[247] To Sit In Solemn Silence...

To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,
In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!

	-- W. S. Gilbert

	 (from The Mikado)

Note: This fragment appears at the end of a longer song[1], in which various
  people explain why they will not trade places with a condemned man; after
  various different lead-ins ("I must decline..." "I don't much care..." "So
  I object...") they sing the above piece in chorus.

Paralleling the enormous popularity of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, a
number of the songs have achieved an almost independent prominence; notable
examples being the Captain's song from HMS Pinafore and the Major General's
song from The Pirates of Penzance.

Slightly less famous, but no less noteworthy are some of the smaller, less
standalone fragments embedded like gems within larger pieces. Although they
require a bit of context to fully appreciate, they often show Gilbert at his
very best; not a word out of place, not a break in the rhythm, and lyrics
that stick in one's memory (though it's admittedly hard to see how this
distinguishes them from anything else he wrote).

The above piece is one of my two favourite fragments (the other being the
'Now is not this ridiculous' chorus from Patience); it also has a special
place in my affection as being the first piece of G&S I ever read. I came
across it unattributed, and long before I knew who either Gilbert or
Sullivan were anyway, but fell in love with it; it remains the finest piece
of alliterative patter verse I have yet encountered[2]. (It was also a
pleasant experience discovering who had written it, and being able to put a
tune to the words).

And of course no Mikado commentary would be complete without my urging you
to listen, if at all possible, to what is undoubtedly the best work Gilbert
and Sullivan have produced - the lyrics are great, but the music adds a
whole new dimension.

[1] Whole text at <http://diamond.idbsu.edu/gas/mikado/libretto.txt>
[2] possibly excepting Swinburne's 'Nephelidia', poem #99, though 'To Sit
In Solemn Silence' has the advantage of being shorter and therefore better
able to maintain consistency.

For random Gilbert and Sullivan info, including a biography and links, see
the previous pieces in the archive
<http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/index_poet.html>.

- m.

From: mpenney@  Wed Apr 27 19:34:58 2005

I first encountered "To Sit in Solemn Silence" as a diction warm-up
before stage performances (of all kinds, not just of G&S operettas).
It's great for that purpose because it's although it's high-energy and
rapid-paced, you have to be on your toes to recite it without garbling
it or eliding the consonants.  Also it's easily memorized.

From: CurryC@  Sun Nov 13 12:38:12 2005

I was introduced to Sit in Solemn Silence on my speech team as a diction
warm-up, but also in my school's theater productions. We do a cast
warm-up called "Green Room" that brings us all together. And when we do
this, we clasp hands and stand in a circle, and step back and forth in
and out of the circle while swinging our hands in and out as well. It's
so amazing, because the rhythm at which we walk matches that of the
poem, and by the end you've speeded up and it reminds you of soldiers
marching to the execution site or something. It's an amazing sensation.