Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha by Robert Browning
Alone in a church loft after playing a difficult fugue, an organist addresses its long-dead composer and asks what the music means. He imagines its five parts as disputants and compares their intricacy to cobwebs covering gilding, wondering whether human argument similarly obscures truth and nature. When his candle goes out, he calls the sacristan for light, fearing a fall on the damaged stairs.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Dramatic Monologue, Musical Poetry, Philosophical Poetry · 1,658 words
First lines
Hist, but a word, fair and soft! / Forth and be judged, Master Hugues! / Answer the question I've put you so oft: / What do you mean by your mountainous fugues? / See, we're alone in the loft, --
I, the poor organist here, / Hugues, the composer of note, / Dead though, and done with, this many a year: / Let's have a colloquy, something to quote, / Make the world prick up its ear!
Genres
- Dramatic Monologue — An organist speaks from the church loft, addressing a dead composer and calling to the sacristan without receiving a recorded reply.
- Musical Poetry — The rhymed stanzas describe playing a fugue, tracing its five contrapuntal parts as interrupting and answering voices.
- Philosophical Poetry — The organist asks whether the fugue's tangled argument resembles human strife and inherited explanations that obscure truth and nature.
Tags
organ music · fugues · counterpoint · musical interpretation · truth and nature · church loft · dramatic monologue
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Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Browning, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Browning
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Dramatic Monologue, Musical Poetry, Philosophical Poetry
- Length: 1,658 words
- Structure: 1 section, 29 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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