Faustbook: A Narrative Poem in the Manner of Five Acts

Faustbook: A Narrative Poem in the Manner of Five Acts

By John HarrisArts
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Faustbook: A Narrative Poem in the Manner of Five Acts episodes

  • Faustbook, Background
    A short presentation on the legend of Faustus and how Christopher Marlowe came to write his play, how Marlowe came to die and a recitation of Faustus dramatic death in the play.
    37 min
  • Faustbook Act 1 Scene 1
    Chorus speaks: We are outside a house in Württemberg, Anno Domini Fifteen-hundred and Ninety-two. Mummers herald the holiday.
    ***
    Image is a Black Hole
    taken from the Hubble telescope.
    Music excerpt is
    Paganini’s Vieuxtemps Violin Concertos,
    Violin concerto No. 5 in A minor,
    Op 37 - II. Adagio.
    Viktoria Mullova with
    Neville Marriner,
    Academy St.Martin In The Fields
    5 min
  • Faustbook Act 1 Scene 2
    A scholar’s gloomy study with a desk cluttered with writings and surrounded by shelves of books
    ***
    Music excerpt is
    Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248:
    Chorale No. 35,
    "Seid Froh Dieweil, Daß euer Heil"
    Sung by the Prima Choir
    5 min
  • Faustbook Act 1 Scene 3
    Main room of Faustus house, a large long table occupies the center, laden with food, many chairs about the table. Faustus in the center, seated, is flanked by students to his left and right, eating and drinking while Wagner bustles dishes in and out of the kitchen off-stage.
    ***
    Music excerpt is
    Suite No. 2 in B Minor for Orchestra, 
BWV 1067: VII. Badinerie,
    Klaus Pohlers, Artist
    8 min
  • Faustbook Act 1 Scene 4
    We are in the scholar’s study again. Many candles are lit in many places around the room; and now on closer view by panning and close-ups, we see the instruments of necromancy: a glass globe containing boiling mercury, steaming crimson poisonous fumes trickling through a tube, distilling jewels into a bottle; piles of raw crystals; jars of fine colorful powders; a large mortar and pestle; and all the other alchemical paraphernalia, as well as walls and walls from floor to ceiling of precious ponderous books in unspoken languages.
    ***
    Music excerpt is
    Toccata and Fugue in D Minor for Organ,
    BWV 565
    Klemens Schnorr, Artist
    16 min
  • Faustbook Act 1 Scene 5
    On New Year’s eve, Faustus sits in his gloomy study, pondering the sunset which he sees by its glorious inference upon the frosted panes of his mullioned windows, illuminating each glass square, gleaming traced patterns of sheaves of ice, like fern leaves impressed in amberous light, a gilt on each pane, glowing so richly that he is mesmerized to stare at them.
    Music excerpt is
    Sonata No. 1 for Solo Violin in G Minor, BWV 1001: I. Adagio
    14 min
  • Faustbook Act 1 Scene 6
    Again in Faustus’ study, which is lit now by light of a single candle that shines upon his face; the solitary image in the darkness
    ***
    Image is a still frame
    from F.W. Murnau’s silent film Faust.
    Music excerpt is
    Paganini: Caprice #24 In A Minor, Op. 1 from the album Paganini: 24 Caprices, Op. 1, Itzhak Perlman, violinist
    By legend, because of his virtuosity and the expressive voice of his music, Paganini is exploited for a character in Madame Blavatsky's “The Ensouled Violin”, a short story included in the collection Nightmare Tales. The story recounts the popular rumors that the strings of Paganini's violin were made from human intestines and that he had murdered both his wife and mistress and imprisoned their souls in his violin.
    13 min
  • Faustbook Act 2 Scene 1 (& Interlude)
    In the marketplace: carts of goods, slaughtered livestock and vegetables such as stored for winter; stalls of freshly baked breads and cakes and other delights; and merry minstrels, mischievous magicians, conniving gamblers and whores—all wandering among the festive crowds of ordinary people and their children, who milling, idling and talking gaily, filled the town square in unexpected happiness.
    ***
    Music excerpt is
    Prokofiev: Lieutenant Kijé Suite,
    Op. 60 - Troika
    from the album
    Prokofiev: Classical Symphony, Love For 3 Oranges, Lieutenant Kijé with conductor Lorin Maazel & Orchestre National De L'ORTF
    13 min
  • Faustbook Act 2 Scene 2
    A woods on a summery day, a mountain is above and beyond the horizon of the forest, distantly, a pearly cascade plunges from its peak and where it crashes a mist rises.
    ***
    Music excerpt is
    Prokofiev: Lieutenant Kijé Suite,
    Op. 60 - The Birth of Kijé
    from the album
    Prokofiev: Classical Symphony, Love For 3 Oranges, Lieutenant Kijé with conductor Lorin Maazel & Orchestre National De L'ORTF
    15 min
  • Faustbook Act 2 Scene 3
    A child’s room in the home of one who is well-to-do by standards of the sixteenth-century, probably an official of some dukedom whose wealth is acquired by taxes upon men who are mostly poor.
    ***
    Music excerpt is
    Prokofiev: Lieutenant Kijé Suite,
    Op. 60 - The Birth of Kijé
    from the album
    Prokofiev: Classical Symphony, Love For 3 Oranges, Lieutenant Kijé with conductor Lorin Maazel & Orchestre National De L'ORTF
    16 min

About Faustbook: A Narrative Poem in the Manner of Five Acts

From the publisher's feed

This narrative poem in the manner of a five-act play (with excursus) was inspired by research I had done for teaching Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. I read it first when I was fourteen, finding in…