City of Masks

Episode 8.

Lord Rivers replies, denying Bass’s request for support. Corius suspects his foster-sister’s lover Bardo of the murders and wants to search out evidence against him, but Bass discourages him. A young nobleman is murdered by the Butcher.

Bass’s theme: “What if I never speed?” by John Dowland.
Rivers’s theme: “Can She Excuse My Wrongs” by John Dowland.
Murder theme: “Weep You No More Sad Fountains” by John Dowland.
Bardo’s theme: “Browning” by Elway Bevin.
Outro bracketed by: “The Witches’ Dance” by an anonymous English composer.

All performed by Jon Sayles and used by his kind permission.

Episode 7.

Corius’s foster-sister Sallia and twin Juliana come to visit. Bass is rather charmed by Juliana. A third murder is committed, this time of a prominent citizen, and the Watch at last take notice.

Sallia’s theme: “Saltarello” by an anonymous Italian composer.
Juliana’s theme: “Sweet was the Song the Virgin Sang” by John Wilbye. (This is rather a feisty piece, which, as you’ll discover, fits Juliana well.)
Rivers’s theme: “Can She Excuse My Wrongs” by John Dowland.
Outro bracketed by: “The Witches’ Dance” by an anonymous English composer.

All performed by Jon Sayles and used by his kind permission.

This week’s episode is a little shorter, and I blame Sallia.

No, really. She talks so fast that my guideline of five pages per episode just doesn’t work. Unfortunately I need to break it at this point, because the next bit is all one unit.

Episode 6.

The elderly scholars show Bass a play in which their youthful encounters with the Countess are described. We learn how Felkior lost his sight and why they refuse to let Bass ask the Countess for help.

Scholars’ theme: “Shall I strive with words to move” by John Dowland.
Young rakes’ theme: “If My Complaints Could Passions Move” by John Dowland.
Countess’s theme: “April is in my Mistress’ Face” by Thomas Morley.
Outro bracketed by: “The Witches’ Dance” by an anonymous English composer.

All performed by Jon Sayles and used by his kind permission.

When I was writing this part, I thought, how can I do a flashback to give backstory to over 20 years before, when practically the whole thing is being told through Bass’s diary? My solution was that the old men wrote a play, years ago, which tells the story of their tangles with the Countess – a play which they have never dared make public for fear of her vengeance.

I have a fondness for the theme that I used for the young rakes (Felkior and Tamas as young men); I studied it in music at high school. The first verse, which is all I remember hearing, goes like this:

If my complaints could passions move,
Or make Love see wherein I suffer wrong:
My passions were enough to prove,
That my despairs had govern’d me too long.
O Love, I live and die in thee,
Thy grief in my deep sighs still speaks:
Thy wounds do freshly bleed in me,
My heart for thy unkindness breaks:
Yet thou dost hope when I despair,
And when I hope, thou mak’st me hope in vain.
Thou say’st thou canst my harms repair,
Yet for redress, thou let’st me still complain.

There’s a second verse, I now discover, which is also quite apt:

Can Love be rich, and yet I want?
Is Love my judge, and yet I am condemn’d?
Thou plenty hast, yet me dost scant:
Thou made a God, and yet thy power contemn’d.
That I do live, it is thy power:
That I desire it is thy worth:
If Love doth make men’s lives too sour,
Let me not love, nor live henceforth.
Die shall my hopes, but not my faith,
That you that of my fall may hearers be
May here despair, which truly saith,
I was more true to Love than Love to me.

Episode 5.

Bass, troubled by the murder, goes to the old scholars – notable fencers in their youth – to learn to defend himself. Another murder is committed which touches them all closely.

Incidental Music:
Murder theme: “Weep You No More Sad Fountains” by John Dowland.
Sallia’s theme: “Saltarello” by an anonymous Italian composer.
Corius’s theme: “Unquiet Thoughts” by John Dowland.
Outro bracketed by: “The Witches’ Dance” by an anonymous English composer.

All performed by Jon Sayles and used by his kind permission.

Episode 4.

A Calarian citizen is brutally murdered. Bass writes to his superior and to the City Guard seeking their help to find the murderer.

Incidental Music:
Lots of music this time.
Corius’s theme: “Unquiet Thoughts” by John Dowland.
Sallia’s theme: “Saltarello” by anonymous. (I like the energy of this piece and think it characterizes Sallia beautifully.)
Murder theme: “Weep You No More Sad Fountains” by John Dowland.
Bass’s theme: “What if I never speed?” by John Dowland.
Rivers’ theme: “Can She Excuse My Wrongs” by John Dowland.
Outro bracketed by: “The Witches’ Dance” by an anonymous English composer.

All performed by Jon Sayles and used by his kind permission.

Episode 3.

Bass is received at Court and meets the beautiful and dangerous Countess.

Incidental Music:
Corius’s theme: “Unquiet Thoughts” by John Dowland
The Countess’s theme: “April is in my Mistress’ Face” by Thomas Morley.
Outro bracketed by: “The Witches’ Dance” by an anonymous English composer.

Both performed by Jon Sayles and used by his kind permission.

The lyrics of the Countess’s theme are:

April is in my mistress’ face.
And July in her eyes hath place.
Within her bosom is September,
But in her heart a cold December.

Which, as you will hear, is a very apt description of the Countess.