Sackbutt and Krummhorn

 

A Masque for Modern Ears and Ancient Sensibilities

 

by Frederick Jackson

 

and by him dedicated to Peter D'Epiro

 

 

                                 DRAMATIS PERSONAE,

 

GOD, LORD of Creation                     HOMO (Man) 

JESTER                                                  IMPRESARIO

FRIEND of Impresario                        VOICE (disembodied)

               

                                       SCENE: This world.

 

 

PROLOGUE

 

GOD:                      [In a mellifluous voice from offstage]             

I was a hidden treasure, and so I created the world that I might be known.  And in all this  world, MAN is my most noble and glorious creation.

 

 

I.  L'Allegro (Ain't We Got Fun!)

 

Enter Jester, with bells on, to screech of sackbutt.  Homo, seated, glassy-eyed, six-pack in hand, is roused by the alarum, and stands.  Amidst the confusion, a voice from offstage is heard:

 

Voice:

Ecce homo!

 

Homo:                    [Defiantly.]

Hey, I'm not a homo, I'm a man!

 

Jester:                    [Pointing to Homo.]

Noble and glorious?  Is this man?

This self-esteeming sack of shit,

 

Homo:                    [Attempting to interrupt.] 

Hey! Just a minute you...

 

                                [Jester continuing unfazed.]

This walking, talking, witless twit,

This self-adoring crumb,

This boorish fan of TV sports,

This morally bankrupt bum,

This flatulent oaf, this worthless scum!

Why, just ask him and you'll see

He's like the whore who in foreign ports

Will do it on the quay

Without a scruple (just a fee!)

With any man she can.  You'll  see!

Just ask him:  He doesn't give a damn!

He doesn't give a shit!

And if by any chance he did,

You tell me how this hominid,

This creature so profane,

Could without a trace of shame

Presume to have man's name!

Tell me! Tell me if you can:

Just how noble and glorious is this man?

                                Exit Homo, shakily, stage right.

 

 

II.   Intermezzo (Hey, I'm Outta Here!)

 

Enter Impresario and Friend.  Jester, who's been hawking popcorn (no butter, no salt) to a restive house since house lights on, starts waving sign that reads "No Refunds!"

 

Jester:

Quiet in the theater please, the Imp. he wants to speak!

 

Imp.:

Ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated,

Else the play's at an end, its purpose defeated.

And need I remind you, it's well after three

The bars are all closed, and there's no refund of fee!

 

Imp. to Friend:     [Aside.]

We do not kid ourselves, do we my friend,

For we know man's score at the very end

By what he's earned along the way of grace

And by what he's lost in pride of place.

 

 

III. Il Penseroso (You're Making Me Cry!).

 

Enter Homo ex machina, chastened, to blast of krummhorn & play of spotlights.

 

Jester:                    [Pointing to Homo.]

Noble and glorious?  Is this man?

This humble sack of shit! 

 

Imp.                       

Indeed, my friend;

Nor you nor I possess the wit

To honor him, or take his sum

When the end of all his days is come.

Nor can we reckon at the end of time

Just where he'll be, this bag of slime,

This work sublime!

For this man, the spawn of stars,

Ingenious seed of Adam,     

Who from darkness comes to suckle tit

And wrest the light from Lucifer,

This man is the Lord of Love,

The nemesis of Satan!

 

In chorus, ALL:

For this man is the Lord of Love,

The nemesis of  Satan!

He is One with God above,

Of this we can be certain!

                                Exeunt to screech of sackbutt & blare of krummhorn.

 

(Finis)

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Notes and Commentary: 1. The word of God ("I was a hidden treasure...") is a hadith, a saying of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.)   2. The sackbutt and krummhorn were musical instruments of the late middle ages and renaissance.  The sackbutt, a trombone-like instrument, was played at least as late as 1600.  It can be heard, for example, in Monteverde's Vespers of 1610.  These instruments could sound so awful, they were frequently used on the battlefield to intimidate the enemy.  If perchance the words "screech" and "blare" do not properly render the sounds these instruments make (or are capable of making) or if they are applied to the opposite instrument, the author begs the readers' pardon.    3. Jester's fatuous reference to "foreign ports" is like the Spanish calling syphilis the "French" disease:  Our quays are clean!  Ah, maybe, if we only played our own pianos and avoided composi-tions for four hands!  4. The idea of a tragicomic figure such as man "wresting the light" from an archangel seems at first absurd, but it is none other than the Promethean view of man, and much might be argued for it metaphysically and theologically.¹   The argument here is that it is only a chastened Homo S., one who has, through suffering, earned grace, who is fit to capture the light of the Morning Star--God's first noble and glorious creation.

 

Frederick Jackson

Alexandria, Virginia

November, 1997

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¹ F. Jackson: "Lucifer, the Lightbearer: A Metaphysical Discourse,"  unpublished manuscript, 1997.