Lyrical Literacy

The Travelling Musicians | Grimm's Fairy Tales (Tuzi Brown)
An honest farmer had once an ass that had been a faithful servant to hima great many years, but was now growing old and every day more and moreunfit for work. His master therefore was tired of keeping him andbegan to think of putting an end to him; but the ass, who saw that somemischief was in the wind, took himself slyly off, and began his journeytowards the great city, ‘For there,’ thought he, ‘I may turn musician.’
After he had travelled a little way, he spied a dog lying by theroadside and panting as if he were tired. ‘What makes you pant so, myfriend?’ said the ass. ‘Alas!’ said the dog, ‘my master was going toknock me on the head, because I am old and weak, and can no longer makemyself useful to him in hunting; so I ran away; but what can I do toearn my livelihood?’ ‘Hark ye!’ said the ass, ‘I am going to the greatcity to turn musician: suppose you go with me, and try what you cando in the same way?’ The dog said he was willing, and they jogged ontogether.
They had not gone far before they saw a cat sitting in the middle of theroad and making a most rueful face. ‘Pray, my good lady,’ said the ass,‘what’s the matter with you? You look quite out of spirits!’ ‘Ah, me!’said the cat, ‘how can one be in good spirits when one’s life is indanger? Because I am beginning to grow old, and had rather lie at myease by the fire than run about the house after the mice, my mistresslaid hold of me, and was going to drown me; and though I have been luckyenough to get away from her, I do not know what I am to live upon.’‘Oh,’ said the ass, ‘by all means go with us to the great city; you area good night singer, and may make your fortune as a musician.’ The catwas pleased with the thought, and joined the party.
Soon afterwards, as they were passing by a farmyard, they saw a cockperched upon a gate, and screaming out with all his might and main.‘Bravo!’ said the ass; ‘upon my word, you make a famous noise; pray whatis all this about?’ ‘Why,’ said the cock, ‘I was just now saying thatwe should have fine weather for our washing-day, and yet my mistress andthe cook don’t thank me for my pains, but threaten to cut off myhead tomorrow, and make broth of me for the guests that are comingon Sunday!’ ‘Heaven forbid!’ said the ass, ‘come with us MasterChanticleer; it will be better, at any rate, than staying here to haveyour head cut off! Besides, who knows? If we care to sing in tune, wemay get up some kind of a concert; so come along with us.’ ‘With all myheart,’ said the cock: so they all four went on jollily together.
They could not, however, reach the great city the first day; so whennight came on, they went into a wood to sleep. The ass and the dog laidthemselves down under a great tree, and the cat climbed up into thebranches; while the cock, thinking that the higher he sat the safer heshould be, flew up to the very top of the tree, and then, according tohis custom, before he went to sleep, looked out on all sides of him tosee that everything was well. In doing this, he saw afar off somethingbright and shining and calling to his companions said, ‘There must be ahouse no great way off, for I see a light.’ ‘If that be the case,’ saidthe ass, ‘we had better change our quarters, for our lodging is not thebest in the world!’ ‘Besides,’ added the dog, ‘I should not be theworse for a bone or two, or a bit of meat.’ So they walked off togethertowards the spot where Chanticleer had seen the light, and as they drewnear it became larger and brighter, till they at last came close to ahouse in which a gang of robbers lived.
The ass, being the tallest of the company, marched up to the window andpeeped in. ‘Well, Donkey,’ said Chanticleer, ‘what do you see?’ ‘Whatdo I see?’ replied the ass. ‘Why, I see a table spread with all kinds ofgood things, and robbers sitting round it making merry.’ ‘That wouldbe a noble lodging for us,’ said the cock. ‘Yes,’ said the ass, ‘if wecould only get in’; so they consulted together how they should contriveto get the robbers out; and at last they hit upon a plan. The ass placedhimself upright on his hind legs, with his forefeet resting against thewindow; the dog got upon his back; the cat scrambled up to the dog’sshoulders, and the cock flew up and sat upon the cat’s head. Whenall was ready a signal was given, and they began their music. The assbrayed, the dog barked, the cat mewed, and the cock screamed; and thenthey all broke through the window at once, and came tumbling intothe room, amongst the broken glass, with a most hideous clatter! Therobbers, who had been not a little frightened by the opening concert,had now no doubt that some frightful hobgoblin had broken in upon them,and scampered away as fast as they could.
The coast once clear, our travellers soon sat down and dispatched whatthe robbers had left, with as much eagerness as if they had not expectedto eat again for a month. As soon as they had satisfied themselves, theyput out the lights, and each once more sought out a resting-place tohis own liking. The donkey laid himself down upon a heap of straw inthe yard, the dog stretched himself upon a mat behind the door, thecat rolled herself up on the hearth before the warm ashes, and thecock perched upon a beam on the top of the house; and, as they were allrather tired with their journey, they soon fell asleep.
But about midnight, when the robbers saw from afar that the lights wereout and that all seemed quiet, they began to think that they had been intoo great a hurry to run away; and one of them, who was bolder thanthe rest, went to see what was going on. Finding everything still, hemarched into the kitchen, and groped about till he found a match inorder to light a candle; and then, espying the glittering fiery eyes ofthe cat, he mistook them for live coals, and held the match to them tolight it. But the cat, not understanding this joke, sprang at his face,and spat, and scratched at him. This frightened him dreadfully, and awayhe ran to the back door; but there the dog jumped up and bit him in theleg; and as he was crossing over the yard the ass kicked him; and thecock, who had been awakened by the noise, crowed with all his might. Atthis the robber ran back as fast as he could to his comrades, and toldthe captain how a horrid witch had got into the house, and had spat athim and scratched his face with her long bony fingers; how a man with aknife in his hand had hidden himself behind the door, and stabbed himin the leg; how a black monster stood in the yard and struck him with aclub, and how the devil had sat upon the top of the house and cried out,‘Throw the rascal up here!’ After this the robbers never dared to goback to the house; but the musicians were so pleased with their quartersthat they took up their abode there; and there they are, I dare say, atthis very day.
Artist:Tuzi Brownhttps://open.spotify.com/artist/5DvRo9Gtg5bxsUUbKQBdg6?si=cycErkToTfKhcumPnlzt2whttps://music.apple.com/us/artist/tuzi-brown/1838852692https://tuzi.musinique.com

Jorinda and Jorindel | Grimm's Fairy Tales (Tuzi Brown)
There was once an old castle, that stood in the middle of a deep gloomywood, and in the castle lived an old fairy. Now this fairy could takeany shape she pleased. All the day long she flew about in the form ofan owl, or crept about the country like a cat; but at night she alwaysbecame an old woman again. When any young man came within a hundredpaces of her castle, he became quite fixed, and could not move a steptill she came and set him free; which she would not do till he had givenher his word never to come there again: but when any pretty maiden camewithin that space she was changed into a bird, and the fairy put herinto a cage, and hung her up in a chamber in the castle. There wereseven hundred of these cages hanging in the castle, and all withbeautiful birds in them.
Now there was once a maiden whose name was Jorinda. She was prettierthan all the pretty girls that ever were seen before, and a shepherdlad, whose name was Jorindel, was very fond of her, and they were soonto be married. One day they went to walk in the wood, that they might bealone; and Jorindel said, ‘We must take care that we don’t go too nearto the fairy’s castle.’ It was a beautiful evening; the last rays of thesetting sun shone bright through the long stems of the trees uponthe green underwood beneath, and the turtle-doves sang from the tallbirches.
Jorinda sat down to gaze upon the sun; Jorindel sat by her side; andboth felt sad, they knew not why; but it seemed as if they were to beparted from one another for ever. They had wandered a long way; and whenthey looked to see which way they should go home, they found themselvesat a loss to know what path to take.
The sun was setting fast, and already half of its circle had sunk behindthe hill: Jorindel on a sudden looked behind him, and saw through thebushes that they had, without knowing it, sat down close under the oldwalls of the castle. Then he shrank for fear, turned pale, and trembled.Jorinda was just singing,
 ‘The ring-dove sang from the willow spray,  Well-a-day! Well-a-day!  He mourn’d for the fate of his darling mate,  Well-a-day!’
when her song stopped suddenly. Jorindel turned to see the reason, andbeheld his Jorinda changed into a nightingale, so that her song endedwith a mournful _jug, jug_. An owl with fiery eyes flew three timesround them, and three times screamed:
 ‘Tu whu! Tu whu! Tu whu!’
Jorindel could not move; he stood fixed as a stone, and could neitherweep, nor speak, nor stir hand or foot. And now the sun went quite down;the gloomy night came; the owl flew into a bush; and a moment after theold fairy came forth pale and meagre, with staring eyes, and a nose andchin that almost met one another.
She mumbled something to herself, seized the nightingale, and went awaywith it in her hand. Poor Jorindel saw the nightingale was gone--butwhat could he do? He could not speak, he could not move from the spotwhere he stood. At last the fairy came back and sang with a hoarsevoice:
 ‘Till the prisoner is fast,  And her doom is cast,  There stay! Oh, stay!  When the charm is around her,  And the spell has bound her,  Hie away! away!’
On a sudden Jorindel found himself free. Then he fell on his kneesbefore the fairy, and prayed her to give him back his dear Jorinda: butshe laughed at him, and said he should never see her again; then shewent her way.
He prayed, he wept, he sorrowed, but all in vain. ‘Alas!’ he said, ‘whatwill become of me?’ He could not go back to his own home, so he went toa strange village, and employed himself in keeping sheep. Many a timedid he walk round and round as near to the hated castle as he dared go,but all in vain; he heard or saw nothing of Jorinda.
At last he dreamt one night that he found a beautiful purple flower,and that in the middle of it lay a costly pearl; and he dreamt that heplucked the flower, and went with it in his hand into the castle, andthat everything he touched with it was disenchanted, and that there hefound his Jorinda again.
In the morning when he awoke, he began to search over hill and dale forthis pretty flower; and eight long days he sought for it in vain: buton the ninth day, early in the morning, he found the beautiful purpleflower; and in the middle of it was a large dewdrop, as big as a costlypearl. Then he plucked the flower, and set out and travelled day andnight, till he came again to the castle.
He walked nearer than a hundred paces to it, and yet he did not becomefixed as before, but found that he could go quite close up to the door.Jorindel was very glad indeed to see this. Then he touched the door withthe flower, and it sprang open; so that he went in through the court,and listened when he heard so many birds singing. At last he came to thechamber where the fairy sat, with the seven hundred birds singing inthe seven hundred cages. When she saw Jorindel she was very angry, andscreamed with rage; but she could not come within two yards of him, forthe flower he held in his hand was his safeguard. He looked around atthe birds, but alas! there were many, many nightingales, and how thenshould he find out which was his Jorinda? While he was thinking what todo, he saw the fairy had taken down one of the cages, and was making thebest of her way off through the door. He ran or flew after her, touchedthe cage with the flower, and Jorinda stood before him, and threw herarms round his neck looking as beautiful as ever, as beautiful as whenthey walked together in the wood.
Then he touched all the other birds with the flower, so that they alltook their old forms again; and he took Jorinda home, where they weremarried, and lived happily together many years: and so did a good manyother lads, whose maidens had been forced to sing in the old fairy’scages by themselves, much longer than they liked.
Artist:Tuzi Brownhttps://open.spotify.com/artist/5DvRo9Gtg5bxsUUbKQBdg6?si=cycErkToTfKhcumPnlzt2whttps://music.apple.com/us/artist/tuzi-brown/1838852692https://tuzi.musinique.com