Twelve Days of the Infanta Margarita
A work for a small choral group
by
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The song of the Rhine Dwarfs preparing gifts of birds for the first eight days. The tune is from the traditional song "“The North Wind doth Blow." The north wind doth blow to the barn we must go there to find Robin with head under wing. An avian team we need for our scheme. We'll wake him, and make him find birds to sing. Th' Infanta 'tis said, is keen on a bed and all sorts of notions she's harboring. Such improper thought is best brought to nought by nipping the bud before blossoming. Make haste, be not slow then she will not know we're plotting, before any rot sets in. Be silent, no sound in case she's around and she might be quietly listening in. Keep tipping on toe and silently go, don't stumble or mumble, stop whispering, no sound, not a word, no noise must be heard or we'll be suspicions engendering. Just twelve days we've got to foil any plot and stop any mischief from happening. We know what is best so we're on the quest for birds that will happily chirp and sing.
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About the Book
Twelve days of the Infanta Margarita is a fiction but it is so well supported that it is hard to believe that it is not true. The evidence both amazes and delights, much of it is fact, some is legend, some fairy story, some children's games, but the most important are two portraits, "Las Meninas' and "The Rokeby Venus" by the Spanish painter Diego de Velasquez . The story begins in the princess's 15th year when she refuses to be a subject for another portrait in formal court dress and, to make a point, she insists she will be painted in the nude. The story then proceeds through the sequence of gifts that we know in the Carol "The Twelve days of Christmas" starting with the partridge and ending with the twelve lords a-leaping. The work is a performance-piece for a small vocal group. A narrator provides the continuing thread of the story which is supported by a number of musical arrangements most of which are based upon familiar Irish and Scottish airs. As few as three can perform the work and as many as twelve. It has been successfully presented in different venues from coffee shop to concert hall. The performance time is about ninety minutes.
About the Author
Eric Winter is a Senior Scholar at York University in Toronto. He has been a sailor, a teacher, a farmer and a writer. For twelve years he was the Poet Laureate of the town of Cobourg in Ontario where he now lives with his wife.