No. 10 - Soli and Chorus - "Tabor and Drum"

from "The Mountebanks"
Words by W. S. Gilbert
Music by Alfred Cellier
Copyright © <Year> by <Name>
All Rights Reserved

By Alfred Cellier
Generated by NoteWorthy Composer

[Ladies:] Tabor and drum!
Mummers have come!
Hey for their mummery,
Frolic and flummery!
For to my dull
Countrified skull
Nothing sub-lunary
Equals buffoonery!
Folks of our kind
Frequently find
Jokes that are sensible
Incomprehensible.
Here, I admit,
Genuine wit,
As a commodity,
Ranks below oddity.
As a commodity,
Ranks below oddity.
[Pietro:] Come, strike up, Mister Merryman,
while I inform the universe,
In metrical and tuny verse-
[Bartolo:] In metrical and tuny verse-
[Pietro:] That here's an exhibition that is highly intellectual;
To see it we expect you all-
[Bartolo:] To see it we expect you all.
[Pietro:] Come, empty all your pockets, for I'm not a common mountebank,
I've money in the County Bank-
[Bartolo:] He's money in the County Bank.
[Pietro:] And I can give you value for your coppers insignificant,
And I'll return 'em if I can't-
[Bartolo:] And he'll return 'em if he can't.
Though I'm a buffoon, recollect
I command your respect!
I cannot for money
Be vulgarly funny,
My object's to make you reflect!
True humour's a matter in which
I'm exceedingly rich.
It ought to delight you,
Although, at first sight, you
May not recognize it as sich.
Other clowns make you laugh till you sink,
When they tip you a wink;
With attitude antic,
They render you frantic-
I don't. I compel you to think!
For, oh, this is a world
of insincerity and trouble,
And joy is imbecility
and happiness a bubble,
And you're a lot of butterflies
who flutter through a summer,
And he's a mountebank,
and I'm a miserable mummer!
[Chorus:] It's possible the world
is insincerity and trouble,
And happiness, for all I know,
is nothing but a bubble;
Perhaps we may be butterflies
who flutter through a summer,
And you're, without a doubt,
a very miserable mummer!
[Nita:] I've a dance that came from France
Not long ago-
It's worthy of your silver and your copper.
It's my own, and I alone
Its mazes know.
It's graceful and particularly proper.
I assist as soloist,
Upon a squeeze,
On the trumpet and the kettledrum sonorous.
I've a song that's just as long
As you may please-
Twenty verses, and each verse has got a chorus!
[Chorus:] Now that's the kind of merriment
you ought to set before us;
Only fancy- twenty verses,
and each verse has got a chorus.
To such an entertainment
we could listen for a summer;
But save us from the humour
of this melancholy mummer!

Karaoke version compiled by Colin Johnson

Mountebanks #10 - Tabor and Drum
Soft karaoke
Words
Nita
Pietro
Bartolo
Sopranos I
Sopranos II
Sopranos III
Right Hand
Left Hand
Karaoke Track