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Published: JW Pepper at www.jwpepper.com

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"Cymbeline," (Act V, scene 2)
A dirge for Fidele (Imogen in disguise, supposedly dead)

GUIDERIUS: Feare no more the heate o' th' Sun,
      Nor the furious Winters rages,
Thou thy worldly task hast don,
      Home art gon, and tane thy wages.
            Golden Lads, and Girles all must,
            As Chimney-Sweepers come to dust.

ARVIRAGUS: Feare no more the frowne o' th' Great,
      Thou art past the Tirants stroake,
Care no more to cloath and eate,
      To thee the Reede is as the Oake:
            The Scepter, Learning, Physicke must,
            All follow this and come to dust.

GUIDERIUS: Feare no more the Lightning flash.
      ARVIRAGUS: Nor th' all-dreaded Thunderstone.
GUIDERIUS: Feare not Slander, Censure rash.
      ARVIRAGUS: Thou hast finish'd Ioy and mone.
            BOTH: All Louers young all Louers must,
            Consigne to thee and come to dust.

GUIDERIUS: No Exorcisor harme thee,
      ARVIRAGUS: Nor no witch-craft charme thee.
GUIDERIUS: Ghost vnlaid forbeare thee.
      ARVIRAGUS: Nothing ill come neere thee.
            BOTH: Quiet consumation haue,
            And renowned be thy graue.

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William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

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I composed the original version of Fear No More The Heat o' th' Sun in 1975 for the Pot Pourri Players, who premiered the work in New York City. Other players performed it at the Fromm Concerts at Tanglewood. The score was a memorial for Robert Hufstader who had been a beloved head of the Pre-College Division at the Juilliard School. I composed the original version for Clarinet, Bassoon and Harpsichord.

When the Atlantic Sinfonietta asked me for a chamber work to appear on one of their concerts I thought of this work. I decided to reorchestrate the music for the requirements of the new ensemble.

I discovered that I was enjoying a rare opportunity to converse with a younger Andrew Thomas, and to hear with the detachment and sympathy of distance what concerned him in 1975. That composer was reaching for a wider expressive range. In this revisit I have taken the sometimes laconic surface of the older work and opened it up, making the drama much more explicit and anguished. The resulting music is in every way a new work. This radical change seems appropriate to me in 1991, where death in the plague years is such a terrible part of our lives. I dedicate this version of the score to the memory of my friends Michael Watson, and Mary Russell.

I have chosen the this poem to stand in apposition to the music. It expresses the mood I felt while composing the score in 1975, and the delicate gravity of its language remains a great consolation to me.

Andrew Thomas
September 1991, NYC

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Premiere:The Juilliard School
Also: Tanglewood - The Fromm Foundation Concerts

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