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THE CAPITALISTIC MACHINE AGAINST A RADICAL INDIVIDUAL

Friend (choir III), an ally of the Condemned who is experimentation here would bear later fruit. The Con-

filled with hatred for the oppressive system that would demned denies the Priest’s offer of repentance. A cym-

execute his comrade, a radical. The declamatory char- bal crashes, and the Priest disappears.
acter of the Friend’s opening statements (both orches- The next scenes explore the tensions between these
tra and chorus will continue the sixteenth-note rhyth- characters, showing the Condemned moving from res-
mic pattern throughout the movement), along with the ignation into doubt. After stating in scene five that he

angular melody, indicates his impetuousness (Figure 6). “believe[s] in Man” and that “there is no God,” the
The Priest’s music is perhaps the most sardonic and Condemned is seized by fear. He calls back for the
biting. A single timpani strike sounds at the rising of Priest in scene six, pleading for forgiveness. The Wife
the Priest’s curtain, followed by a bassoon duet in thirds then appears, her weeping represented by a textless
above a ground bass, all in compound meter, combin- vocalise, accompanied by a flourish of triplets in the

ing elements of the Baroque pastorale and passacaglia. strings. The Condemned declaims his desperate plea in
The Priest also sings in thirds, a contrast to the more rapid eighth notes (“Save me Father”), simultaneously
dissonant choral writing of the rest of the work; this singing a sustained countermelody (“Lord I believe”),

only adds to the scene’s Baroque flavor (Figure 7 on a sort of cantus fi rmus. The Wife interrupts the scene
page 43). These allusions, recalling the sacred style of several times with her cries as the Priest intones the ab-
Bach, are notable: Blitzstein would use Bach’s music solution (“Ego absolve te...”). This remarkable moment
in The Cradle Will Rock for the character of the preach- weaves the choral styles of all three of these characters
er, Reverend Salvation, indicating that the composer’s together, illustrating the dramatic potential of the op-

42 CHORAL JOURNAL June/July 2021 Volume 61 Number 11