(2001-2004)
Adapted from Lewis Carroll by Gary Bachlund & Marilyn Barnett
After the stories of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass."
In two acts for eighteen soli (playing multiple parts) and chamber orchestra
Act Two
Through the Looking-Glass
The Looking-Glass Garden &
iii. The Looking-Glass Garden
[Chess characters move unobserved behind her, as if in shadows, coming into view and disappearing.]
It seems very pretty,
but it's rather hard to understand.
Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas -
Only I don't know exactly what they are!
Let's have a look at the garden.
[Alice goes into the garden. In admiration.]
Oh! Oh!
The major seven and minor nine prevalent in Act One conflate to a minor second, as the garden is revealed, as divisi strings much akin to the "Golden Afternoon" provide the mood change.
Gnat
I know you are a friend,
a dear friend, an old friend.
And you won't hurt me,
though I am an insect.
Alice [To the Gnat, anxiously, wondering whether it stings.]
An insect?
What kind of insect?
Gnat
What, then you don't like all insects?
Alice
I'm rather afraid of them - at least the large kinds.
But I can tell you the names of some of them.
Gnat
Of course, they answer to their names.
Alice
I never knew them to do it.
Gnat
What's the use of their having names
if they won't answer to them?
Alice
No use to them, but it's useful to the people
that name them.
If not, why do things have names at all?
Gnat
I can't say. Further on, in the wood down there,
they've got no names -
no names.
However, go on with your list of insects.
Alice
Well, there's the Horse-fly.
Gnat
Here you'll see a Rocking-horse-fly.
[The Rocking-horse-fly appears, a moves about them in the garden, in either a staged or danced movement.]
For each of the strange insects, images which Carroll joins to ordinary household objects, as short ballet-like theme is provided, each with a differing mood.
Alice
What does it live on?
Gnat
Sap and sawdust.
Alice
And then there's the Dragon-fly.
Gnat
There you'll find a Snap-dragon-fly.
[The Snap-dragon-fly appears, and joins the Rocking-horse-fly.]
Made of plum-pudding,
its wings of holly-leaves,
its head a raisin burning in brandy.
It makes its nest in a Christmas-box.
Alice
And then there's the Butterfly.
Gnat
You may observe a Bread-and-butter-fly.
[The Bread-and-butter-fly joins the others.]
Its wings, thin slices of bread-and-butter,
its body, crust, and its head, a lump of sugar.
Alice
And what does it live on?
Gnat
Weak tea with cream.
Alice
Supposing it couldn't find any?
Gnat
Then it would die, of course.
Alice
But that must happen very often.
Gnat
It always happens.
[The Gnat sighs and quietly withdraws, with the other insects.]
Alice
The wood where things have no name....
O Tiger-Lily!
I wish you could talk!
Tiger-Lily
We can talk,
when there's anybody worth talking to.
Alice [In an awed whisper]
Can all the flowers talk?
Tiger-Lily
As well as you can, and a great deal louder.
It isn't manners for us to begin, you know.
Alice
I've been in many gardens before,
but none of the flowers could talk.
Tiger-Lily
Put your hand down, and feel the ground.
Alice
It's very hard.
Tiger-Lily
In most gardens, they make the beds too soft -
so that the flowers are always asleep.
Alice
I never thought of that.
Are there any more people in the garden besides me?
Tiger-Lily
There's one other flower that can move about
like you, but she's more bushy. Redder.
The kind that has nine spikes. She's coming!
iv. It's Like a Chessboard
[The Red Queen enters, as the garden fades from sight.]
As a signature motive in "Alice" is the number five, found in meter as well as intervallic material, the entrance of the Red Queen is in a 15/16 meter, which as a gesture later becomes extended into a set of palindromic phrases required for the "Looking-Glass" world.
Red Queen
Where do you come from?
And where are you going?
Curtsey while you're thinking what to say.
It saves time.
Open your mouth a little wider when you speak.
And always say "your Majesty."
Alice
I only wanted to see the garden, your Majesty -
Red Queen
That's right.
Alice
...and I thought I'd try to find my way
to the top of the hill.
I declare!
It's like a chess-board!
How I wish I could play.
I wouldn't mind being a Pawn, although [shyly]
I should like to be a Queen, best!
Red Queen
You can be the White Queen's Pawn;
You're in the second square to begin with;
when you get to the eighth square,
you'll be a Queen.
[The Red Queen takes Alice by the hand, and they begin to run in a circle under a tree.]
Faster, faster!
Alice
Are we nearly there?
Red Queen
Nearly there? We passed it ten minutes ago!
Faster!
[They stop suddenly.]
You may rest a little now.
Alice [Panting a bit]
Why, I do believe we've been
under this tree the whole time.
Red Queen
Of course.
Alice
Of course. Ha!
Well, in our country, you'd generally get to
somewhere else if you ran very fast
as we've been doing.
Red Queen
Here it takes all the running you can do
to keep in the same place.
If you want to get somewhere else,
you must run at least twice as fast as that.
Alice
I am so hot and thirsty.
Red Queen
I know what you'd like!
Have a biscuit?
While you're refreshing yourself,
I'll give you your directions.
A pawn goes two squares in its first move.
You'll find yourself in the Fourth Square in no time.
That belongs to Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
The fifth is mostly water.
Thirst quenched,
or would you like another biscuit?
In consistent fashion, the Red Queen's instructions on chess moves as Alice is to make her way through the chessboard garden, the meter is quintuple. This time a 5/8 meter underpins the vocal line which could have been notated in yet another meter, and the accompaniment is a palindromic shape, though inexact.
Alice [Having hidden the dry biscuit in her pocket]
No, thank you.
Red Queen
The sixth belongs to Humpty-Dumpty.
The seventh is forest, but
one of the Knights will show you the way.
In the eighth square, we shall Queens together!
But you make no remark?
Alice
I - I didn't know I had to make one.
Red Queen
You should have said
"It's extremely kind of you to tell me all this;"
However, we'll suppose it said.
[Alice, having no ready answer, gets up, curtseys, and sits back down.]
Speak French when you can't think of
the English for a thing.
Turn your toes out as you walk.
And remember who you are!
Goodbye.
[Red Queen exits.]
To continue to the next section, click HERE.
Adapted from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass and his additional letters,
by Marilyn Barnett and Gary Bachlund
2001, 2004
Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Gary Bachlund (BMI), Monrovia. All international rights reserved.
