The song is coming together! Thinking of what to title it… so we have the first song called “Feast of Persia“, so should this second one be titled “Sage Advice”? Let me know your title suggestions! Here’s what it is, with my commentary in italics.
So King Xerxes a.k.a. Ahaseurus a.k.a. Khashayar demanded his queen, Vashti, to show off her beauty on the last day of the public 7-day banquet, but she refused, and therefore the king was enraged and went to consult his wise men.
KING:
Why do I feel such a pain inside?
Feel like a part of my soul just died!
My anger rages!
My clever sages…
What does the law say about her deed?
Should things be done or shall I concede?
She dares oppose me!
Alas, oh woe is me…
The above has a proper melody structure but whatever in purple has a prose talk-sing-songy kind of flow… sort of like the actual megillah reading during Purim! It provides a nice break to the repeating melody.
My most important men
Need you to show me the way…
Karshna, Shetar, Admata,
Tarshish, Meres, Marsna,
Memucan, what’d you say?
It seems that Memucan is the dominant wise man as he’s the only one whose words were recorded.
MEMUCAN:
This is a deed not to be dismissed!
Now every wife will fight and resist
Destroying order
Within your borders!
Women are going to say, “Oh my
If the queen did that, then so can I!
Nobody owns me!
I can dethrone thee.”
And every noblewoman in Shushan
will think they can demand from every man
and will say this night and day
and not heed anything your officials say
chaos will brood throughout the land
discord as heavy as the sand
Nevertheless I got the other 6 wise men to repeat what Memucan is saying! Sort of an element of Persian music, for the ensemble to repeat after the soloist. Good idea?
ALL SEVEN SAGES:
This is a deed not to be dismissed!
Now every wife will fight and resist
We must have order
Within your borders!
Women are going to say, “Oh my
If the queen did that, then so can I!
Nobody owns me!
I can dethrone thee.”
I actually didn’t intend to make the prose rhyme but it ended up rhyming… haha!
The so-called Queen Vashti
has disgraced Your Majesty
but also all the nobles of Shushan
and all the peoples in all the 127 lands…
KARSHNA, SHETAR, ADMATA, TARSHISH, MERES, MARSNA:
[interupting each other] including… the army, the ministers, the servants, the officials, the eunuchs, and all your friends
The above is meant to be funny… haha. What do you think? Does it work?
MEMUCAN:
ENOUGH!…
If my king pleases, then let’s proceed
Writing a new law to be decreed
An ultimatum
To warn all madams
Vashti to no longer be our queen
Banished for life from the royal scene
She shall not enter
Left, right or center!
[INSERT MORE PROSE HERE LATER…]
Yes that’s it for now! Will continue the writing process tomorrow!
Anyway it seems like the repeating melody is repeated 8 times so far… the same number of times as the Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun melody repeats itself… so that reassures me that I didn’t repeat the melody too many times, just like how Into the Woods’ Opening Number is 14 minutes long, which reassures me that our opening number Feast of Persia‘s 10-minute length is okay! ????
Source material (Esther Chapter 1):
On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Bizzetha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that ministered in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to show the peoples and the princes her beauty; for she was fair to look on. But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s commandment by the chamberlains; therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him.
Then the king said to the wise men, who knew the times—for so was the king’s manner toward all that knew law and judgment; and the next unto him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king’s face, and sat the first in the kingdom: ‘What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law, forasmuch as she hath not done the bidding of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains?’ And Memucan answered before the king and the princes: ‘Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes, and to all the peoples, that are in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus. For this deed of the queen will come abroad unto all women, to make their husbands contemptible in their eyes, when it will be said: The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not. And this day will the princesses of Persia and Media who have heard of the deed of the queen say the like unto all the king’s princes. So will there arise enough contempt and wrath. If it please the king, let there go forth a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, that Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus, and that the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she.
