It occurs first in Neptune's song, "While these pass o'er the
deep"--
[Illustration]
Next in Amphitrite's song, "Halcyon Days," a serenely lovely melody, we
have
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
which is a variant. Then follows "See, the heavens smile," the opening
of the vocal part of which I will quote for its elastic energy:
[Illustration]
In the instrumental introduction to the song this (and more) is first
played by the viols a couple of octaves above, and after it we get our
phrase:
[Illustration]
--similarly harmonized (but major instead of minor) to the first
example, and more fully worked out. In spite of incongruous masque or
rather pantomime scenes the pervading atmosphere is sustained. One would
say that Purcell got his inspiration by reading of Prospero's magic
island, and never thought of Shadwell's stupid and boorish travesty.
The atmosphere of _The Fairy Queen_ is not, to my mind, so richly
odorous, so charged with the mystery and colour of pure nature, as that
of _The Tempest_; but Purcell has certainly caught the patter of fairy
footsteps and woven gossamer textures of melody. The score was lost for
a couple of centuries, and turned up in the library of the Royal Academy
of Music.
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