the Chapel Royal. JENKINS So, did he get a job, or what? CROFT I don’t know for sure – but a few years later he became Composer for the King’s Violins. He had to write music for King Charles’ orchestra. JENKINS That sounds more like fun. 4
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