University of Virginia Library

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Introductory Note.

When Mr. Walter Damrosch asked me to write a Dramatic Poem, suited for the music of a Grand Opera, on the theme of Hawthorne's “Scarlet Letter,” two important artistic requirements had to be taken into view: First, it was necessary to make the movement of the piece quick and eminently dramatic. Secondly, the lines must be not only singable in rhythm and in succession of vowel sounds, but must have a quality that would promote or coöperate with a rich and impassioned musical expression.

It is but fair to say that the dramatic construction was the result of collaboration by the composer and the author, and was largely suggested by Mr. Damrosch. Obviously the character of Little Pearl was impossible in opera, and she was therefore omitted. The great elemental story of Hester's and Arthur's love, sin, suffering and partial expiation is what we wished to treat. This is presented with the utmost directness and compression. Gaps are bridged, delays avoided. Incidents are changed, remodelled or transposed at will, and new incidents and moods are introduced.

No attempt has been made to reproduce or to follow exactly the great prose romance from which the story is drawn. I do not suppose either, that I have adapted from Hawthorne's pages more than two dozen sentences, if so many, in the whole work. My text is an original Dramatic Poem on the old theme.

It stands, therefore, as a new work, which may be read for itself. But it is also designed, in every line, for music and song. I used an entire freedom in the form and the varying measures employed. To write verse suited to musical conceptions, and to interpretation by the orchestra and voice, however, is almost a distinctive branch of the poetic art. The poem must have abrupt changes of time and character, not always conforming to the traditions of verse meant only for reading, but obeying a large artistic law. In this poem of “The Scarlet Letter” a greater variety of feet, measures and stanzas is brought into play. The form was moulded by the sentiment, passion or situation at each moment.

Besides the metre and rhythm of each line, regarded separately, there is often a complicated word melody, or a scheme of emphases and pauses, running through several lines. These three, as a simple instance, while having each its own “time,” belong to one continuous rhythm, and must be taken together to complete it:

Such “over-rhythms,” as they might be called, correspond frequently to continuing strains in the music. It will be seen, then, that rhyme is in many places not essential. Although I have used it freely, I drop it the instant it might interfere with finer effects. In other places, where there may be an appearance of partial rhyme, rhyme has not been sought for, but only that kinship of vowel-sounds called assonance. It may be well to add that certain faltering effects, or irregularities, are intentional, where regularity or smooth and rounded verse forms would have failed to convey the mood or emotion needing to be expressed.