dwsChorale: Music

The Recipe (Shakespeare's 3 witches)

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David W Solomons

Shakespeare's three witches in the Scottish play are here personified in a multitracked performance by the composer. The (allegedly) witch like strangulated sound that I decided to use made me almost unable to sing next day at church!

For enterprising alto trios, the score can be obtained from MyScoreStore

Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd
Thrice and once the hedgepig whin'd
Harper cries: 'Tis time, 'tis time.
Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights hast thirty one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hellbroth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witche's mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd saltsea shark,
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark
Liver of blasphemer too,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips,
Finger of birthstrangled babe
Ditchdeliver'd by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.