Index
Track 2. GETRUDE’S ARIA: Touch
Track 3. SWELTER’S ARIA: Be A Happy Carnivore!
Track 4. STEERPIKE’S SONG: Oxygen
Track 5. FUCHSIA’S SONG: Rainbow Party
Track 7. THE TWINS’ DUET: Triumph
Track 8. BARQUENTINE’S ARIA: Possess Me, Chaos!
Track 9. SEPULCHRAVE’S ARIA: Behold The Night!
Track 10. DUET FUCHSIA & STEERPIKE: The Birds Are Leaving For The South
Track 11. FUCHSIA’S ARIA: Fall, Friendly Rain
Track 2
GETRUDE’S ARIA: Touch
GERTRUDE:
I always knew
It to be true
That touch calms body and soul.
Hand and paw,
Tentacle and claw,
Such differences disappear,
And with them fear –
Because touch stops thought,
Produces clear sensation,
Dissolving the illusion of separation.
Touch is soft is
Light is lightning is
Thunder is darkness is
Blood is food is
Breast is breath is
Sky is light is life… .
Oh, the bless
Of a caress!
Touch another well
And you touch all
In the universal
Circle
Of touch.
Track 3
SWELTER’S ARIA: Be A Happy Carnivore!
SWELTER:
I love eating meat,
From brains down to trotters and feet,
Beef fillets and faggots and pheasant with maggots
And birds that once whistled tweet-tweet;
Chop, sever, and stab,
Up to your eyes in gore,
Carve, dribble, and jab –
Be a happy carnivore!
I swoon at the thought
Of thighs simmered in port
Or a quivering portion
Of pallid abortion
(Because veal to be right
Must be unborn and white),
With veg round the edge
To assist the excreta
Of this humble meat-eater.
But my favourite joy
Is a succulent, untruculent boy
Who worships work – and who simply adores me!
Disobedience thoroughly bores me!
So if anyone dares to forgo the passion
Of pulling together, he’ll be gutted and stuffed
And cooked in a vile but artistic fashion
With a pear in his mouth and the pastry all puffed,
Plus – veg round the edge
To assist the excreta
Of this tender meat-eater,
Though I have to regret
I’ve not crossed the abysm
Of cannibalism
Just yet!
I love eating meat,
From brains down to trotters and feet,
Beef fillets and faggots and pheasant with maggots
And birds that once whistled tweet-tweet;
Track 4
STEERPIKE’S SONG: Oxygen
STEERPIKE:
The sun …
The sun…
The sun
All round me like a joke;
The sky
All round me like a cloak;
Suddenly
My life awoke
And gave me oxygen.
The fun
In climbing to the topmost tower;
So high
I tremble like a mountain flower;
Suddenly
I feel the sweetest power –
I’m drunk on oxygen!
Impossible – crazy –
Horizons are hazy –
Solid stone floats in an air serene:
For a thousand years this battlement has been
Waiting for me,
Waiting for me!
I think I’m going to faint…
No! Never! Never!
Up with the larks,
A head filled with sparks,
Ten thousand winking windows at my feet,
My field of vision celestial, complete:
No more dreams,
No more dreams…
I think I’m going to laugh!
The sun
All round me like a joke;
The sky
All round me like a cloak;
The fun
In climbing to the topmost tower;
So high
I tremble like a mountain flower;
The mind
Escaping from a smoky den;
The body
Free to move just how or when;
The world
Will never be the same again!
I’m drunk on oxy
foxy
jokey jocksy
rocksy
unblocksy
peacocksy
shockingly shocksy
no more forelocksy
ox…… y…… gen!
Track 5
FUCHSIA’S SONG: Rainbow Party
FUSCHIA:
At evening they drift
To a rainbow party
Down by the river shady and wide,
The river that flows
In a serpentine tango
Past blue-headed hills to the green satin tide.
Yellow eyes glow
Under lids indigo;
Shoulders are spangled with meteor dust;
Quips can be heard
Pranked with words
Like “flamingo”, “synthetic”, “abhor” and “entrust”.
Lonely . . . or laughing like a doubloon
With a naughty clown –
Everything mixes but not into grey.
The black spotted sun
Sinks like a bun,
Splashing the sky with a leopardskin light:
A question mark drips
From its tangerine lips
But is crushed by the bosom of burgeoning night.
Mandolins croon
To the violet moon.
Thin-wristed lovers share baskets of fruits.
Between fingers and thumbs
Red swollen plums
Are breaking like blisters all down their new suits.
Fire . . . fireworks festoon.
Night passes too soon
With witchery, rapture, desire and dismay.
Then on the horizons
The doctors in phaetons
Assemble at daybreak to take them away.
Track 6
ENSEMBLE: Joy
FUCHSIA:
Some systems are a frightful bore;
They cut with jagged edge.
STEERPIKE:
Components crack or disappear –
Found bleeding in a hedge.
PRUNESQUALLOR:
But here we all co-operate.
No horrors do afflict us.
STEERPIKE:
Like clockwork every function,
So-o-o-o-o-o
PRUNESQUALLOR:
Display an enormous rictus!
ALL:
Yes, everything looks sweet;
Let’s prance with goaty feet!
CORA:
Some people
CLARICE:
Are a
TWINS:
Frightful bore.
FUCHSIA:
They look like walking goitres
STEERPIKE:
Or throbbing pustules fit to burst
PRUNESQUALLOR:
Or flu that ever loiters.
FUCHSIA:
But life is quick and must excite.
STEERPIKE:
Good fortune it has picked us.
ALL:
Display an enormous rictus!
Yes, everything looks sweet.
Let’s prance with goaty feet!
STEERPIKE:
Some futures are a frightful bore.
FUCHSIA:
Thwarted every need.
PRUNESQUALLOR:
Some futures simply don’t exist.
ALL:
But ours are guaranteed.
PRUNESQUALLOR:
Arm in arm but not in army –
Coercion hasn’t kicked us.
Co-operation is voluntary,
So-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
ALL:
Display an enormous rictus.
Arm in arm but not in army –
Coercion hasn’t kicked us.
Co-operation is voluntary, so-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Display an enormous rictus!
Display an enormous rictus!
Display an enormous rictus!
Track 7
THE TWINS’ DUET: Triumph
TWINS: Triumph!
We turned the key!
Justice!
Leaves shall sprout upon the tree!
Orchestra,
Set the pelvis free!
Champagne to toast the flame!
CORA: Already I feel my neck longer.
CLARICE: Not longer than mine.
CORA: The head moves back, followed by the shoulders, then the spine
CLARICE: Which stretches, becomes stronger.
CORA: I’m haughtier than you.
CLARICE: Call that haughty? Behold a professional – notice the fingers
CORA: Splayed over the hips
CLARICE: And the pitiless
CORA: Pitiless!
CLARICE: Pitiless curve of the lips
CORA: Framing an impossible
CLARICE: Impossible!
CORA: Command.
CLARICE: Such as
CORA: Such as?
CLARICE: Don’t confuse me!
CORA: Precisely!
CLARICE: I’m haughtier than you.
CORA: Call that haughty? Behold a professional.
TWINS: Triumph!
We turned the key!
Justice!
Leaves shall sprout upon the tree!
Orchestra,
Set the pelvis free!
Champagne to – aaaaaaaaaaaagh!!!!!!!!!!
Track 8
BARQUENTINE’S ARIA: Possess Me, Chaos!
BARQUENTINE:
I failed the Groans!
Failed the Groans!
Possess me, Chaos,
Disorder enter me
Gormenghast to save
And I shall carry
Disorder to the grave.
I shall die,
Rotten luck,
But death of me
Heals the Book.
Havoc, havoc, havoc, havoc, havoc!
Possess me, Chaos,
So there is a space
For a successor
Whose face
Is not that of transgressor.
I shall die,
Rotten luck,
But death of me
Heals the Book.
Havoc, havoc, havoc, havoc, havoc!
Track 9
SEPULCHRAVE’S ARIA: Behold The Night!
SEPULCHRAVE:
Behold the night!
How sweet it is to rise and loll upon the midnight breeze,
To fly obliquely through a ring of moons, reverse
And hover weightless, or sit immobile in the moon-painted trees,
Resolving the universe.
Behold the night!
Tender the liquid litany of unlit space,
Of darkness which has no edge, no fixed forms,
Whose mysterious embrace
Is various and total, whose polymorphous kiss transforms.
FUCHSIA:
Father! I do not know you!
SEPULCHRAVE:
Where is Swelter?
Behold the night!
Infinite! Close…
Look – there – the final question has burst
Like the breast of a lark
And the last word, like the first,
Returns to the dark.
Good-bye to words, to time, to age,
To rocks.
At last I have arisen from the page
And float over banks of night-scented stocks.
I am warm now.
I am round. I can hear my blood flow
Softly.
I am free.
I am lovely.
SEPULCHRAVE:
Swelter, please do not forget
I am a carnivore
Bring me here a dozen mice
And later a dozen more.
Alive!
Track 10
DUET FUCHSIA & STEERPIKE: The Birds Are Leaving For The South
STEERPIKE:
This never knowing, how I hate it!
Say you will be mine.
Let us go to Gertrude now.
FUCHSIA:
I am waiting for you to reach me –
You are too uneasy inside.
I am waiting for you to open –
You are still too lost.
STEERPIKE:
You are cruel – if you know my feelings.
FUCHSIA:
Do you know mine?
Yes, you know everyone’s.
You are too vigilant to love!
I have never seen you
Subside into a dreamy, self-forgetful state.
You have never trusted me,
Or anyone, enough for that.
STEERPIKE:
It is not easy for me.
I must move!
I must make!
But I do have a dream
You are part of my dream.
FUCHSIA:
You have schemes, not dreams.
To dream you must surrender.
Dreaming and loving are close.
The lasting monuments are made with love.
STEERPIKE:
No – they are built with passion!
FUCHSIA:
Oh, passion! Passion is too short!
FUCHSIA:
They… belong… to Mother.
STEERPIKE:
I am not afraid of her.
I am afraid of no one!
Except – only a little now – of you.
I know you love me, I know it!
Say yes you do. For once say yes.
Say it!
FUCHSIA:
Yes!… .
But if we love each other,
Why am I not happy?
Why do I feel cold?
STEERPIKE:
Because you are the one afraid to surrender.
Why do you torture me?
At night I am kept awake
By the thought of your body against mine.
FUCHSIA:
Stop it, stop it!
STEERPIKE:
I cannot.
I shall not.
It is a beautiful thought.
But I am sick of it!
Always you are there inside me,
Eating away.
And outside – you are with Titus more than with me!
FUCHSIA:
Stop shouting!
And go away –
I expect my brother shortly.
I do not want to be part… of your dream.
STEERPIKE:
So am I to be your severed foot?
FUCHSIA:
Power is male, secrecy is female –
Where do you find these mad ideas?
STEERPIKE:
You know nothing of life!
Dreams, games, caprice, hurt feelings!
Is this all you are?
And you propose to lecture me!
FUCHSIA:
What are you, Steerpike?
Tell me plainly.
STEERPIKE:
I am… I am the creator of a new world.
FUCHSIA:
Ah!
It is too much.
And too little.
STEERPIKE:
Fuchsia,
Let me
Kiss you.
FUCHSIA:
You kissed me yesterday.
STEERPIKE:
Please. Now. Please.
FUCHSIA:
Let us release the doves out of the window.
Have you noticed the birds are leaving for the south?
It is strange.
It is not their time.
I begin to hate you
STEERPIKE:
This is not how it should be.
FUCHSIA:
Steerpike… let us end it altogether.
STEERPIKE:
What are you saying?
FUCHSIA:
It is no good.
STEERPIKE:
But you are my only warmth!
If you reject me, I shall – I shall –
You shall not!
FUCHSIA:
There will never be joy in it, only pain.
I can see that now.
If you must have an answer –
The answer is no.
STEERPIKE:
No, no, no, no, no!
FUCHSIA:
Did you kill my father?
STEERPIKE:
How could you even think it?
FUCHSIA:
I don’t think he left us…
It does not matter now.
STEERPIKE:
You!
Your sister loves me!
She will always love me!
She is mine now!
Mine!
Track 11
FUCHSIA’S ARIA: Fall, Friendly Rain
FUCHSIA:
A tall-masted ship is approaching this place,
Slowly, in a soft careen.
White sails full, it moves with an inexorable grace
Past crag and ravine.
Between mountains and gorsey hills it sails ahead,
Cleaving the forest,
Sliding through twisted woods under skies of lead,
And across fields of waste.
Fall, friendly rain,
In sheets, not in showers.
Fall, friendly rain.
Without you there are no flowers.
Snowdrop and bluebell, wave good-bye to me.
A tall-masted ship is heaving in sight,
Floating into the park,
Over the lawns, firing rockets of light
To erase the dark,
Gliding right up to the castle, almost as high,
Waiting there patiently,
Slurping against the battlements, creaking against the sky,
Waiting for me
To step aboard whenever I choose, any day,
Waiting to take me away.
Fall, friendly rain,
In sheets, not in showers.
Fall, friendly rain.
Without you there are no flowers.
Snowdrop and bluebell, wave good-bye to me.