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Three Temperance Songs (1988) |
mezzo soprano, flute/piccolo, clarinet, alto sax, bassoon, percussion, accordion, piano - Duration: 15 minutes
Commission: Relache Ensemble, Philadelphia and the 1988 New Music America Festival, Miami with funds from the Pew Charitable Trust, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
The melodies and texts for the "Three Temperance Songs" are taken from three well known 19th Century Bible thumping song writers dedicated to the abolition of alcohol. The first song was scribed by a Mrs. E.A.Parkhurst who, one cold winter's night saw a little girl, barefooted and poorly clad wandering the streets of Washington DC. When asked why she wasn't home in bed, the little girl replied, "I have no home. Father's a drunkard and Mother is dead." The text of the song "Father's a Drunkard and Mother is Dead" is by "Stella", the little girl. The Reverend E.S.Ufford provides the stirring melody and text for the next song: "Throw Out the Life-Line" which enjoyed some popularity in the temperance rallies of the time. The image of a sailor drowning is apt if one imagines an evil ocean of liquor instead of the foaming brine.
In fact in mid-Victorian England the metaphor was carried to the extent that the society, The Temperance Lifeboat Crew, dressed up as lifeboat men when they took to the streets saving souls. The audience is kindly encouraged to join in the chorus at the signal from the singer. The first time is mid way through the medley and again at the end. The words:
"Throw out the Life-Line!
Throw out the Life-line!
Someone is drifting away:
Throw out the Life-Line!
Throw out the Life-Line!
Someone is sinking today."
The final song is by Henry Clay Work who gave us such great songs as: "Grandfather's Clock" and "Marching Through Georgia" (still not too popular in the American South). "Come Home Father" was written for his famous temperance melodrama, "Ten Nights in a Bar-Room", first performed at the National Theater, New York City, in 1858. The finale is a rousing reprise of "Throw Out the Life-Line!" with audience joining in.
© Stephen Montague