From Santa Barbara Music Press: “Shakespeare meets up with Dan Forrest and the result is “wow!!!” This loaded with excitement setting taken from Shakespeare’s famous Tempest will have audiences both entertained and amazed. A great concert closer, the rousing piano accompaniment is joined by an unique percussion ensemble (cabasa, vibraslap, guiro, ratchet, triangle, and would you believe, police whistle). Treble choirs rarely get to have this much fun.”
About the text:
In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the sorcerer Prospero lives on a forsaken island with his half-human servant Caliban, who hates his master (and obeys him only because fairies will pinch him if he doesn’t). Caliban is described as a something of a bumbling, spot- ted monster, devilish, and smelling of fish. In Act 2, while grudg- ingly gathering firewood for Prospero, Caliban encounters two shipwrecked men – Stephano and Trinculo, carrying a bottle of spirits. Once Caliban tastes it, he renounces his service to Prospero, and impulsively swears new allegiance to the men who provided him with such“heavenly drink.” In celebration of his freedom from serving his former master, he exuberantly sings this song, “ ‘Ban, ‘Ban, Caliban.”
’Ban, ’Ban, Caliban
Has a new master.
Get a new man.
No more dams I’ll make for fish,
Nor fetch in firing
At requiring,
Nor scrape trencher, nor wash dish.
’Ban, ’Ban, Caliban
Has a new master.
Get a new man.
Freedom, high-day, high-day, freedom,
freedom, high-day, freedom!
Instrumentation: Piano, Percussion